The long line of the Middle English alliterative revival : rhythmically coherent, metrically strict, phonologically English

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The long line of the Middle English alliterative revival : rhythmically coherent, metrically strict, phonologically English

dc.contributor.advisor	Cable, Thomas, 1942-
dc.creator	Psonak, Kevin Damien
dc.date.accessioned	2012-07-10T20:13:41Z
dc.date.available	2012-07-10T20:13:41Z
dc.date.created	2012-05
dc.date.issued	2012-07-10
dc.date.submitted	May 2012
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5044
dc.description.abstract	This study contributes to the search for metrical order in the 90,000 extant long lines of the late fourteenth-century Middle English Alliterative Revival. Using the 'Gawain'-poet's 'Patience' and 'Cleanness', it refutes nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars who mistook rhythmic liveliness for metrical disorganization and additionally corrects troubling missteps that scholars have taken over the last five years. 'Chapter One: Tame the "Gabble of Weaker Syllables"' rehearses the traditional, but mistaken view that long lines are barely patterned at all. It explains the widely-accepted methods for determining which syllables are metrically stressed and which are not: Give metrical stress to the syllables that in everyday Middle English were probably accented. 'Chapter Two: An Environment for Demotion in the B-Verse' introduces the relatively stringent metrical template of the b-verse as a foil for the different kind of meter at work in the a-verse. 'Chapter Three: Rhythmic Consistency in the Middle English Alliterative Long Line' examines the structure of the a-verse and considers the viability of verses with more than the normal two beats. An empirical investigation considers whether rhythmic consistency in the long line depends on three-beat a-verses. 'Chapter Four: Dynamic "Unmetre" and the Proscription against Three Sequential Iambs' posits an explanation for the unusual distributions of metrically unstressed syllables in the long line and finds that the 'Gawain'-poet's rhythms avoid the even alternation of beats and offbeats with uncanny precision. 'Chapter Five: Metrical Promotion, Linguistic Promotion, and False Extra-Long Dips' takes the rest of the dissertation as a foundation for explaining rhythmically puzzling a-verses. A-verses that seem to have excessively long sequences of offbeats and other a-verses that infringe on b-verse meter prove amenable to adjustment through metrical promotion. 'Conclusion: Metrical Regions in the Long Line' synthesizes the findings of the previous chapters in a survey of metrical tension in the long line. It additionally articulates the key theme of the dissertation: Contrary to traditional assumptions, Middle English alliterative long lines have variable, instead of consistent, numbers of beats and highly regulated, instead of liberally variable, arrangements of metrically unstressed syllables.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.subject	Linguistics
dc.subject	Language
dc.subject	Phonology
dc.subject	Phonological
dc.subject	English
dc.subject	Accent
dc.subject	Rhythm
dc.subject	Medieval
dc.subject	Middle English
dc.subject	Alliteration
dc.subject	Poetry
dc.subject	Philology
dc.subject	Metrical
dc.subject	Poetics
dc.subject	Prosody
dc.subject	Metrical stress
dc.subject	Beat
dc.subject	Gawain
dc.subject	Chaucer
dc.subject	Verse
dc.subject	Promotion
dc.subject	Demotion
dc.subject	Tension
dc.subject	Pause
dc.subject	Iambic pentameter
dc.subject	Patience
dc.subject	Cleanness
dc.subject	Yakovlev
dc.subject	Cable
dc.subject	Chomsky
dc.subject	Minkova
dc.subject	Brogan
dc.subject	Saintsbury
dc.subject	Wimsatt
dc.subject	Beardsley
dc.subject	Pearl
dc.subject	Duggan
dc.subject	Shakespeare
dc.subject	Beowulf
dc.title	The long line of the Middle English alliterative revival : rhythmically coherent, metrically strict, phonologically English
dc.date.updated	2012-07-10T20:13:53Z
dc.identifier.slug	2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5044
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Henkel, Jacqueline M.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Hinrichs, Lars
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Lesser, Wayne
dc.contributor.committeeMember	King, Robert D.
dc.description.department	English
dc.type.genre	thesis
dc.type.material	text
thesis.degree.department	English
thesis.degree.discipline	English
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Texas at Austin
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy