IMPACT OF METRICAL PROSODY ON PERFORMANCES.

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IMPACT OF METRICAL PROSODY ON

PERFORMANCES

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department of UNIMED Medan In Partial as Fulfillment of the Requirement for

The Degree of Sarjana Sastra

BY

ADI PUTRA WIJAYA

Registration Number 210322001

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2015

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DECLARATION

Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own word, has been expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for assessment.

I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for plagiarism.

Medan, March 2015 The Writer

Adi Putra Wijaya Reg. No. 2103220001

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ABSTRACT

Wijaya, Adi Putra. Impact of Metrical Prosody on Performances. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan, 2015.

This thesis is about testing Frederick Turner and Ernst Pöppel’s claim that suggest metrical poem tends to measure three seconds in terms of psychological limit when it is performed aloud. The objective of the study is to present metrical poems as the new data to test their claim by using corpus analysis. Hereby, the researcher uses publicly available 28 read-aloud poems from poetryoutloud.org by using Praat to find the duration of each metrical line. The findings indicate that there are 18 English metrical poems with 314 lines in total, supported by metrical tree analysis, meanwhile there are 10 poems which are free verse and found that 1) most lines have iamb feet, 2) 10 of the metrical pattern of the poems are iambic pentameter, whereas others are in diverse meter, 3) there is no psychological limit on the duration of metrical lines in performance as the researcher only founds 62.73% that fit to the 3 seconds of temporal window based on the analysis in the corpus of 314 metrical lines. This study has shown what Frederick Turner and Ernst Pöppel claim is not methodologically proven.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the completion of this thesis, the writer was receiving a lot of assistance and academic support from various people. Therefore, the writer would like to express his sincere gratitude, love and special thanks to:

 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department.

 Dra. Meisuri, M.A, the Secretary of English Department, his Proposal and Thesis Reviewer.

 Dr. Rahmah, M.Hum., the Head of English Literature Department.  Dra. Masitowarni, M.Ed., the Head of English Education Department.  Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S., his Thesis and Academic Supervisor.

 Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D., Dr. Zainuddin, DIP.TEFL., M.Hum., and Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., his Proposal Reviewers and Thesis Examiners.

 All the Lecturers throughout his academic years at State University of Medan that could not be mentioned one by one.

 His beloved parents; his mother, Lioe Jut Hiong and his father, Ho A Seng for the pray, love, moral and financial support. And also he is thankful for the love and support from his brothers, Willys, Chandra and Dien Wijaya.

 All his classmates of English Literature 2010 Class B.

Without their deep and sympathetic understanding, this thesis could not be completed. Over all, the writer hopes this thesis can give a bit contribution to

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English Literature Department. Therefore, comments, critics, suggestions, and advices are expected from the readers.

Medan, March 2015 The writer,

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Page Appendix A: Metrical Tree Analysis of the Metric Poems ... 50 Appendix B: Partial Scansion of the Non-Metric Poems... 166 Appendix C: The Screenshots of Sound Wave in Praat, Including Spectrogram,

Pitch, Intensity, and Formants Display in the Poem of The Lake Isle of Innisfree ... 176

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of The Study

The question which gives rise to this research here is the following: How poem recitation works in terms of the correlation with psychological limit on the duration of metrical lines in performance. In this thesis, there are two main focuses which are the metrical analysis of the poem and to test out the Frederick Turner and Ernst Pöppel claim (1999) that proposed lines of metrical poetry tend to measure approximately three second when the poem is performed aloud.

There are many previous researches that discuss the metrical theory. Mostly, this metrical theory is being used to indicate representation of stress in languages. By using the metrical theory, metrical analysis can be done thoroughly. Metrical or simply Meter means “measurement,” and in poetry, it refers to the repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of a poem.

First, the approach to stress proposed in Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky and Halle, 1968) does not contain enough information of the representation of stress, therefore many other researchers endorse “metrical tress” and metrical grids".

Liberman and Prince (1977) argue that 'trees' in metrical theory represent hierarchy and constituency therefore „trees‟ are used to indicate stress; 'grids'

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represent hierarchy without constituency, while „grids‟ are used to compute rhythm.

Hayes (1984) attempts to define the role of rhythm in stress. He uses mostly English data and establishes on the fundamental ideas presented in Liberman and Prince (1977). Selkirk (1980) also suggests substantial modification of tree construction rules.

Metrical trees consent a very simple statement in the line of poem. The fundamental of metrical theory is 'stress' is not characterized with a certain feature like acoustic or articulatory property associated with stress, but it is characterized by a feature known as prominence. This prominence of metrical theory shows how the node is strong (S) and the other node is weak (W), then McMahon (2005) argues that stress was not an absolute but a relative property of syllables, these labels do not mean „Strong‟ and „Weak‟, but „Stronger than an adjacent W‟ and „Weaker than an adjacent S‟, respectively. (p. 121-122)

There is a claim from Frederick Turner who is known as literary critic and Ernst Pöppel who is known as neuroscientist, suggest metrical lines of universal metrical poem fit at three seconds when performed aloud: “Of more specific significance for our subject is the very exact correlation between the three-second LINE and the three-second auditory present." (Turner & Pöppel 1999, p. 20)

Then, Fabb argues that Turner & Pöppel are wrong, in his research (2013) he mentions that there is no evidence for a psychologically derived time-based

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limit on metrical lines, and advising time is a characteristic of the performance of verse, not a textual characteristic.

The researcher proves whether Turner & Pöppel claim can be validated or not, and this study is believed to be a deeper stage of poetry analysis and it can give contribution to literary world, especially for English Department of State University of Medan.

B. The Problem of The Study

On this research paper, the problems of the study can be formulated as follows:

1. What is the dominant type of metrical feet on each of the metrical poem?

2. What is the metrical pattern of each of the metrical poem?

3. Can psychological limit on the duration of metrical lines in performance proposed by Tuner and Pöppel be justified?

C. The Objective of The Study

Related to the problems of the study, the objectives of this study are:

1. To identify the dominant type of metrical feet on each of the metrical poem.

2. To identify the metrical pattern of each of metrical poem.

3. To report whether psychological limit on the duration of metrical lines in performance proposed by Tuner and Pöppel can be justified.

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D. The Scope of The Study

The limitation is applied to:

1. Metrical Tree 2. Metrical Feet 3. Metrical Pattern

4. The Correlation with Psychological Limit on The Duration of Metrical Lines In Performance.

The scope of the study covers all poems on this site http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/listen-to-poetry. Twenty eight poems are analyzed, in other words all poems read by distinguished actors and poets are put into data collection.

E. The Significance of The Study

This study particularly provides brief description on the various significances of the study given in three categories: For Theory, For Practice and For Policy. They are as follow:

1. For Theory

a. To give in-depth contribution to the theory, specifically in the field of metrical phonology and poetry analysis this is aimed both for students and scholars of literature and languages.

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b. This study can embrace various prospective researches in English and other languages, noteably in the field of corpus linguistics.

2. For Practice

This study can also be applied to: 1) teaching pronunciation, for the students who are eager to be able to speak like the native speaker of English by showing them how to deal with stressing pattern of English words, phrases or on higher level, 2) helping non-native English speaker to understand how to analyse, to recite and to compose English poems, especially on the significance of the stress in English metrical poems.

3. For Policy

This study intends to imply and to escalate the awareness of using poetry as learning media which is critically important in classroom as the 2013 curriculum emphasize on learning poetry as one of genres that students should learn, therefore this can provide supplementary academic information to enhance the existence of English poetry implemented in 2013 curriculum for the interest of national education.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Based on the researcher's data analysis, the researcher has shown the corpus of recorded read-aloud poems by surveying 18 English metrical poems with 314 lines in total. 10 of them are iambic pentameter and others are in diverse meters and the major finding is the claim by Turner and Pöppel that a line of a

“stanza using different line lengths” is about approximately 3.00s, 3.10s to be

performed aloud does not match 100%, as well as “the pentameter fits 3.30

seconds” claim. Only 62.73% that fits to the 3 seconds of temporal window based

on findings of average duration per line.

The claim by Turner and Pöppel is unconvincing as it is tested by researcher that the results of findings do not match 100% with their claim previously. There is no actual measurement for the statement given by Turner and Pöppel. In their study, they just provide plain information of the average line durations of metrical poem. There is no further explanation of what specific data they use in terms of the author of the poem, and the person who recited the poem. On their claim, Turner and Pöppel do not elaborate more on the evidence of the methodology. Therefore, the researcher conveys that there is no solid evidence of psychological limit on the duration of metrical lines.

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B. Suggestion

The researcher believes that the number of metrical English poems should be augmented to get more legitimated result. Therefore the result of this research can be more legitimate. In future, the researcher hopes that this corpus study can be continued by any linguistics researchers.

There should not be a claim that the lines of metrical poetry tend to measure approximately three second when the poem is performed aloud, as each of the performances by different reciters may be influenced by either human factor such as accent, gender and age, or poem factor such as theme.

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REFERENCES

Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.

Fabb, N. (2013). There is No Psychological Limit on The Duration of Metrical Lines in Performance: Against Turner and Pöppel. International Journal of Literary Linguistics, 2(1).

Hammond, M. (1995). Metrical Phonology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 313-342.

Hayes, B. (1984). The Phonology of Rhythm in English. Linguistic Inquiry, 15(1), 33-74.

Kiparsky, P. (1982). From Cyclic Phonology to Lexical Phonology. The Structure of Phonological Representations, 1, 131-175.

Lethbridge, S., & Mildorf, J. (2003). Basics of English Studies: An Introductory Course for Students of Literary Studies in English. Freiburg University, Freiburg im Breisgau.

Liberman, M. Y. (1975). The Intonational System of English (Doctoral Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Liberman, M., & Prince, A. (1977). On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry, 8(2), 249-336.

Maley, A. and Moulding, S. (1985). Poem into Poem: Reading and Writing Poems with Students of English. New York: Cambridge University Press. McMahon, April. (2002). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Selkirk, E. O. (1980). The Role of Prosodic Categories in English Word Stress. Linguistic Inquiry, 11(3), 563-605.

Turner, F., & Pöppel, E. (1999). The Neural Lyre: Poetic Meter, The Brain, and Time. Expansive Poetry: Essays on the New Narrative and the New Formalism, 209-54.

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BIOGRAPHY

Adi Putra Wijaya was born on August 28, 1992 in Tebing Tinggi. He is a lifelong learner and has a passion for teaching. During his academic years at Unimed, he was teaching English to elementary, junior high and senior high school students at several English courses in Medan. He obtained 1st Highest Score in TOEFL Competition at Medan Hardiknas 2013 Event and he was part of APEC CEO Summit 2013 as volunteer. He also enjoys playing computer games such as Football Manager and Dota. You may contact him by mail at

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