Chapter LXXXIX: Part IV: Prosody

Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--The word _prosody_, (from the Greek--[Greek: pros], _to_, and [Greek: dæ], _song_,) is, with regard to its derivation, exactly equivalent to _accent_, or the Latin _accentus_, which is formed from _ad, to_, and _cantus, song_: both terms, perhaps, originally signifying a _singing with_, or _sounding to_, some instrument or voice. PROSODIA, as a Latin word, is defined by Littleton, "Pars Grammaticæ quæ docet _accentus, h. e._ rationem atollendi et depremendi syllabas, tum quantitatem carundem." And in English, "_The art of_ ACCENTING, _or the rule of pronouncing syllables truly_, LONG _or_ SHORT."--_Litt. Dict._, 4to. This is a little varied by Ainsworth thus: "_The rule of_ ACCENTING, _or pronouncing syllables truly, whether_ LONG _or_ SHORT."--_Ains. Dict._, 4to. Accent, in English, belongs as much to prose as to poetry; but some deny that in Latin it belongs to either. There is also much difficulty about the import of the word; since some prosodists identify _accent_ with _tone_; some take it for the _inflections_ of voice; some call it the _pitch_ of vocal sounds; and some, like the authors just cited, seem to confound it with _quantity_,--"LONG _or_ SHORT." [459]

OBS. 2.--"_Prosody_," says a late writer, "strictly denotes only that _musical tone_ or _melody_ which accompanies speech. But the usage of modern grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the term."--_Frost's Practical Grammar_, p. 160. This remark is a note upon the following definition: "PROSODY is that part of grammar which treats of the structure of Poetical Composition."--_Ibid._ Agreeably to this definition, Frost's Prosody, with all the generality the author claims for it, embraces only a brief account of Versification, with a few remarks on "Poetical License." Of Pronunciation and the Figures of Speech, he takes no notice; and Punctuation, which some place with Orthography, and others distinguish as one of the chief parts of grammar, he exhibits as a portion of Syntax. Not more comprehensive is this part of grammar, as exhibited in the works of several other authors; but, by Lindley Murray, R. C. Smith, and some others, both Punctuation and Pronunciation are placed here; though no mention is made of the former in their subdivision of Prosody, which, they not very aptly say, "consists of _two_ parts, Pronunciation and Versification." Dr. Bullions, no less deficient in method, begins with saying, "PROSODY consists of two parts; Elocution and Versification;" (_Principles of E. Gram._, p. 163;) and then absurdly proceeds to treat of it under the following _six_ principal heads: viz., Elocution, Versification, Figures of Speech, Poetic License, Hints for Correct and Elegant Writing, and Composition.

OBS. 3.--If, in regard to the subjects which may be treated under the name of _Prosody_, "the usage of _modern_ grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the term," such an application is certainly not _less_ warranted by the usage of _old_ authors. But, by the practice of neither, can it be _easily_ determined how many and what things _ought_ to be embraced under this head. Of the different kinds of verse, or "the structure of Poetical Compostion," some of the old prosodists took little or no notice; because they thought it their chief business, to treat of syllables, and determine the orthoëpy of words. The Prosody of Smetius, dated 1509, (my edition of which was published in Germany in 1691,) is in fact a _pronouncing dictionary_ of the Latin language. After a brief abstract of the old rules of George Fabricius concerning quantity and accent, it exhibits, in alphabetic order, and with all their syllables marked, about twenty-eight thousand words, with a poetic line quoted against each, to prove the pronunciation just. The Prosody of John Genuensis, an other immense work, concluded by its author in 1286, improved by Badius in 1506, and printed at Lyons in 1514, is also mainly a _Latin dictionary_, with derivations and definitions as in other dictionaries. It is a folio volume of seven hundred and thirty closely-printed pages; six hundred of which are devoted to the vocabulary, the rest to orthography, accent, etymology, syntax, figures, points--almost everything _but versification_. Yet this vast sum of grammar has been entitled _Prosody_--"_Prosodia seu Catholicon_"--"_Catholicon seu Universale Vocabularium ac Summa Grammatices_."--See pp. 1 and 5.