36.1458, Confs: Versification and the History of Linguistic Ideas (France)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-1458. Thu May 08 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.1458, Confs: Versification and the History of Linguistic Ideas (France)

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Date: 06-May-2025
From: Chloé Laplantine [shesl at shesl.org]
Subject: Versification and the History of Linguistic Ideas


Versification and the History of Linguistic Ideas
Theme: versification, history of linguistic theories

Date: 21-Jan-2026 - 23-Jan-2026
Location: Paris, France
Contact: Romain Benini (Sorbonne Université, IUF / STIH) & Pierre-Yves
Testenoire (Sorbonne Université / HTL)
Contact Email: shesl2026 at listes.u-paris.fr
Meeting URL: https://shesl.org/en/conference2026/

Linguistic Field(s): History of Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 01-Jul-2025

Metalinguistic thought and versification have been intertwined, likely
since their origins. Grammar and metrics developed in several
independent traditions—Indian, Greek, Arabic—as related fields of
knowledge, both serving a common purpose: the transmission and
exegesis of poetic or sacred texts. Versification features in
grammatical description beyond its external relationships with metrics
and prosody: either because verse constitutes a portion of the corpus
studied and cited in grammars, or because metalinguistic reflection
itself is sometimes composed in verse.
The analysis and theory of versification, which require the use of
grammatical categories, thus form part of linguistic thought, as they
also play a role in aesthetic theory. The links between versification
and linguistic ideas are striking, shaped by numerous factors that
remain to be further explored. These include, on the one hand, the
cultural status of verse texts, often regarded as superior to other
types of discourse—evident in the association of poetry with the
sacred—which leads to both an overrepresentation of verse in
grammatical discourse and particular issues related to the
immutability of text. On the other hand, the mnemonic properties of
verse facilitate the memorization of long and complex grammatical
developments. As a result, many ancient grammatical treatises in
languages such as Arabic (Carter 2020), Latin (Law 1999, Colombat
1999), Sanskrit (Filliozat 1983), Syriac (Farina 2016), and Tamil
(Chevillard 2018) were composed in verse, often for pedagogical
purposes. These versified grammatical discourses, tied to specific
traditions of knowledge transmission, have consequences for language
description: metrical constraints may, for instance, act as a filter
on terminology (Colombat 1997).
Moreover, some analytic notions originate in the theorization of verse
writing. For example, in Sanskrit, the “foot,” originally a metrical
unit, came to refer to a verse line, and then to a segment of speech
(Pinault 1989: 327); in Chinese, the opposition between “empty” and
“full” words stems from poetic parallelism (Niederer 1993: 3); in
Greek, metricians made early observations on the syllable, speech
sounds, and vowel quantity (Lallot 1985: 39–40; Kleiner 2017).
Conversely, the study of versification systems is itself a
linguistically and historically significant field (see e.g., Lote
1949, Gasparov 1996, Choukr & Paoli 2010), and has been foundational
in various theoretical movements, such as Romance philology (Diez,
Paris), comparative grammar (Havet, Saussure, Meillet, Renou,
Kuryłowicz), experimental phonetics (Lote, Verrier, Spire), poetics
(Jakobson, Ruwet, Dominicy), generative grammar (Halle & Keyser,
Kiparsky), and musication (Chen, Dell & Halle, Aroui). Analyses of
versification and metrics have had significant repercussions in many
areas of linguistics, particularly phonology. Within generative
paradigms, the so-called “metrical” theory and aspects of prosodic
structure draw directly from traditional metrical terminology (Nespor
& Vogel 1986, Hammond 1995). Russian formalists’ work on versification
is a key source of structural phonology. Jakobson’s first formulation
of a “phonological law” (1979 [1923]) arose from a comparison between
Russian and Czech verse (Patri 1998). In this context, one may ask:
what role has comparative versification played in the history of
linguistic ideas? Usener’s hypothesis of a Greek Urvers (Campanile
1982), taken up by Wilamowitz and Meillet, gave rise to the
comparative metrics of Indo-European languages. This field developed
in the 20th century as an extension of comparative grammar into
versification and phraseology (Watkins 1995, West 2007). But
comparative approaches to diverse versification systems are attested
much earlier, notably in the Classical period.
This symposium seeks to document the contribution of versification
knowledge to the history of linguistic ideas. That contribution varies
widely across linguistic traditions, periods, and schools of thought.
Some grammars and language teaching methods include sections on
versification; others do not. Major theorists of classical Arabic
metrics also wrote grammatical treatises (Bohas & Paoli 1997, Paoli
2008), while among Greek grammarians, the explicit inclusion of
metrical parameters in linguistic description remains marginal, though
not absent (Duhoux 2000). Since the late 18th century, work on
versification has clearly influenced the development of several
linguistic theories. The metrical work of linguists such as Humboldt
(Couturier-Heinrich 2012), Paris (Doutrelepont 2000), Saussure
(Testenoire 2008, 2017), Meillet (Bader 1988), and members of the
Prague Linguistic Circle (Ibrahim & Plecháč 2014) has been
examined—others remain to be explored.
These observations raise the broader question of how versification
shapes metalinguistic thought. This conference invites original
contributions on the role of versification in the history of
linguistic ideas. All periods and linguistic or cultural areas may be
addressed. Proposals may explore topics such as:
Versification in metalinguistic discourse: versified grammars, the
emergence and decline of verse-based grammars, their relation to wider
traditions of didactic poetry (e.g., in the Latin Middle Ages and
Renaissance); occasional use of verse to describe language—what are
the histories, functions, usages, and effects of such versification?
Effects of verse on linguistic theory and description: the role of
verse examples in grammars; how metrical features are (or are not)
taken into account in grammatical analysis; metrical arguments used in
linguistic justification; the impact of verse corpora on syntactic
description, lexicographic practice, etc.
The role of versification in specific linguistic traditions: the
historical contribution of metrics to the understanding of particular
languages; the place of versification analysis in the grammatisation
of a language; use of verse in language teaching materials;
circulation of metrical and linguistic concepts; contributions of
verse analysis to linguistic methods and theories.
History of verse theory and description: contributions to the history
of metrics and its controversies; the status of “rule” in
versification treatises; historical and epistemological analyses of
the methods or ideas associated with major schools (philology,
structural poetics, comparative metrics, generative metrics,
computational metrics, psychological or cognitive approaches), etc.



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