Kristin Hanson
Professor
426 WheelerM 5:00-6:30, after Labor Day, by appointment only before then
khanson@berkeley.eduSpecialties
?
LinguisticsPoetry
Professional Statement
My principal research interest is poetic meter.? I've worked on developing a general theory of meter as a stylization of the phonology of rhythm in natural language, with a special interest in how such a theory can illuminate formal, historical and aesthetic properties of modern English meters.? From a similar perspective I've also explored rhyme and alliteration; rhythmic aspects of setting words to music; and occasional related characteristics of dance.? These inquiries all bear on broader questions of how art forms relate to natural human perceptual faculties, and why aesthetic qualities of our environment and experience matter.
Books ....(read more)
FIELDS:
Linguistics
Selected Publications and Papers Delivered
Articles
Hanson, Kristin.??2012.??Linguistics and poetics.??Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 4th ed., ed. by Roland Greene and Stephen Cushman, Princeton:??Princeton University Press, pp. 803-809.
?Hanson, Kristin.??2011.??Generative metrics:??the state of the art.??Current trends in metrical analysis,??ed. by?Christoph Küper, Frankfurt:??Peter Lang, pp. 45-62.?
Hanson, Kristin.? 2009.? Metrical alignment.?Towards a typology of poetic forms, Jean-Louis Aroui and Andy Arleo (eds.), Amsterdam:? John? Benjamins, pp. 267-286. ?
Hanson, Kristin.? 2009.? Nonlexical word stress in the English iambic pentameter:? a study of John Donne.?The nature of the? word: studies in honor of Paul Kiparsky?ed. by Kristin Hanson and Sharon Inkelas, Cambridge:? MIT Press, pp. 21-61.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2008.? Review article of?Language and literary structure?by Nigel Fabb.? Language? 84:? 370-386.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2008.? Some phonology of the novel.??Phantom sentences:? essays in linguistic and literature presented to Ann Banfield?ed. by Robert Kawashima, Gilles Philippe and Thelma Sowley, Bern:? Peter Lang, pp. 329-350.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2007.?? Review of?Alliteration and sound change in early English?(Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 101) by Donka Minkova.? Journal of Linguistics 43: 463-472.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2006.? Shakespeare's lyric and dramatic metrical styles.?Formal Approaches to Poetry:?? Recent Developments in Metrics?ed. by B. Elan Dresher and Nila Friedberg. Berlin:? Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 111-133. ?
Hanson, Kristin.? 2005.? Meter.?Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed. ed. by Keith Brown. Oxford:? Elsevier, vol. 8, pp. 99-109.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2005.? Rhyme.?Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., ed. by Keith Brown, Oxford:? Elsevier, vol. 10, pp. 605-616.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2003.? Formal variation in the rhymes of Robert Pinsky's?The Inferno of? Dante.??Language and Literature?12.4:? 309-337. ?
Hanson, Kristin.? 2002.? Vowel variation in English rhyme.??Studies in the History of? English:? a Millennial Perspective, ed. by Donka Minkova and Robert? Stockwell, The Hague:? Mouton, 207-229.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2001.? Language and poetic structure.?International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences?ed. Neil J. by In Smelser and Paul B. Baltes,? Oxford:? Pergamon, 8303-8308.
Hanson, Kristin.? 2001.? Quantitative meter in English:? the lesson of Sir Philip Sidney.??English Language and Linguistics?5.1:? 41-91.
Hanson, Kristin.? 1997.? From Dante to Pinsky:? a theoretical perspective on the history of the modern English iambic pentameter.??Rivista di Linguistica?9.1:? 53-97. ?
Hanson, Kristin and Paul Kiparsky.? 1997.? The nature of verse and its consequences for the mixed form.?Prosimetrum:? cross-cultural perspectives on narrative in verse and prose?ed. by Karl Reichl and Joseph Harris, Cambridge:? D.S. Brewer, 17-44.
Hanson, Kristin and Paul Kiparsky.? 1996. A parametric theory of poetic meter.??Language?72:?? 287-335.? ?
Hanson, Kristin.? 1996.? Une théorie phonologique du mètre et ses conséquences pour le? pentamètre iambique anglais.??Bulletin de la société stylistique anglaise?17:? 57-72.
Hanson, Kristin.? 1995.? Prosodic constituents in poetic meter.??WCCFL? 13: 62-77.
Hanson, Kristin.? 1993.? Resolution:? evidence from modern English metrics.??NELS?23:? 159-173. ?
Hanson, Kristin.? 1987.? On subjectivity and the history of epistemic expressions in? English.?CLS? 23:? 133-147.
Hanson, Kristin.? 1987.? Topic constructions in spoken French: some comparisons with Chichewa.?BLS?13: 105-116.
Contributions to dictionaries
Hanson, Kristin? (contributing editor for usage).? 1992.??American Heritage Dictionary of? the English Language, Third Edition.? Boston:? Houghton-Mifflin Co.
Thesis
Hanson, Kristin.? 1992.??Resolution in modern meters. Stanford:? Stanford University Ph.D. dissertation, 224 pp.? (Principal advisor:? Paul Kiparsky)
Selected recent presentations
Formal variation in the alliteration of Seamus Heaney's?Beowulf:? A New Verse Translation.? Alliterativa Causa, Warburg Institute, London, January 18-19, 2013.
Catalexis and ternary rhythms in the stress system of Garifuna.? Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Boston, January 3-6, 2013.
Formalizing nothing:??conditions on empty positions in music and verse in Wyatt's translations of Petrarch's sonnets.???Metrics, Music and Mind (formerly Sung Verse), La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, February 23-25, 2012.?
?Represented consciousness in lyrics of the Flatlanders.??Products of Slow Thought and a Love of Language:??A Conference in Honor of Ann Banfield, UC Berkeley, May 2011; revised version of Lubbock lyrics,??Pioneering Romanticisms:??International Conference on Romanticism, Texas Tech, Lubbock,??November 12-15, 2010.?
?Death and catalexis.??Metrics and poetics fest, Stanford University, April 10, 2010.
?Metrical tension revisited.???Symposium: A Comparison of Models for Meter,?Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, January 7-10, 2010.?
Generative metrics:??the state of the art.???International Conference on Meter, Vechta, Germany, July 20-23, 2009.?
?What's elision for???Aesthetic implications of the meter of Shakespeare's sonnets. Linguistics Department Colloquium, University of California, Berkeley, April 6, 2009.
Metrical feet and dancing feet.??CUNY Conference on the Foot, New York, January 15-17, 2009.?
True and duplicitous triple rhythms:??observations from musical settings of English texts.??Music, Language and the Mind, Tufts University, July 10-13, 2008.
Metrical markedness.??The Prague School and Theories of Structure.??Prague, October 17-20, 2007.
Current Research
I am writing a book called "An Art that Nature Makes":? A Linguistic Perspective on Meter in English.?
English Department Classes
fall, 2022
201A/1
Topics in the Structure of the English Language: Meter
English Language and Linguistics
Poetry
Literary Theory
Graduate Courses
spring, 2022
179/1
Literature and Linguistics
English Language and Linguistics
Literary Theory
190/2
Research Seminar: Anatomy of Criticism
Literary Theory
Research Seminars
fall, 2021
100/7
The Seminar on Criticism: Victorian Versification
English Language and Linguistics
British 19th-Century
Poetry
Literary Theory
spring, 2021
170/1
Literature and the Arts: Metamorphoses
Special Topics
201B/1
Topics in the History of the English Language: A Linguistic Perspective on Variation and Change in a Modern English Metrical Tradition
Graduate Courses
fall, 2020
179/1
Literature and Linguistics
English Language and Linguistics
Poetry
Literary Theory
190/8
Research Seminar: Anatomy of Criticism
Literary Theory
Research Seminars
spring, 2020
190/9
Research Seminar: Victorian Versification
English Language and Linguistics
British 19th-Century
Poetry
Research Seminars
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