The Painting and the Background in Arabic Prosody
A New Theory for Arabic Metrics
Abstract
Following the interest in the theory, system, and method in contemporary studies, there is a clear focus on the theory of Arabic prosody in modern studies, which investigate the phonetic aspects of Arabic poetry and how they are unified with the senses in the poetry. Some scholars have introduced their hypotheses and conceptions about the metrical system of Arabic poetry. The present paper aims to introduce a new hypothesis, which concentrates on distinguishing between the metrical painting and its background as well as determining the metrical basis, rhythmic alternating units, and the metrical texture. In investigating the metrical system in Arabic, it reviews some prominent studies about Arabic metrics and discusses different metrical bases that have been proposed, such as stress, syllable length, and syllable weight, through the relation between these proposed metrical bases and the linguistic and metrical systems. In addition, the paper proposes a parallel unit to the syllable called “segment pack” to be the alternating metrical unit instead of the syllable, which has been adopted in aforementioned studies as if it is an alternating unit. Furthermore, it distinguishes between the elements of the metrical painting and its background and advances new hypotheses regarding the metrical basis and texture alongside the genesis of Arabic poetry.
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