> What I find interesting with these transition delimiters is their frequent pairing with an adjective that characterizes the speaker [...] That would explain why he continuously and repeatedly uses them across both poems.
“Syntax is a set of principles governing the combination of discrete structural elements (words, notes) into sequences. Combinatorial principles operate at multiple levels, such as in the formation of words, phrases and sentences in language, and of chords, chord progressions and keys in music.” Patel.2003-LanguageMusicSyntax
“Syntactic knowledge allows the mind to accomplish a remarkable transformation: a linear sequence of elements is perceived in terms of hierarchical relations that convey organised patterns of meaning.”
“Syllables hierarchically arrange phonemes into words.”
Rhetoric (Ῥητορική?) in general offers many "signposting" oral structures so that one may (in a 1-D temporally streamed medium) reliably communicate some of the nested arboreal complexities which writing (somewhat 2D, and amenable to re-reading) tends to communicate more clearly.
> What I find interesting with these transition delimiters is their frequent pairing with an adjective that characterizes the speaker [...] That would explain why he continuously and repeatedly uses them across both poems.
You don't need to speculate, this is known as an "epithet", and is well-studied: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithet#Literature
And specifically concerning meter, this was Milman Parry's big discovery.
https://archive.org/details/MilmanParryTheMakingOfHomericVer...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milman_Parry
Yes, fascinating.
“Syntax is a set of principles governing the combination of discrete structural elements (words, notes) into sequences. Combinatorial principles operate at multiple levels, such as in the formation of words, phrases and sentences in language, and of chords, chord progressions and keys in music.” Patel.2003-LanguageMusicSyntax
“Syntactic knowledge allows the mind to accomplish a remarkable transformation: a linear sequence of elements is perceived in terms of hierarchical relations that convey organised patterns of meaning.”
“Syllables hierarchically arrange phonemes into words.”
Rhetoric (Ῥητορική?) in general offers many "signposting" oral structures so that one may (in a 1-D temporally streamed medium) reliably communicate some of the nested arboreal complexities which writing (somewhat 2D, and amenable to re-reading) tends to communicate more clearly.