Topic 5 (session A) - Sound > Alliteration and Assonance Revisited > Alliteration, assonance and perception

Alliteration and Assonance Revisited

Alliteration, assonance and perception

It should be clear from the last exercise that alliteration is not a straightforward matter. Whether we perceive a pattern of consonants as being alliteration or not will depend upon a number of interrelated factors. And the same will be true of vowel patterns and assonance. Here are some obvious factors (the list is almost certainly not exhaustive though):

1. Alliteration and assonance can sometimes involve similar sounds as well as the same sounds.

2. Examples close together (within the same line or only a line or two) will be felt more strongly than those further apart. There are few, if any, examples of alliterative connections 100 lines apart.

3. Alliterative and assonantal patterns are felt more strongly if they involve lexical words and less if they involve grammatical words (because it is easier to perceive semantic connections between lexical words).

4. They are most perceptible if they occur at the beginnings of words (the ends of words are next most perceptible and the middle of words the least).

5. They are more perceptible if the occur in stressed syllables than unstressed syllables.

6. They are more likely to be noticed if they help make an interpretative connection, and less likely if they do not help to promote such a connection. This is where the parallelism rule comes in.

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