Rhythm of Russian iambic hexameter from Lomonosov and Trediakovsky to present


2017. № 1 (11), 89-121

Scientific and technical centre on nuclear and radiation safety

Abstract:

The article presents data on the evolution of the rhythm of Russian iambic sextameter since 1740 until now. A corpus of more than 1 437 000 lines has been formed, rhythmical dictionary (where words are characterized by the number of syllables and the place of stress) containing 8 830 000 rhythmical words has been formed. The comparison of rhythmical dictionaries for iambic sextameter on the one hand and prose on the other has been conducted. Frequences for all rhythmical froms of a iambic sextameter lines in the given material are shown.

The corpus analyzed includes 31 825 poetic works of 2 979 authors. An approach towards classification of stress profiles of iambic sextameter with caesura after the 6th syllable is suggested. The figures of the interdependence between the number of poems and number of lines of the main types of iambic sextameter: short poems, poems with caesurae after the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th syllables of a line, no caesura verse, symmetrical or unsymmetrical verse. A subcorpus of the Russian analogue of Greek paeon IV has been also formed. Information about corpora of iambic sextameter of 450 authors is given. We also present the comparison of the stress profiles of corpora of Vyazemsy and Kushner.