ABSTRACT
The versification pattern exists only in the cognitive system as a “metrical set”: as an expectation, or a memory trace in short-term memory. Speakers may deviate from the “ordinary” articulation of phonetic cues: they may, for instance, overarticulate, underarticulate, or distort certain phonemes or phonetic cues. The iambic meter requires that every even-numbered syllable be stressed and every odd-numbered unstressed. The most widespread and most effective means, however, for the overarticulation of word or phrase boundaries is a terminal intonation contour. The use of “cognitive” language, “neurological” language, and “phonetic” language may provide a metalanguage where no established metalanguage is available for describing literary effects. Poetic rhythm can be described in the language of literary criticism; and certain aspects of it in the parallel languages of phonetics and acoustics. One should have recourse to no more acoustic, phonetic, and cognitive information than what is necessary to solve the problems.
