2015 Another heresy: RAX entails bostrodac-fypaestmo

In linguistics/phonetics ‘stress’ is generally treated as some sort of ‘prominence’ one can pick up and move about like cherries on a cake. Rhythm is rarely mentioned. It is terra incognita remaining unexplored.

Indeed, Fraisse’s ground-breaking Psychologie du rythme (1974) is never even mentioned at all. Postulating a Rhythmic Alternation aXiom saying ’no more than two weaker between stronger beats, etc.’, this logically entails (hierarchies of) no more than 9 ictus ± remiss(es) groupings: yamBOS, TROchee, DACtylus, (+)amPHIbrach(+), anaPAEST and MONE, or BTDFPM for short (and thereby a simple notational system inviting further research into forms and functions). This BTDFPM notation is easily converted into an ‘embodied’ oral version (and vice versa!), still further enhancing the analyst’s rhythmic sophistication. Speech exhibits a three-tier hierarchy and therefore primary, secondary and tertiary ictuses and grouping dividers.

Taking lines 6 and 7 from vBuuren (2015) I shall illustrate some of this, inviting falsification as always.