AN ASSESSMENT OF KUHN'S LAWS OF STRESS IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY

Several studies of Old English metrics rely on rules formulated for the poetics of early Germanic poetry by Hans Kuhn (1933). Called laws by some, they have power as descriptions only; they are inadequate as linguistic rules. Arrived at through circular reasoning and an evaluation of clause boundari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 1993-01, Vol.94 (1), p.47-60
Main Author: Schwetman, John W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
English speaking literatures
French speaking and English speaking literatures
Grammatical clauses
Great Britain. Ireland
History and sciences of litterature
History of literature
Language
Lexical stress
Middle Ages
Poetic meter
Poetics
Poetry
Sentence stress
Syntax
Words
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Summary:Several studies of Old English metrics rely on rules formulated for the poetics of early Germanic poetry by Hans Kuhn (1933). Called laws by some, they have power as descriptions only; they are inadequate as linguistic rules. Arrived at through circular reasoning and an evaluation of clause boundaries based on the lineations and punctuation of modern editors, they rely on such erroneous techniques as assignment of stress by taxonomic category and mixing of linquistic levels of analysis. These laws simplify relationships that are complex and are based on an inadequate linguistic model. Kuhn's Laws may describe habits of composition. However, as normative rules used to predict what an early Germanic poet viewed as standard and to support emendation, they become pernicious.
ISSN:0028-3754
2736-9714