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Meter, prosody and performance: evidence from the Faroese ballads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2019

Daniel Galbraith
Daniel Galbraith*
Affiliation:
Stanford University, Department of Linguistics, Margaret Jacks Hall, Bldg. 460, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
*
Email for correspondence: dagalb@stanford.edu
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Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the folk ballad tradition of the Faroe Islands, to date never examined in detail by metrists, offers substantial empirical support for the necessity of maintaining the classic metrical template, as well as the distinction between metrical and prosodic structure: meter is an abstraction which can neither be collapsed into phonology, nor fundamentally detached from it (Kiparsky 2006, Blumenfeld 2015, pace Hayes & MacEachern 1998, Fabb & Halle 2008). The ballad performances also reveal a unidirectional correspondence from strong metrical positions to strong dance steps and strong musical beats, indicating that metrical prominence plays a significant role in determining rhythm. The Faroese tradition thus provides a window into the relation between metrical structure and performance. In support of my conclusions I draw upon both the ballad texts and audio-visual recordings of sections of sample ballads I made on the Faroe Islands.

Keywords

metricsballad meterphonologyprosodymetrical template
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , December 2019 , pp. 227 - 261
Copyright
© Nordic Association of Linguistics 2019 

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