The dom inant m ay be defined as the focussing com- ponent o f a w ork o f a rt: i t ru le s, determ ines and tra n sfo rm s the re m ain in g components. I t is the dom inant w hich guarantees the in te g rity o f the stru ctu re .
R. Jakobson
F o r th e o rists o f verse, especially m e tric verse, the “ d o m in a n t” in verse s tru c tu re is undoubtedly th e fu nction al s tru ctu re o f the line. I t “ ru le s” in the dense th a t it is p rim a ry in th e rh y th m ic sense, superseding demands even for re al pause (as opposed to perceived pause). A s A. B e lyj a p tly describes:
...p au zy ja v lją ju ts ja osnovnym faktorom vo vn u tre n n e j in to n a cii; oni — potenciaTnąja enerģija pred-udara, opredeljajutsja siloj udara, slediļjušcego za nej; nakonec: èta pauza m ožet i ne s ly s a t’sja; ona — pereživaetsja; ona — m ogučij fa k to r ritm a .[ 1]
A lso, the line in verse includes a conditioning fe ature a t the cognitive level, one w hich 44d e term ine s” the line in the sense th a t it provides the fra m e w o rk w ith in w hich equivalence o b tain s. The in e vita b le re s u lt o f th is de term ination is th a t the line in verse achieves agen-Live sta tu s. I t is through the agency o f the system o f lines th a t m eter is capable o f oper•
a tin g , th a t rh ym e can be set up, etc. Thus as the dom inant, *he lin e “ rules, determ ines and tra n s fo rm s ” the components o f verse language and verse form .
V e rsifica tio n system s and m e trica l notions could n o t e x is t outside a system op era ting w ith in the repeated boundary o f line, and Russian syllabo-tonic verse is no exception.[2] In v ie w o f th is , i t is ra th e r disconcerting when a scholar im p lie s th a t the lin e is “ p u re ly typ
o-g ra p h ic a l” [3 ] re s u lts in “ a d e tou r, a p e rip h ra sis, a p la y on w o rd s,” [4 ] o r some kin d o f a
T h is exam ple c le a rly illu s tra te s th a t the boundary o f lin e is n o t a fu n ctio n o f sentence boundary.
M ost in co rre ct in K ip a rs k y ’s po sition , though» is the idea th a t caesura and lin e -fin a l pause are fu n c tio n a lly the same phenomenon. C e rta in ly it is clea r th a t n e ithe r lin e nor hem istich is a condition o f language. A s M . H a lle and S. K eyse r p o in t out, caesura m ay
“ occur w h e th e r or not i t is s y n ta c tic a lly ju s tifie d by the te x t. The sequence delim ited by the caesura, th en, is not a s y n ta ctic e n tity ; i t is p rim a rily a m e tric a l e n tity postulated fo r p u re ly m e tric a l reasons.**[ 10] S. L e v in concurs w ith th is position and underscores the value o f the caesura by sta tin g : “ R egarding caesura as a syn ta ctic break th ro w s in to jeopardy one o f m e te r's m ost im p o rta n t aspects, n a m ely, the tension developed between the a b stra ct m e trical scheme and the n a tu ra l language d yn a m ics.” [ 11]
Caesura is like lin e -fin a l pause in th a t it is n o t s y n ta c tic a lly d icta te d ; b u t it is ra d ic a lly d iffe re n t fro m lin e -fin a l pause in its fu n ctio n in verse. In classical G reek, syllabo-tonic ve rsifica tio n caesura could occur in the m iddle o f a w ord, fo r exam ple, in d a c ty llic hexam * eter. H ow ever, lin e -fin a l vio la tio n s o f w ord-boundary are unheard o f in syllabo-tonic verse, both in the classical and m odem form s. In fa ct, w ord boundary is the m ost fre q u e n t m a rke r o f lin e -fin a l position and m ost often the o b lig a to ry fe a tu re o f ve rsifica tio n .
The lin e is a d is tin c tiv e co n fig u ra tio n in verse s tru c tu re , and i t is also a typ e o f d e fin itio n sui generis, hence, a m e a n in g fu l u n it in the sem iotic sense. Line bounded u n its are m a rke rs o f difference, show ing both th a t a d iffe re n t kind o f decoding p rin cip le fro m th a t o f o rd in a ry language is o p e ra tin g and th a t the equivalence procedure is o p era ting . T h is decoding process is both progressive and regressive, beginning a t lin e -in itia l position and back again a t lin e -fin a l. T hus a m eaning is form ed th ro u g h 44p lu ra l e xte rn a l recod•
in g ” [ 12] o f the w ord to the su rro u n d in g w ords, th e w ord to the sounds, and the w ord to the lin e -fin a l pause. A s a self-defined s tru c tu re , the lin e has no lin g u is tic relevance. A s S.
L e v in po ints out: “ M oreover, once co n stitu te d , the line enjoys an autonom ous s ta tu s in
dis-cussed above, is predom inant th ro u g h o u t verse. In some s ylla b ic p o e try, no tab ly "fo lk verse” form s w hich are tra d itio n a lly accompanied by a m usical in s tru m e n t and sung or chanted, lin e -fin a l position is m arked by a real pause w here th e p e rfo rm e r can d ra w breath w he the r o r n o t the pause is s y n ta c tic a lly ju s tifie d . T h is pause distinguishes verse u n it fro m syn ta ctic u n it even a t th e physiological le ve l.[1 7 ] O th e r fe a tu re s accom m odating the prom inence o f lin e -fin a l position include reassignm ent o f w ord-stress, and not o n ly fo r the sake o f rh ym e, though th is , too, is a p re va le n t phenomenon. F o r exam ple, in the Rus- sian byliny» the fin a l syllab le in a lin e m a y change its stress to produce the sequence o f long-short-long syllable prefe rred by th is genre.[ 18] O ther system s s im p ly shun ce rta in form s in order to conform to a given lin e -fin a l dem and; fo r exam ple in the S erbo-C roatian deseterac. sh o rt vowels are id e a lly avoided in the p e n u ltim a te po sitio n .[ 19]O r the system sim p ly insists on ce rta in fo rm s a t lin e -fin a l position. In French sylla b ic poetry, lin e -fin a l w ord-stress selves to m a rk the end o f a lin e .[2 0 ]
W ord stress as a line m a rk e r is a fundam ental u n d e rlyin g fe a tu re o f rh y m e ,[2 1 ] per- haps the m ost u n ive rsa lly acknowledged fe ature o f lin e ־e n d .[2 2 ] L in e end in m e trica l Rus- sian verse depends on the fin a l stressed sylla b le .[2 3 ] W hen the ve rs ific a tio n does n o t pres- uppose a c le a rly discernible m e tric o r rh y th m ic effect, an increased strin g e n cy in rh ym e requirem ents m ay com pensate,[2 4 ] c le a rly a means o f p re se rvin g the in te g rity o f the verse dom inant, the line. In the fo llo w in g exam ples fro m V . X le b n iko v’s “ Zm ei poezda — begst- vo,” the e rra tic line-length and unpredictable stress d is trib u tio n w ould create a com pletely d iffe re n t effe ct in the absence o f rh ym e :
1
M y g o vo rili 0 tom , žto s č ita li xorosim , B ra n ili trusost* i porok.
Poezd bežal, ra z u m n y m služa nosam,
000 5 0 3 8 5
Zmeëj kaõaem yj čertog Z a d vižka m i steol stu ka l SataJ p o d o ivy nog.
14
I past* ra z in u ta b yla , točno d lja vstreči meca.
No se t' zvezdam i raspolozennyx kljucek Isp u g a li m enja, i ja zapłakał ne kriča.
15
V lasam podobnuju č ita ja knigu, poputnik Sideł na gade, ce rn yj v ra n t
U sazennyj v копсах šipam i i sotnjam i žucek.
M a jakovskij, who w ell understood the binding effect o f rh ym e upon verse lin e s[2 5 ] did not a ttrib u te th is phenomenon s tric tly to the position o f lin e -fin a l:
Možno rifm o v a t’ i nacala stro k:
ulica —
lica и dogov godov rezče, i t.d .[2 6 ]
However, th is kind o f rh ym e in the absence o f lin e -fin a l rh ym e is e xtre m e ly ra re.
Verse lin e constitutes its ow n system o f relations* one level o f w hich is like language and another level o f w hich is like rh y th m . As B. M alm berg pu ts it, “ the w a y o f grouping syllables in to la rg e r u n its as w ell as the d e lim ita tio n o f u n its are the o th e r effects o f the peculiar syn ta g m a tic s tru c tu re o f a language."[2 7 ] The added m a te ria l elem ent o f zero*
sound or “ m e tric pause” in verse[28] com plicates the lin g u is tic procedure s u ffic ie n tly to produce a separate syn ta g m a tic. As in a ll language, a te rm in verse acquires its value only because it stands in opposition to e ve ryth in g th a t preceeds it or follow s it o r to bo th.[29] The divergence and ostensible cause fo r the cla im o f an independent verse lan- guage proceeds fro m the heightened effect o f the syn ta g m a tic idiosyncracy in verse.[30]
Some scholars claim th a t verse language is m ore conducive to the stu d y o f language than
a t once both a sequence o f phonological u n its perceived as separate and a sequence o f w ords perceived as coherent u n its o f phoneme com binations, m in im a lly tw o processes o f decoding are invloved in reading the te x t, perceiving the tw o hypostases o f one re a lity .[3 6 ]