As easy as one, two, three: About the nursery rhymes

Abstract

Counting-out rhymes are made up mainly of sequences of words or quasi-words each of which is a 2-stroke (associated with two beats of an isochronous sequence); thesesequences are grouped into 22 strokes, pairs of 2strokes of the same duration. In some cases, this equivalence is inclusive rather than successive, relating sequences at two diff erent isochrony levels. Such inclusive relations are morphologically manifested in transformational successions of the type «Eenie meenie miney moe» in various languages.