Lorca--Literary Structure and the Study of Poetic Language

Literary Structure and the Study of Poetic LanguageAuthor(s): David William FosterSource: Hispania, Vol. 52, No. 2 (May, 1969), pp. 222-230Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and PortugueseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/338435 .

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LITERARY STRUCTURE AND THE STUDY OF POETIC LANGUAGE

DAVID WILLIAM FOSTER Arizona State University

IN CONCLUDING an excellent paper on some techniques for the study of

style, John Spencer and Michael Gregoryx offer the following caveat:

In the stylistic examination of a literary work use may well be made of all previously mentioned contextualizations, both extratextual and intratextual. This 'reading with a sense for con- tinuity, for contextual coherence, for wholeness'2 must be an essential part of stylistic study; it is a necessary check on the equally necessary discrete- ness which any aspectual ivork on a text, linguistic or otherwise, requires.

When examining style, and using linguistics in so doing, the analyst should, we believe, not only take into account linguistic features in isolation, but also consider their relation to other aspects of the text and its contextual setting. Otherwise his final statement will be merely linguistic.

It is an important and revealing suggestion that a purely linguistic statement concerning a text will be of limited usefulness to even the most broadminded literary critic, sympathetic and sensitive to the tre- mendous contributions of the "science of language." While there have been many valuable opinions on the subject of stylistics,3 it is important-and symptomatic-to note that relatively few researchers so far

have addressed themselves to the problem of "contextualizing" the study of stylistics in the manner pleaded by Spencer, Gregory, and Rene Wellek. Extension of their principles should hopefully contribute to a more synthetic and subsequently more profound statement concerning the literary text, usually approached by the linguist and the critic from two so opposite points of view that no meeting of the minds is ever realized. However, despite the rele- vant attempts made by Spencer and Gregory to provide "an approach to the study of style," what is most lacking in their program is a reference to the role which the study of structure plays in the examination of literary style.4 From the point of view of a unified interpretation of literature, this paper insists that there is a definite advantage in examining the structural characteristics of a work as in- tegral parts of any serious and significant statement concerning style.5

An analysis of Garcia Lorca's famous "Canci6n de jinete"6 may serve as an example of the attempt to provide the study of style with an awareness of structure:

C6RDOBA. I

E1El • Lejana [A1] y sola

[Bj]. 2

a Jaca negra, luna grande, 3 Ja y aceitunas en mi alforja. 4 x Aunque sepa los caminos A,

5 yo nunca llegard a C6rdoba. 6

Por el lano [al], por el viento [/1], 7 a jaca negra [a2], luna roja r•2].

8 b , La muerte me estai mirando X B2

desde las torres de C6rdoba. j 10

bx iAy que camino tan largo! 11 a

lAy mi jaca valerosa! 12

by jAy, que la muerte me espera, 13 b antes de Ilegar a C6rdoba! 14

C6rdoba. 15 Lejana [A3] y sola [B3]. 16



LITERARY STRUCTURE AND THE STUDY OF POETIC LANGUAGE 223

At first glance, "Canci6n de jinete" may appear to lack the rigid formalism characteristic of much contemporary poetry. Nevertheless, there is an organization which is more profound for its subtlety, a subtlety which enhances the great sense of mystery and suggestive emotion tradition- ally associated with this one, short composition.' The poem is divided into four movements. The first (lines one and two) and the fourth (lines fifteen and sixteen) constitute the refrain repeated at the open- ing and at the conclusion of the work. The three stanzas of the nucleus of the poem (lines three to fourteen) are divided into two groups: a second movement comprising the first and second quatrains (lines three to ten), and a third movement comprising the third quatrain (lines eleven to fourteen).

The poet begins with a refrain which proposes three basic points of departure for the poem: Cdrdoba and the two attributive adjectives, lejana and sola. It is possible to suggest the syntactic ellipsis of this phrase- the suppression of a main verb and the resulting fragment of a sentence-as a probable source for the mysterious quality which so many readers have wanted to see in these few introductory words. At the same time, from the point of view of poetic language we might consider the phrase an example of a particular sort of grammatical transformation.

In some circles of contemporary linguistic theory, transformations are vital to an understanding of the rich complexity of human expression, poetic or otherwise. The view held is essentially that all languages possess a body of simple declarative sentences from which, via transformations, compound and complex sentences are built, and variations on the simple sentences themselves, substitutions, deletions and permutations, are made. Some transformations are optional and under specific circumstances some of them are obligatory. For example, let us consider the Spanish sentence Juan ve el libro an example of a

simple declarative sentence. We may vary the sentence by an optional pronomial sub- stitution. However if we do this, we must then obligatorily permute the sentence to place the pronoun before the verb, thus:

J= Juan ve lo. (ungrammatical)

=i Juan lo ve. (grammatical) A further optional transformation might involve a deletion of the subject: =4 Lo ve. A more complex transformation involves forming a complex sentence from two simple ones:

Maria cree algo. =4 Maria cree que Juan Juan ve el libro. f ve el libro.

However notice that if the first sentence is negative, Maria no cree algo, an obligatory transformation effects the verb, making it subjunctive: =4 Maria no cree que Juan yea le libro. From these few typical examples, one can see how important a role transformations play in describing the subtle richness of language variation.8

In terms of poetry, two basic hypotheses have been advanced concerning transfroma- tions. From one point of view we can say that all poetic usage in a language is optional-that is to say, in poetry we make certain non-necessary but vitally important variations on the grammar of the standard language.9 In the case of the lines in question, "C6rdoba. / Lejana y sola.", we might begin by saying that the poetic language has availed itself of an optional transformation involving the deletion of a copulative verb linking the subject, Cdrdoba, with its two predicative adjectives. As we will see in a moment, the actual circumstances are a bit more complex and involve not only an ambiguity but possibly a further transformation as well.

Another more radical position would have us consider each poem as involving an independent grammar, unique to and valid for that one poem but related in certain vague and imprecisely defined ways to the standard grammar of the audience.1o From this point of view, all features of a poem



224 DAVID WILLIAM FOSTER

are to be understood as obligatory in terms of the standard grammar. Thus lines one and two demonstrate, not an optional modification of a full Spanish sentence, but an obligatory modification demanded by the very expressively unique nature of the poem in question. Certainly such an as- sumption iterates, perhaps with exaggera- tion, the modern critical concept which respects the work of literature as a closed and singular object.

Whichever hypothesis is the more theo- retically appealing and-more important- whichever is more clearly provable and valid for the literary critic, there is little question that in lines one and two, as well as elsewhere, we are dealing not only with poetically unique structures, but also with structures which differ from basic, simple sentence paterns. The fact that the reader "feels," or "intuits" or "understands" that something is missing, and that he can guess what that something is (a linking verb), is in great part responsible for positing the notion of grammatical transformations.

In any case, the phrase in question cannot be immediately derived transformation- ally from any possible colloquial non-poetic sentence involving two predicate adjectives, since neither ser nor estar would provide an appropriate transition between C6rdoba and Lejana y sola. Lejana, unlike sola of course (see below), only appears attributively and never predicatively. Thus we cannot say *Cdrdoba es lejana (the asterisk means that the sentence is ungrammatical), nor can we say *C6rdoba estd lejana. The over- whelming majority of adjectives which appear attributively may also appear predicatively. Indeed, with the exception of certain abjectives like mismo, primero, dos, which may be considered part of the noun deter- miner (the principal member of which is the article, all attributive adjectives are considered to be derived from predicates, generally predicate adjectives." However, lejana is an exception to the general pattern in that it is an attributive adjective derived from a locative, rather than an adjectival,

predicate: Cordoba estd lejos =+ Cdrdoba lejana. This is an extremely unusual phe- nomenon for Spanish, which usually re- duces such phrases by retaining the adverb as an unvarying adverb in an adjectival position or by creating a prepositional phrase: El libro que estd acd es azul == El libro acd es azul; La clase que es maiiana serd interesante =+ La clase de maimana serd interesante.

Sola, on the other hand, presents no difficulty by itself, since it is an attributive adjective which, along with almost all other adjectives in Spanish, derives directly from a predicate adjective: C6rdoba es sola =- Cddoba sola. However, when used in conjunction with lejana in a sentence fragment that, at first glance, appears to represent the simple deletion of a linking verb, a certain amount of ambiguity arises concerning their exact semantic and syntactic interrelationship. What is basically at issue is the fact that they are not intended as simple attributive adjectives.12 No one would argue that Lorca means as to understand "La C6rdoba lejana y sola es.. ,"

or "La C6rdoba lejana es

sola . . sesti

s

or anything other than "C6rdoba st lejana y sola" or "C6rdoba estai lejos y (es) sola."

Compounding the ambiguity of the exact relationship between Cdrdoba and the two adjectives is the fact that sola, like all predicate adjectives, may appear with either ser or estar, accompanied by the semantic ranges implied by either construction. How- ever, in attributive positions it is impossible to determine for an adjective which copulative verb and which semantic range have been "surpressed."'2 The resulting density of the ambiguous predicative sola and the attributive lejana, placed so as to imply participation in a predicative phrase which has undergone a deletion transformation, cannot be overlooked in discussing the enormous and singular impact of these four words at the very outset of the poem.13




The word C6rdoba assumes an extreme importance for both poet and reader as a key-word in the understanding of the poem. It is interesting to observe how Lorca proceeds to emphasize both structurally and stylistically this one word. It is, first of all, the only proper noun in the poem. Further- more, it is the only word with an ante- penultimate phonemic stress (acento es- dr~julo), and, by virtue of being so singular in its phonology, it reverberates and entrenches itself in our imagination with an insistence which would not be the case if the poet had chosen Sevilla or Granada, two other cities prominent in Lorca's work for their symbolic meaning.14 In this way, then Cordoba becomes the principal point of reference in "Canci6n de jinete" and is subsequently repeated at the end of each stanza (see lines six, ten and fourteen), as well as in the second occurrence of the complete refrain concluding the composition.

In addition to its impact as the only antepenultimately stressed word in the poem, Cdrdoba has another important pho- nologic role. Breaking all rules of Spanish metrics, Lorca includes the name of the city in a romance with 4-a rhyme: The even lines each with eight syllables, have the d-a rhyme: Sola, alforja, roja, valerosa, sola. This scheme includes the o-a (without the acento llano) of Cdrdoba in lines six, ten, and fourteen, resulting in a most unusual pattern. The disconsonance of this rhyme, contrary to what we normally admit in a romnnance, serves to underline even more than the name of the haunting city. In addition, the pie quebrado of the refrain insists on this abnormal rhyme, combining Cdrdoba and sola and constituting a device by which the poet intends to reinforce the link between the refrain and the nucleus of the poem.

The second segment of the poem (lines three to ten) is significant for its organization. The first two verses of both strophes (lines three and four, seven and eight) have the same function. Thus, we may

say that 2xa and 2ya, although separated from each other by intervening lines, are immediately related to each other by the careful reader. Both iterate the important concepts of "jaca" and "luna"-the relationship is chiastic, since what is presented first in 2xa (line three) is presented second in 2ya (line eight). Both present concrete touchstones for the poem: aceitunas and alforia, llano and viento, a presentation which also involves chiasmus (the second place line four versus the first place line seven). By virtue of their same functional role in the poem, which as we will see in a moment is counterpoised to the equally functionally paratactic 2xb and 2yb the two segments 2xa and 2ya are paratactic in sharing the burden of establishing precisely the action of the poem. In both cases, the sense is the same and our impression is one of flight, of dramatic tension, and of immediate movement. In terms of the type of cohesion provided by such paratactic relationships, it is important to note that, by underlining unities which cut across the obvious progressive reading of the poem (line one to two to three to four, etc.), a complex contrapuntal network of parallel axes of reference for the poem is estab- lished, a network which defies a merely progressive critical examination and expo- sition.15 (The implications for explications de texte should be apparent.)

As has been suggested, the two a verses of stanzas x and y are in a certain relative sense "active" or "specific." Note that in addition to the conceptual parataxis discussed above, the segment 2ya reveals a subparatactic structure which is more clearly echoic in form: "Por el llano [a1], por el viento [P,], / "jaca negra [a2], luna roja [P2,]. The occurring, progressive phrases actually have a deeper meaning which is non-progressive. We may hypoth- esize the following crudely reconstructed underlying sentences,1" which, in terms of earlier comments, have undergone a particularly complex transformation: Por el llano va la jaca negra and Por el viento va




la luna roja. These two sentences certainly reflect the "meaning" of lines nine and ten which the reader is most likely to extract for the actual phrases of the poem. Despite what the poet says progressively, I suggest that what we are to understand is really two parallel sequences whose axes are not line nine versus line ten, but the first half of line nine

[a1] and the first half of line

ten [a2] versus the last half of line [P13] and the last half of line ten [P2]. In terms of the stylistic features represented by 2xa and 2ya, and subsequently by the sub- structures of 2ya, it is of prime importance to consider their paratactic relationship for the clue that it offers our sense of union between the two pairs of phrases and es- pecially the greater link between the phrases of the sub-paratactic lines seven and eight lacking for the non-paratactic lines three and four. Such a structural arrangement forces an overlapping between lexical sets otherwise not evident and a consideration of the resulting intercepting ranges of meaning.'7

Thus, for example, it would appear obvious that "jaca negra" on the one hand and "luna grande" / "luna roja" are meant by the poet to enjoy a particularly cohesive bond of meaning, the items of line eight even more so because of the sub-parataxis. In addition, the two pairs, a and P, which we have already dealt with possess a particularly heightened suggestiveness arising from their rigidly formal structure. It is not surprising to discover that they are graph- ically the center of the poem. What is even more striking is that the four lines which we have been examining in such detail share a significant characteristic with the all-important refrain. All eight lines, out of the total of sixteen, reveal the suppression of a main verb: a linking verb in z and z', a verb of possession(?) in 2xa and a verb of movement(?) in 2ya. Such a suppression probably plays an important role in promoting the cryptic quality of these lines, where our understanding of the exact grammatical-and therefore seman-

tic1s-relationships depends less on "normal" grammatical structure and over- whelmingly on poetic formal ordering of juxtaposition and linking. (In addition to the lines already discussed we would have to add lines eleven and twelve, which also contain no main verb, making the poem dominantly non-verbal,19 stressing a nominal style and a lack of grammatical pro- gression indicative of the influence on Lorca of the contemporary Futurismo movement.20)

By contrast, the poet becomes abstract, metaphysical, and verbal in section b of both stanzas (verses five and six, nine and ten), resulting in a paratactic relationship between 2xb and 2yb based on the conceptual or thematic link between them. It is precisely in these two short segments where the poet advances any sort of ex- planation of the mystery of Cdrdoba. Thus, it is only natural that we compare 2xb to 2yb in an attempt at interpretation, much as we compare 2xa and 2ya for what "data" they share in common. In addition, 2xb and 2yb possess a link to more basic ele- ments beyond themselves (2xb to lejana and 2yb to sola), which will be explored in a moment. What is important to ac- knowledge here is that this link beyond their immediate paratactic interrelationship not only has stylistic implications for inter- preting the words to which they refer, but it also underlines the greater interpretive importance over 2xa and 2ya which the reader senses intuitively-a commentary on the poem will stress the death allusion of 2xb and 2yb and use 2xa and 2ya to elaborate on them, thereby establishing the same hierarchy which has been proposed. The shift from a cryptic style involving verb suppression to one making use of full, grammatical sentences is further support for the corresponding unity between 2xb and 2yb.

So far, emphasis has been laid on the non-progressive cohesion of 2xa and 2ya versus 2xb and 2yb on the basis of content, style, interpretive hierarchy and relations to




segments beyond the lines themselves. However, in addition to the axis suggested by these two paratactic, non-progressive sets, one must recognize the more normal and obvious axis of two parallel segments placed one after the other. I refer to x versus y. Both consist of a segment a, nominal, specific and somewhat cryptic in style, and a segment b, verbal, abstract and more explanatory in style. This axis, called hypotactic, is based on the patently similar structure of the two stanzas, and is the one which first attracts the reader's attention. Thus it is of a certain importance in grasp- ing the immediate surface structure of the poem, but cannot hope to compete with the deeper paratactic axis which has a far greater role in controlling or guiding our understanding of the meaning of the composition. To put it in more pedestrian terms: once we have read the poem super- ficially, to realize our critical task we approach the poem, not line-by-line, but in terms of the points of interrelationship, in terms of the groups of significant phrases, and in terms of the devices actually operant in the work which suggest an understanding of what is said. A structural and stylistic analysis is simply the attempt to echo, albeit a bit crudely and artificially, deprived as it is of the magic of the poem itself, what we can assume in good faith that the poet did to give his composition the no se qud that the reader experiences.

Turning again to 2xb and 2yb, the two lines of 2xb, "abstract" in content, advance the suggestion of a commentary on the adjective lejana applied to Cdrdoba in the refrain. (It is important to note again that the last line of the stanza concludes with the name of the city.) In the same way, in stanza 2yb we are able to interpret the words of lines nine and ten as a gloss on the word sola applied to Cdrdoba. Thus, lejana and 2xb, sola and 2yb stand in paratactic relation to each other by virtue of their parallel application to C6rdoba. Cdr- doba is itself transformed through its in- sistent appearance into the stylistic, if not

the syntactic, center of the entire poem. Lejana and sola, the two paratactic sets, are explicitly joined by the conjunction y. In this way, we assume a further implied relationship between the segments 2xb and 2yb, the two second members of the paratactic sets that refer back to the overtly conjoined lejana and sola. Again, from a stylistic point of view, such an interrelationship can only be overlooked at great ex- pense to an understanding of the particular semantic interpretation attached to the two adjectives accompanying Cdrdoba. In other words, the answer to why C6rdoba is lejana y sola is to be found in great part in lines five and six, nine and ten.

As for the sense of these lines, is it death which the poet describes, or is it more an uneasiness which the poet transmutes in his poem? Although lines nine and ten may be an affirmative statement, in terms of the complex system of referents beyond just those two lines, the attempt to render an absolute and definite interpretation is made that much more difficult. Note also that the moon is red in line eight, although it is large in line three. Perhaps it is one way of referring symbolically to death mentioned in 2yb; perhaps roja is chosen simply because of the rhyme. The latter, more obvious possibility must be considered along with the more attractive alternative. The actual phrase is probably best considered a felicitous union of both, as well as any additional possibilities.

The third movement of the composition, lines eleven to fourteen, provides a variation and recombination of the essence of stanzas x and y. To this extent, the one stanza of part three may be said to stand in paratactic relation to the two stanzas of part two. By means of a series of exclama- tions, the poet respectively recalls: how long the road is in segment b of stanza x ("iAy que camino tan largo!" [line 11]); the jaca of segment a of both stanzas x and y ("iAy mi jaca valerosa!" [line 12]); death of part b of stanza y ("iAy, que la muerte me espera," [line 131); and, finally,




repeating the word Cdrdoba, the mystery of the city elaborated in segment b of both stanzas x and y ("antes de ilegar a C6r- doba!" line 14). The intermingling of the abstract (bx, line eleven and by, line thir- teen) and the particular (a, line twelve and b, line fourteen) serves to provide a depth of meaning for the individual words and phrases, their resulting images, symbols, etc. As we perceive and experience the poem as a whole, our particular understanding of the expressive devices is increased and subtly guided by Lorca's structural ordering of thematic and stylistic resources.

"Canci6n de jinete" concludes with a

repetition of the introductory refrain. This, it need not be emphasized, is a common and effective technique in poetry, and Lorca exploits it well.21 After the develop- ment of the nucleus of the poem, the reader is able to reinterpret and to enlarge the range of meanings of the refrain. In

reality, it is imprecise to speak of a repetition of the refrain, since the refrain which closes the poem is no longer the same one which the reader reads, almost casually, at the outset. Stylistically as well as struc-

turally the three keywords have taken on a profounder meaning.22

T HE FOREGOING ANALYSIS OFFERS ESSEN-

TIALLY a structural description of Lor- ca's "Canci6n de jinete," tempered by allu- sions to a basic and fundamental interpretation of meaning. In addition, the attempt has been made to underline what I consider several important stylistic considerations de-

riving from the major issues of structure and meaning. If we agree that a humanis- tic justification of the importance of poetry demands more than merely a linguistic description of style, then attention to structural "wholeness" hopefully represents one effort to overcome the sterility of the majority of linguistically oriented discussions of style.23

NOTES 1"An approach to the study of style," in John

Spencer, Linguistics and style (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 101-102.

2Spencer and Gregory quote here from Rene Wellek's "Closing statement from the viewpoint of literary criticism," in Thomas A. Sebeok, Style in language (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960), 149. Wellek's closing statement, when read in its entirety, is a serious indictment of the linguistic analysis of poetry for its apparent disinterest in making (or inability to make?) much more than a purely linguistic statement.

3In addition to the numerous essays in Sebeok and the Spencer and Gregory paper cited above, the following publications might be listed as a guide to the most significant research on linguistics and style; all are characterized by the lack of attention paid to literary structure and relationship of style to structure: Nils Erik Enkvist, 'On defining style: An essay in applied linguistics," in Spencer, op. cit.; Daimaso Alonso, Poesia espaiola, 4" ed. (Madrid, Gredos, 1962); Paul L. Garvin, ed., A Prague school reader on esthetics, literary structure and style (Washington, D.C.: George Washington Uni- versity Press, 1964); Samuel R. Levin, Linguis- tic structures in poetry (The Hague: Mouton, 1962); William O. Hendricks, "Review of Levin's Linguistic structures ... " Language, XLI (1966), 639-49; Richard Ohmann, "Gen- erative grammars and the concept of linguistic style," Word, xx (1964), 423-29; M. A. K. Halliday, "The linguistic study of literary texts," in the Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Linguists (The Hague: Mouton, 1964), 302-307; Samuel R. Levin, "On the automatic production of poetic sequences," Texas studies in literature and language, v (1963), 138-463. See also Thomas J. Roberts, "Literary- linguistics: a bibliography, 1946-1961," Texas studies in language and literature, iv (1962), 625-29; studies done in the Romance field are reviewed by Helmut Hatzfeld, A critical bibliography of the new stylistics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952). For an introduction to the issues of transformational linguistics central to many recent discussions of sty istics, the reader is referred to the papers in Jerry A. Fodor, The structure of language; read- ings in the philosophy of language (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1964); and to the several monographs by Noam Chomsky, particularly his Aspects of the theory of syntax (Cam- bridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1965).

4The most important discussions of literary structure for the Hispanist are to be found in Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of literature, 3rd ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1962), and Wolfgang Kayser, Interpretacin y anilisis de la obra literaria, 4" ed. (Madrid: Gredos, 1961).

sSome basic considerations concernin the structure of poetry are to be found in avid William Foster, "Some formal types in the




poetry of Mario de Andrade," Luso-Brazilian review, ii (Winter, 1965), 75-95.

6From Canciones, in his Obras completas (Madrid: Aguilar, 1960), 308; concerning the formulaic representation of the poem see David William Foster, "Apuntes para la representaci6n formal de la estructura po'tica," Revista hispa"s- nica moderna (to appear).

7The following structural analysis is in part derived from David William Foster, "Estructura poetica en tres poemas de Unamuno, Machado y Garcia Lorca," Duquesne Hispanic review (to appear).

8For further examples of transformations in Spanish consult Robert P. Stockwell, Grammati- cal structures of English and Spanish (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965). The descrip- tions of the examples just given is grossly simpli- fied in terms of prevailing research.

9See the discussion concerning poetic language as a deviation from standard language in its sus- pension of certain restrictions and imposition of others in Sol Saporta, "The application of linguistics to the study of poetic language," in Sebeok, op. cit., 82-93; and in Samuel R. Levin, "Poetry and grammaticalness," in the Proceedings . . , op.cit., 308-14. It is important to note that, if this theory is proved valid, it would weaken considerably those approaches to language which base the standard on literary texts.

0oFor a discussion of this thesis, see J. P. Thorne, "Stylistics and generative grammar," Journal of linguistics, I (1965), 49-59.

"The pattern is roughly as follows: (1) Two simple sentences, say, Juan ve el libro and El libro es azul, are combined optionally, giving the complex noun-clause sentence, Juan ve el libro, que es azult (obligatory rules delete the repetition of el libro, substituting que in its place, thereby avoiding the ungrammatical Juan ve el libro, el libro es azul, called a "run-on" sentence); (2) a further optional deletion allows us to change the clause to a phrase, giving Juan ve el libro azul. Certain other rules provide for the differ- ence between placing adjectives before or after the nouns they modify.

12The full stop implies a corresponding into- nation curve-assuming there is a virtue in discussing the application of suprasegmentals in the case of a proposed specific oral rendition. See in this regard Samuel R. Levin's suggestive paper, "Suprasegmentals and the performance of poetry," Quarterly journal of speech, XLVIII (1962), 366-72.

13A further stylistic consideration concerning the refrain is its essential structural isolation from the nucleus of the poem. It is isolated not only in its repeition concluding the composition, but also in its unique elliptic nature with the full stop as compared to the elliptic phrases of lines three-four, seven-eight, and eleven-twelve.

14See Guillermo Diaz Plaja's comments on the three cities in his Federico Garcia Lorca (Buenos Aires: Kraft, 1948). Enrique L6pez

Martinez has written on Granada in his "Aljibe y Surtidor o la Granada de Federico Garcia Lorca," La torre, x (1962), 11-45.

15See Dfimaso Alonso and Carlos Bousofio, Seis calas en la expresidn iliteraria, 2" ed. (Ma- drid: Gredos, 1956), Cap. I.

16In Alonso's terminology (Seis calas . . these "reconstructed" sentences would now be two hypotactic sets due to their progressive parallel structures, as opposed to the non- progressive structure of paratactic sets; that is, the original "2ya" sets.

17Examples of such types of overlapping between lexical sets by virtue of association are given within a more general context in the Spencer and Gregory paper already cited.

'8That the semantic interpretation of a sentence depends on an understanding of its grammar is a central issue in contemporary linguistics. Although the matter is far too complex and mar- ginal for the present discussion to give a full presentation, consider the implication of the following example: Doy a Juan. Without an understanding of the grammar of this phrase, it is impossible to assign it a semantic interpretation; i.e., a "meaning." Thus, if the grammar is Verb-Direct Object, a meaning equivalent to English "I give [or hit] John" is understood. If, however, the gramar is Verb-Indirect Object a somewhat incomplete meaning equivalent to the English "I give to John . . . " is assigned. Many similar homophonous sequences (tech- nically called structural ambiguities) to which we can assign more than one "meaning" demonstrate the need to decide on the grammar of the sentence before giving it a tentatively definite interpretation. See David William Foster, "Al- gunos ejemplos de ambigiiedad estructural en inglks ..., " Revista de la Universidad Na- cional del Litoral (to appear).

"9For a discussion of nominal and verbal style, see Rulon Wells, "Nominal and verbal style," in Sebeok, op. cit., pp. 213-20.

2oConcerning the Italian Futurismo of the first decades of the century, see "Futurism" in Encyclopedia of poetry and poetics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965), p. 303. To the best of my knowledge, no analysis is available of the influence of this movement, related to the Surrealism which significantly influences Lorca's poetry from the Romancero gitano (1927) on.

21Rafael Bosch describes some of Lorca's repeated phrases in "Los poemas paralelisticos de Garcia Lorca," Revista hispa'nica moderna, xxviii (1962), 36-44. "Canci6n de jinete" is not mentioned, nor is Daimaso Alonso's work on hypotactic-parallelistic structures.

22Other features of this poem one might men- tion are the repetitive syntax of part 2 (stanzas x and y) and the repetition of ay in part 3. From the point of view of the rhythm or beat of the verses, one could attach importance to the measured stresses of lines two and four vs. lines one and three; line three vs. lines four,



230 DAvI WILLIAM FOSTER

five and six; lines seven and eight vs. lines nine and ten. An adequate discussion of the problem of rhythm in Spanish poetry must await a study of the relationship between phonemic and non- phonemic stress in Spanish metrics, a subject

only clumsily dealt with in traditional analyses. 23The research for this paper was made pos-

sible by a grant from the Comisi6n de Inter- cambio Educativo entre Estados Unidos y Argentina (Fulbright).

THE MAKING OF THE HISPANIST 1966

With this speech to the 1966 Annual Meeting in New York Norman P. Sacks added still another distinguished Presidential Address to our AATSP series. Reprints are available from the Secretary-Treasurer. For prices see the list of AATSP publications in the advertising section.

LA ENSER1ANZA DEL ESPAR1OL Y DEL PORTUGUIES EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS: ANHELOS Y REALIDADES

Reprints of Robert G. Mead's excellent Presidential Address-well-delivered, well-received at the 1965 Annual Meeting-may be obtained from the Secre- tary-Treasurer. For prices see the list of AATSP publications in the advertising section.

A GUIDE TO JOURNALS IN THE HISPANIC FIELD

This Guide by Donald W. Bleznick, which is subtitled "A Selected Annotated List of Journals Central to the Study of Hispanic Language and Literature" is still available from the Secretary-Treasurer.

SPANISH CLUB MANUAL

Reprints of Mrs. Ruth B. Clausing's "Resource Guide for Teachers of Span- ish and Club Advisors of Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica," published in the March 1963 Hispania, are available with sturdy covers at $1.00. Please send your orders to the Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Eugene Savaiano, Spanish De- partment, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67208.



Lorca--Literary Structure and the Study of Poetic Language

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