Rhythmic hierarchy in monologue and dialogue

This paper presents a hierarchical model of rhythm and shows its functioning in both monologue and dialogue. Rhythm is seen as articulating speech in both linguistic expression and content, at several levels simultaneously. Each one of the rhythmic levels is formed by rhythmic waves and transitions. Isochrony within waves at one level is formed by periodic occurrences of wave accents from the next-lower level or from a level further below. Since it features both rhythmic regularity and irregularity at various rhythmic levels, the model can account for different degrees of rhythmicality of different types of texts. The hierarchical model of rhythm is placed in the context of other models and the rhythmic patterns of two dialogic passages are compared in detail. Different rhythmic patterns in dialogue are related to different relationships between interactants. The rhythmic analyses are supported by an independent analysis of discourse patterns.