Line Syllabic Inertia: A Verification of Skinner’s Hypothesis

Abstract

In accordance with the hypothesis of B.F. Skinner, identical linguistic entities should be located at shorter distances between themselves than units of different types. This hypothesis can be tested for units identified at different linguistic levels. In this article, the task is to consider the validity of this hypothesis for poetic texts by correlating verses (lines) of works with each other. The material of the study includes excerpts from 10 poems by Russian authors written in the 20th and 21st centuries. Each line is described as a certain sequence of syllable types, after which these sequences are converted into units of a higher degree of generalization, distinguished according to the rules proposed in a number of works by R. Köhler. The resulting schemes, reflecting the syllabic structure of the verses, are compared with each other, after which the distances between verses identical in structure are determined. The study has confirmed Skinner’s hypothesis for the material under consideration, and also showed that the distribution of distances between identical verses is exponential.