142 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
generally receive but one stress — on the other
hand, if the second substantive has a pronominal
suffix they receive two; (4) two particles and a
word, or one particle and a word with a pro-
nominal suffix, form single-stress groups; (5) two
words expressing closely related ideas form a
single-stress group—e.g. abi u banti; (6) a voca-
tive may be inserted without being reckoned
in any of the four stress-groups that compose
the line.
Though we make the most of the suggestions
from both sources, the Massoretic punctuation
of the Hebrew text and the scansion of the
Assyrian tablets, we shall still be left with a fair
range of uncertainty, and many lines of Hebrew
poetry will occur in which, judged by themselves,
the number of stresses will remain ambiguous.
And that ambiguity will be still further increased
when we attempt to determine what single words,
if any, may receive two stresses; here again some
light is cast on the possibility of such double
stress by the Massoretic punctuation; for as
the effect of makkeph is to bring two or more
words under one tone, so the effect of metheg is
to indicate the presence in the same word of two
tones, of a counter-tone in addition to the main
tone. But there is no probability that all the
counter-tones marked by metheg, such, for example,
as the first syllable in forms like UlF;qA, really
received a stress; and for this theory of double-