Decteme as a topical unit of rhythm

Abstract

The article concerns the notion of rhythm and its
role in prose fiction. Rhythm is studied on the dectemic level,
i.e. on the level of minimal topical units. Rhythm was studied
by scientists on different hierarchic levels of the language
but it was not studied on the dectemic level. We consider the
main idea (theme, topic) comprised in each decteme as a
rhythmic unit. The material of our research is a novel written
by a modern British writer Michael Frayn. Having analyzed
the functioning of dectemes in the novel we came to conclusions
concerning the formation of compositional rhythm in
texts of fiction and its role in conveying additional information.
The relevance of the research is determined by the high
productivity of rhythm affecting the artistic expression of the
text. Moreover, it is essential to explore the role of rhythm in
communication in fictional texts and the rhythmical organization
of the internal form of the text.