prosody
Poetry's rhythmic patterns
Prosody is the patterns of rhythm, stress, and intonation in speech or verse.
In poetry, prosody covers meter, rhyme schemes, and line structure—the technical scaffolding beneath the words.
In linguistics, it refers to the musical elements of spoken language: pitch, tempo, emphasis.
Her prosody was flat and robotic.
The term also applies to how text-to-speech systems handle natural-sounding delivery.
Analyzing verse rhythm patterns
- footLeg's lowest part
- iambTwo-syllable metrical foot
- trocheeStressed-then-unstressed foot
- anapestTrisyllabic metrical foot
dactyl · spondee · hexameter · pentameter · tetrameter · trimeter · dimeter · blank verse
Metered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- haikuJapanese seventeen-syllable verse
- odeLaudatory verse form
elegy · couplet · quatrain · rhyme · alliteration · assonance · consonance · enjambment
Frequency of sound
- contourBounding line of shape
- inflectionWord form alteration
- toneQuality of sound
- modulationVarying signals to transmit
stress · emphasis · declination · uptalk · focus · prominence · phrasing · pitch range
Rate of musical performance
- timingArt of choosing moments
- beatRhythmic pulse or strike
- pulseArterial blood throb
- paceSpeed of movement
flow · stress-timed · duration · lengthening · pause · juncture · grouping · foot
Minimal distinctive sound unit
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
- consonantIn agreement with
- onsetStarting point of something
coda · nucleus · elision · assimilation · reduction · linking · gemination · cluster
Alternating speaker roles
- phrasingManner of expressing something
- boundaryLine marking a limit
- focusConcentrated attention point
- topicSubject of discussion
comment · chunking · parenthetical · pragmatics · utterance · backchanneling · hesitation · repair
scansion
Analyzing verse rhythm patterns
anapest · dactyl · spondee · hexameter · pentameter · tetrameter · trimeter · dimeter · blank verse · free verse
verse
Metered poetic passage
ode · elegy · couplet · quatrain · rhyme · alliteration · assonance · consonance · enjambment · caesura
pitch
Frequency of sound
- contourBounding line of shape
- inflectionWord form alteration
- toneQuality of sound
modulation · stress · emphasis · declination · uptalk · focus · prominence · phrasing · pitch range · key
tempo
Rate of musical performance
pace · flow · stress-timed · duration · lengthening · pause · juncture · grouping · foot · cadence
phoneme
Minimal distinctive sound unit
onset · coda · nucleus · elision · assimilation · reduction · linking · gemination · cluster · hiatus
turn-taking
Alternating speaker roles
topic · comment · chunking · parenthetical · pragmatics · utterance · backchanneling · hesitation · repair
expressiveness
Ability to convey emotion
irony · enthusiasm · boredom · anger · sadness · joy · surprise · disgust · contempt · paralinguistic
- Sanskrit grammarPanini, nominative, accusative, sutra, dative
- speechspeech, speaking, talk, diction, conversation
- humanitiesphilosophy, history, literature, philosophy class, novels
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- spoken languagespeech, spoken word, pronunciation, accent, dialect
- emphasisstress, accent, stressing, highlighting, underscoring
prosodysemantics
Study of linguistic meaning
syntax · morphology · lexicon · phonemics · phonetics
prosodymonotone
Single unvarying pitch
robotic speech · flat affect · phonemes · denotation · literal meaning
- classical prosodyAncient poetry's rhythmic rules