Peter L. Groves
To date, Groves has put forward his system only as an explanation of iambic pentameter (or "the English heroic line" as he prefers to call it), though elements may be applicable to other accentual-syllabic meters.
He begins his rhythmic scansion with a 3-level label for all syllables, but goes much further by elaborating rules describing how contiguous syllables impinge upon each other. The result is a map of the lexical and syntactic character of a line's syllables, which results in stress; rather than a representation of stress levels themselves.
| Status | Major | Minor | Weak | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | A | B | O | A syllable of any of the 3 main categories that is neither impinged upon by a neighbor, nor specially emphasized in context (e.g. by contrastive accent). |
| Dominated/Subordinated | a | b | o | Prevented from carrying a beat by a stronger neighbor (except "a", which can be allowed in loose versification). |
| Inhibited/Demoted | Ā | Ō | Ā is "demoted": it cannot dominate or subordinate a neighbor; Ō is "inhibited": it is discouraged, but not wholly prevented, from carrying a beat. | |
| Accented | A | B | O | Specially emphasized in context (e.g. contrastive accent); these syllables may impinge more strongly on their neighbors than regular A, B, O. |
Ictus (S for "strong") and nonictus (w for "weak") have constraints on which syllable statuses can fill them. These rules for matching syllable status and metrical position are called "mapping rules", and strict (e.g. Alexander Pope) versus loose (e.g. William Shakespeare) styles of iambic pentameter can be defined by applying different mapping rules.
Further, while his metrical scansion begins as a familiar wSwSwSwSwS, he allows "w" and "S" to trade places under certain conditions, and when they do their mapping rules are altered, requiring additional symbols. In the first (rhythmic) line of scansion, syllables that impinge on their neighbors are connected by hyphens; in the second (metrical) line, positions that have switched places and therefore altered their mapping rules are connected by hyphens.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought A---Ō o--A--o Ō----a----A-o A Ś---w w S w W----s S w SRead more about this topic: Scansion, Rhythmi-metrical Scansion
Famous quotes containing the words peter and/or groves:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
—Bible: New Testament 1 Peter 5:8.
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)