Thanks, gnu. About rhythm and melody in spoken language: say this quotation from gnu aloud. "Children should be seen and not read." The words "children should be" are eighth notes - rat-a-tat-tat, all the same length and pitch. "Seen" is a longer note, almost a dotted quarter. "And" has almost no length or emphasis - a passing eighth or even a sixteenth. With "not read" we really hear the subtle melody. The words lengthen and the pitch goes up, then slams to a stop (Beethoven would have liked this.) with the d on "read". It's writing like this that keeps up from falling asleep over our books.
|