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A New Electronic System for Comparative Analysis of Verse and Prose
This paper will focus on the development of a new computational system, which enables comparative statistical studies of the rhythm of verse and prose in different languages (currently 10 languages are operative, with the possibility of adding more). The results of the analysis can be used not only for studying the processes for the genesis, expansion, and modification of various versification systems, but also for commenting on and interpreting the verse rhythm in different national poetic traditions in comparison with their foreign sources and language prosody. In addition, the possibility to model various processes of poetic speech generation and to analyze rhythmic vocabularies of prose allows hypotheses about the cognitive mechanisms of verse generation. This system operates in a semiautomatic mode and, by minimizing errors and enabling the processing of large amounts of data, provides a unique tool for computer research on the rhythm of different modes of speech.