Harvard Psychological Studies Part 53

4 (.33 sec.) Normal.

2 (.17 sec.) Accent of rhyme retained. Amalgamation.

Mi.

2 (.17 sec.) Normal.

1.6 First foot of II. amphibrachic.

.4(.03 sec.) Accent of rhyme retained. Accent of first foot of II. lost. Amalgamation.

When the qualitatively different click representing the rhyme is introduced, its most striking effect is decidedly to shorten the possible distance between the two accents. This is in accord with the notion suggested of the function of rhyme at the verse end. The rhyme seems greatly to hasten the relaxation phase, as compared with the time required in the ordinary foot.

There is a variety of forms possible to the unrhymed verse, but that with the climax at the close is decidedly the most frequent. When the rhyme is introduced the climax goes with it, and the verse flows down as it were to the end. When the rhyme is put in the very first of the verse, however, a secondary or even a primary accent may be developed at the close of the verse. The natural place for the climax of the verse movement is apparently at the close, and the fact that not only is the earlier part of the verse more vague, but also that the end is the natural, climactic position, makes the synthesizing and delimiting factor, rhyme, preferable at the close.

The records of the next table were obtained by asking the subjects to repeat the series with prescribed accents, until they decided whether or not the rhyme could be felt under the conditions.

TABLE IV.

Rhymes under prescribed accentual conditions: iambic tetrameter.

Heavy accent marked acute ('). Slight accent marked grave (').

Rhyme indicated by brace.

Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta do) g) d d Hu. Rhymes imperfectly.

Mc. Rhymes imperfectly.

G. Rhymes imperfectly.

Ha. Rhymes imperfectly.

Hy. Rhymes fairly well.

Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta d) go) d d Hu. Cannot get rhyme.

Mc. Rhymes imperfectly. 'Produced by some sort of tension.'

G. Rhymes imperfectly.

Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta d) g) do d Hu. Rhymes well.

Mc. Rhymes well.

G. Rhymes well.

Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta d g) do) d) Hu. Cannot get rhyme.

Hy. Cannot get rhyme. 'Accent spoils it.'

G. Cannot get rhyme. 'Accent breaks it all up.'

Mc. Rhymes imperfectly.

The table shows that rhymes of syllables which have accents of strikingly different degrees are difficult to feel. In the last case, of the rhyming verses separated by a verse having a heavy end accent, it was practically impossible to hear the rhyme across the break made by the heavy accent. Somehow the particular condition of the organism which const.i.tutes the expectation of a rhyme is broken up by a heavy accent.

The material for the records of Table V. was read to the subjects, the tones were in every case those of the speaking voice, and intervals having a definite speech character were chosen. The fifth is the interval of the rising inflection of the question, the fourth is the interval of the rising inflection of indifference or negation, and the single falling slide used is a descending interval of a third or fourth at the close of the sentence. The fifth appears in the table as 5/, the fourth as 4/, and the single descending interval of finality as the period (.). Each verse was read on approximately the first tone of the interval, the rhyming syllable only had the second tone of the interval.

TABLE V.

RHYMES UNDER GIVEN PITCH CONDITIONS.

Iambic tetrameters: two-verse stanzas.

The body of the verse is omitted; the closing intervals alone are indicated. '1' is read 'good rhyme;' '2' is 'poor rhyme'; and '0' is 'no rhyme.'

Couplets: --do 5/} 5/} .} .} 5/} --go .} 4/} 5/} .} 5/} G. 2 2 0 S. 0 0 2 1 R. 2 2 1 2 2 Mc. 0 0 0 1 1 Hu. 0 0 ? 1 Ha. 1 2 1 2

Iambic tetrameters; four-verse stanzas.

Rhymes are indicated by 'a' and 'a,' 'b' and 'b.' Capital* letters are read 'poor rhyme;' 'o' is read 'no rhyme.'

I. II. III. IV. I. II. III. IV. I. II. III. IV. I. II. III. IV.

do, no, go, so. do, no, go, so. do, no, go, so. do, no, go, so.

5/ . 5/ . . 5/ . 5/ 5/ 5/ . . 5/ 5/ . 5/ G. a b a b a b a b a a b b a a a o R. a b a b a a b b Mc. a b a b a o a o Hu. a b a b a b a b a a b b a a o a Ha. a b a b o o o o a a B B a a o a

5/ 5/ 5/ . . . . 5/ . . . . . 5/ . .

G. a a a a a a a o a a a a o o a a Hu. a a a o a a a o a a a a a o a a Ha. a a a o a a A o a a a a a o a a Mc. a a a o a a a o A A A A A o A A R. a a a o a a a o a a a a A o A A

5/ 5/ 4/ 5/ . . 5/ 5/ 5/ . 4/ . 5/ . . 5/ G. a a o o /a a b b /o a o a o o o o a b a b A A B B R. A A A A /o o a a a a b b a a o o/ Hu. a a o a Mc. a a o a A A B B Ha. A A B B a a b b o a o a

4/ 4/ 4/ . 5/ 5/ 5/ 5/ 5/ 4/ 5/ 4/ G. a a a a o a o a Mc. a a a o R. a a a o a a b b Ha. A A A A

*Transcriber's Note: Original used italic lower case letters.

The table shows that there is a decided tendency to prefer rhymes in which the members of the rhyme have the same interval. The only exception is in the case of couplets, where two contrasting slides 5/ and . rhyme, whenever the finality interval occurs last. Perhaps the similarity of pitch of the rhyming syllables is a part of the 'Gestaltqualitat' whose recognition brings about the release and satisfaction of the state which we know as the 'feeling of expecting a rhyme.' Definite pitch relations in music seem to make rhyme of little significance. We seldom notice the rhymes in a hymn or in a song of any musical worth. In comic operas and popular ditties rhyme does now and then figure. In such cases the pitch of the two or more rhyming syllables is identical; often the whole phrase is repeated for each rhyming verse. A few experiments in singing a rhyme to simple intervals show that when the identical interval is used the two syllables rhyme well, but if the interval be in the opposite direction, or in another chord, the rhyme is very uncertain. It seems that in music we usually have 'feelings of expectation' (_i.e._, tensions of some sort, central or peripheral), which are adequate to unite the phrases into larger unities. These tensions are so definite and vivid that they quite obscure and swallow up the related condition of rhyme expectation. These experiments on the modification of the rhyme by the various pitch and accent factors are not at all exhaustive or conclusive. An extended series of experiments is needed.

The study of sound records for pitch is peculiarly tedious, but it should reveal some interesting relations between rhyme and speech melody.

III. THE SPEAKING OF A RHYTHMIC SERIES.

I. _Methods of Making Speech Records._

The study of spoken rhythm is of primary importance. Observations on what the subject really does are always open to the objections that subjective factors play a large part, and that the observer's perception of a rhythm is after all _his_ perception of the rhythm, not the subject's. The voice is an important indicator of the activities which generate the rhythms of verse and music, and some objective method of measuring the sounds made is essential to a study of the rhythm production.

Methods of recording and studying the tones of the voice are as numerous as they are unsatisfactory. In the main the work has been done for purposes of phonetics, and but few of the methods are applied in the psychological laboratory.

Marage[13] has an excellent summary of the methods with practical comments on their applicability. Rousselot[14] (Histoire des applications de phonetique experimentale, 401-417: objets et appareils, 1-10 et 669-700) gives a careful history of the methods from the phonetic point of view. Scripture[15] gives a convenient English summary of the processes.

[13] Marage: _l'Annee psychologique_, 1898, V., p. 226.

[14] Rousselot: La Parole, 1899.

[15] Scripture, E.W.: _Studies from the Yale Psych. Lab._, 1899, VII., p. I.

A few methods have been devised which avoid the difficulties incident to the use of a diaphragm, but they are not applicable to the measurement of rhythm material. The instruments which might be used for recording spoken rhythms are all modifications of two well-known forms of apparatus, the phonautograph and the phonograph. The phonograph record is incised in wax, and presents special difficulties for study. Boeke, however, has studied the wax record under a microscope, with special arrangements for illumination. The work is quite too tedious to permit of its use for material of any length, though it is fairly satisfactory when applied to single vowels. In order to enlarge the record, and at the same time to obtain the curves in the plane of the record surface, Hermann devised an attachment to the phonograph (cf. Marage, loc. citat.) by which the movements of the stylus of the phonograph are magnified by a beam of light and recorded on photographic paper. The measurements of entire words by this method would be as tedious as by Boeke's.

E.W. Scripture has chosen another type of talking machine from which to obtain transcribed records. The permanent record of the gramophone (which makes a record in the plane of the surface, like the phonautograph) is carefully centered, and a lever attached to a stylus which follows the furrow of the record transcribes the curve on the kymographic drum as the plate is slowly revolved. The method has the advantage of using a record which may be reproduced (_i.e._ the original gramophone record may be reproduced), and of giving fairly large and well defined curves for study. It is too laborious to be applied to extended research on speech rhythms, and has besides several objections. The investigator is dependent on the manufacturer for his material, which is necessarily limited, and cannot meet the needs of various stages of an investigation. He knows nothing of the conditions under which the record was produced, as to rate, on which time relations depend, as to tone of voice, or as to muscular accompaniments. There are also opportunities for error in the long lever used in the transcription; small errors are necessarily magnified in the final curve, and the reading for intensity (amplitude of the curve) is especially open to such error.

The stylus of such a recording apparatus as is used by the gramophone manufacturers, is subject to certain variations, which may modify the linear measurements (which determine time relations). The recording point is necessarily flexible; when such a flexible point is pressed against the recording surface it is dragged back slightly from its original position by friction with this surface. When the point is writing a curve the conditions are changed, and it sways forward to nearly its original position. This elongates the initial part of the sound curve. This fact is of little importance in the study of a single vowel, for the earlier part of the curve may be disregarded, but if the entire record is to be measured it is a source of error.