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Excerpts from Izreel 2001 Adapa
Back to top: Shlomo Izre'el
Chapter 3. The myth as poetry
| the "metreme" (referring to Buccellati) | p. 89 | Buccellati (1-90: 109-11) bases his analysis of the minimal metrical unit, which he calls a "foot," on a composite approach. He defines a "foot" as a syntactical unit that bears a single accent. Syntactical units can consist of either "metrical words" or nonmetrical words combined with metrical words. In addition, Buccellati refers to a "complex foot," which consists of two metrical units joined into one in the form of a genitive construction. Akkadian meter, according to Buccellati, is based on the notion of "stress units which impose phonological boundaries on syntactical units" (p. "4). Buccellati further notes that the organization of feet within larger metrical units (such as cola or verses) may impose constraints on the organization and constitution of his proposed feet. Buccellati's approach, innovative in many respects, combines syntactic and accentual approaches. In fact, if a metrical system is based on primary accents only, and if a word is defined as having only one accented syllable (cf. Garde 1967; Lyons 1971: 204-5), then the metrical system must consider this word the basic metrical unit (cf. Hecker 1974: 101-2). Within such an approach, it remains to be seen what could consist of a metreme if a single grammatical word is not the only metreme possible (for a basic exposition of a possible theoretical departure point for such a study, cf. Zirmunskij 1966; metrical typology is given in Lotz 1960). The system suggested by Buccellati cannot account for all of the examples that can be defined as metremes in the Adapa text. For example, Buccellati claims that nonmetrical words such as prepositional strings, can join a metrical word in any number (Buccellati 1990: 110); this is clearly not true in the metrical system manifest in our text. For other contradictions, compare my description above with Buccellati's chart I (p. 131). |