Automatic Detection of Sound Repetitions in Verse: Realising the Syllabocentric Approach in the Phonotext Program

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Abstract

The article presents approaches to the automatic detection of sound repetitions and the measurement of sound coherence in Russian poetic text basing on the syllabocentric concept of the sound texture of the verse, which distinguishes the phonosyllabeme as its main operational unit and determines the main types of relations between the elements of repetition - equiphony and metaphony - and also allows describe the text in its unity of sound-segmental and rhythmic structure. The paper considers the linguistic prerequisites, main algorithms and methods, which form the basis of the PHONOTEXT computer program (web application), which automatically analyzes and visually forms the picture of the sound composition of the text presenting its quantitative characteristics. The basic operations of the program are described in detail, as well as the mathematical formulas used to identify the structure and carry out mathematical measurement of sound repetitions in Russian poetic speech. The article discusses the results of the program’s use for the comparative study of poetry and prose, individual works and individual styles of Russian poets. In particular, the data obtained using the Phonotext program allows us to speak of a tendency towards syntagmatic consolidation of the phonosyllabeme and intensive granulation of the sound texture of the text in the individual style of Osip Mandelstam as the evidence of his striving for poetic morphologization of the elements of sound repetition, it also shows a tendency towards the use of the dominant sound theme as a means for cohesion of a complex syntactic and compositional whole, in contrast to Vladimir Nabokov’s idiostyle, which is characterized by its orientation towards splitting up the elements of repetition, with a relatively chaotic interaction and spreading of consonances over the text and their low activity as a means of syntagmatic segmentation and consolidation of the text. The prospects for the development of the Phonotext program are described for identifying the relations of segment-sound and prosodic parallelism in speech (relations of equirhythmy and equiphony, including rhyme), which will provide an automatic presentation of a complete picture of the sound composition, the interaction of its main forms in the text and its further functional description.

About the authors

Georgy V. Vekshin

St Petersburg University

Author for correspondence.
Email: philologos@yandex.ru

DSc. in Philology, Full Professor

Universitetskaya Emb, 7/9, St Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Mickhail N. Gertzev

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Email: philologos@yandex.ru

candidate of physical and mathematical sciences

Institutskiy per, 9, Dolgoprudny, Russian Federation, 141701

Yaroslav E. Loskot

Moscow Polytechnic University

Email: philologos@yandex.ru
Bolshaya Semyonovskaya str., 38, Moscow, Russian Federation, 107023

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