• Kaluza's Law and Secondary Stress (final version)

    Author(s):
    Nelson Goering (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    Linguistics, Old English / Early Medieval England
    Subject(s):
    Linguistics, English language--Old English, Germanic philology, Phonetics, Poetics, Versification
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Beowulf, Alliterative verse, Resolution, Metrical phnology, Old English, Phonology, Poetic form, Prosody
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/kvcp-we94
    Abstract:
    Kaluza’s law is a proposed restriction in the metre of Beowulf against the resolution of light-heavy sequences: words like cyning ‘king’ can only resolve and count as the equivalent of a single heavy syllable under more restricted circumstances than can words such as wudu ‘wood’. There has been debate about how to define these ‘restricted circumstances’, with many investigators claiming that this limitation holds only under ‘secondary stress’ (sometimes broadened to include subordinated stress in general). This article reviews the operation of Kaluza’s law in Beowulf, arguing that the correct conditioning is the position immediately following a heavy syllable. The level of stress carried by the (non-)resolving sequence is irrelevant. A phonological explanation for this restriction may be that the resolution ideally produces bimoraic (light-light) units; accordingly, resolution of light-heavy sequences, which is anomalous from a typological and phonological perspective, is only permitted in word-initial position, or in metrical equivalents.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. Date:
    2021
    Volume:
    119
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    55 - 82
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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