Rhythm Analysis and Linear Modeling of Metrical Poetry Respiratory Signal

The paper studies the breathing patterns for four types of Chinese metrical poems, namely, fivecharacter quatrain, five-character octave, sevencharacter quatrain and seven-character octave. A breathing belt was tied to the chest and the respiratory signal was acquired by EMG. Respiratory parameters were defined regarding the dynamical properties of the signal, and were automatically extracted by the respiratory signal analysis platform we developed. Results show that the rhythmic pattern for Chinese metrical poems is reflected by three breathing features: (1) Except for the five-character octave, the duration of inspiration phase of the first line in every couplet is longer with larger inspiratory peak and capacity. (2) The duration of inspiratory phase tends to be affected by the syllable number in a poem line. (3) The absolute slope values for breathing units and inspiration phase show a consistent pattern across four types. Finally, a linear analog model of breathing pattern is developed by using the relevant parameters.