What is the lexicon’s role in licensing the selection of phonologically-marked structures in Old English verse? Specifically, what is its role in the avoidance of certain nominal compounds in verse, even though the same compounds are used apparently freely in prose (Terasawa 1994)? Using a simulation of the Old English lexicon, we offer a statistical analysis of the poetic use of nominal compounds compared to the availability of relevant prosodic structures in the ambient language. In the process, we unify Terasawa’s separate constraints and demonstrate a new way of addressing the complex interplay between Old English prosody and the structure of Old English alliterative meter. Our results endorse Terasawa’s position: We find that the dispreference for nominal compounds of the XX-LX type is a general but noncategorical property of Old English. We attribute their highly restricted usage in verse to the demands of poetic diction and their incompatibility with the metrical templates that scops and scribes replicate. Additionally, while syllable weight factors into metrical organization, it does so less for stress placement, which remains morphologically grounded; this asymmetry in the ranking value of weight between poetry and prose is considered briefly in the context of the Old English monastic scribal training.

中文翻译：

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古英语韵律中的标称化合物

词典在许可选择古英语诗歌中的语音标记结构方面的作用是什么？具体来说，即使在散文中显然可以自由使用相同的复合词，它在避免诗歌中使用某些名词复合词方面的作用是什么（Terasawa 1994）？通过模拟古英语词典，我们对名词复合词的诗意使用与环境语言中相关韵律结构的可用性进行了统计分析。在此过程中，我们统一了 Terasawa 的独立约束，并展示了一种解决古英语韵律与古英语韵律结构之间复杂相互作用的新方法。我们的结果支持 Terasawa 的立场：我们发现对 XX-LX 类型的名词化合物的不偏好是古英语的普遍但非分类的属性。我们将它们在诗歌中的高度限制性使用归因于诗歌措辞的要求以及它们与 scops 和 scribers 复制的格律模板的不兼容。此外，虽然音节权重会影响格律组织，但它对重音位置的影响较小，重音位置仍然以形态学为基础；在古英语修道院抄写员培训的背景下，简要考虑了诗歌和散文之间权重排名值的不对称。