“Of” in Paradise Lost as evidence for the metrical line
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2532-8816/8615Parole chiave:
metre, syntax, probability, inference, Milton, WordsworthAbstract
Questo articolo prende in esame la distribuzione di monosillabi grammaticali nel pentametro giambico inglese. Qui mostro che, nel Paradise Lost di Milton, la parola OF compare con frequenza maggiore all'inizio del verso di quanto ci si potrebbe normalmente aspettare; 27% di tutte le occorrenze si trova nella prima delle 10 posizioni metriche, e il 5% dei versi comincia con OF, rendendola così la parola più frequente all'incipit del verso. Questo potrebbe riflettere, suggerisco, il modo in cui Milton adopera l'enjambement nel poema. Ciò significa anche che OF potrebbe funzionare come indizio dell'inizio del verso, nel contesto di altre evidenze per la divisione del poema in tale unità, essenziale se il pubblico deve determinare la forma metrica del poema. Al contrario, nel verso sciolto del 1700 di Thomson e Cowper, è la parola AND a essere relativamente frequente all'inizio del verso. Eppure Wordsworth usa sia OF che AND come all'inizio dei propri versi, fondendo la pratica di Milton con quella di altri scrittori. L'articolo propone infine una riflessione sulla relazione tra le caratteristiche statistiche di un testo, e gli aspetti probabilistici della nostra conoscenza della forma letteraria.Riferimenti bibliografici
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