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The past 15 years have witnessed an increasing interest in the comparative study of language and music as cognitive systems. This book presents an interdisciplinary study of language and music, exploring the following core areas - structural comparisons, evolution, learning and processing, and neuroscience.
The past 15 years have witnessed an increasing interest in the comparative study of language and music as cognitive systems. This book presents an interdisciplinary study of language and music, exploring the following core areas - structural comparisons, evolution, learning and processing, and neuroscience.
In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, Aniruddh D. Patel challenges the widespread belief that music and language are processed independently. Since Plato's time, the relationship between music and language has attracted interest and debate from a wide range of thinkers. Recently, scientific research on this topic has been growing rapidly, as scholars from diverse disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, music cognition, and neuroscience are drawn to the music-language interface as one way to explore the extent to which different mental abilities are processed by separate brain mechanisms. Accordingly, the relevant data and theories have been spread across a range of disciplines. This volume provides the first synthesis, arguing that music and language share deep and critical connections, and that comparative research provides a powerful way to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these uniquely human abilities.Winner of the 2008 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Language vs. Culture? A Comparison between Language and Music, language: English, abstract: Language and music--both can be found in every human society--are the most basic socio-cognitive domains of the human species. At first glance, they share fundamental similarities, such as being based on acoustic modalities and involving complex sound sequences. Language, as well as music, functions as a means of communication and a form of expression. Both systems are organized into hierarchically structured sequences, and a written system was developed for language and for music. The interest in music-language relations has a long history, of course, and does not originate with modern cognitive science: "The topic has long drawn interest from a wide range of thinkers, including philosophers, biologists, poets, composers, linguists, and musicologists. Over 2,000 years ago, Plato claimed that the power of certain musical modes to uplift the spirit stemmed from their resemblance to the sounds of noble speech (Neubauer, 1986). Much later, Darwin (1871) considered how a form of communication intermediate between modern language and music may have been the origin of our species' communicative abilities. Many other historical figures have contemplated music-language relations, including Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. This long line of speculative thinking has continued down to the modern era (e.g., Bernstein, 1976). In the era of cognitive science, however, research into this topic is undergoing a dramatic shift, using new concepts and tools to advance from suggestions and analogies to empirical research." (Cp. PATEL (2008): Music, Language, and the Brain) The production of music and language is a prime example of the human brain's capacities. But does th
The interplay between musical training and speech perception continues to intrigue researchers in the areas of language and music alike. Historically, language function has been attributed to brain regions localized predominately in left hemisphere, whereas music has been attributed to right hemisphere dominant regions. Recent studies demonstrating neural overlap for processing speech and music, and enhanced speech perception and production in musicians suggest that these regions may be inextricably intertwined. The extent of neural overlap between music and speech remains hotly debated, with surprisingly little empirical research exploring specific neural homo-logs and analogs. Moreover, despite recognition that shared processes likely exist throughout development and depend upon an individual’s acoustic experiences, even less research exists on how overlapping neural structures for music and language are affected by developmental trajectories. Nonetheless, the field is well poised to address key empirical questions, in part because of the recent development of new theories that address the neural and developmental interaction between music and language processing in conjunction with the broad availability of sophisticated tools for quantifying brain activity and dynamics. To understand the overlap of neural structures for language and music processing, research is needed to identify those specific functions of each that influence the other, with areas for enhanced perception of pitch and onset time having already been targeted. Research is also needed to identify the extent to which this overlap is developed in infancy or early childhood and the process by which it affects neural reorganization, plasticity, and trainability in adulthood. For this research topic, we would like to further explore the relationship between language and music in the brain from two perspectives: 1) understanding the nature of shared neural and cognitive processing for music and language and 2) understanding the developmental trajectory of these neural systems and how they are influenced by experience. We seek to gather technically diverse original research articles that present new empirical findings relevant to understanding: 1. When, in the brain, acoustic information becomes processed specifically as language or music. The shared and independent neural structures for processing music and language. 3. How acoustic experiences such as musical training influence overlap of neural structures for language and music. 4. How the overlap of processing regions changes over time due to experiences at any developmental stage.
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Language vs. Culture? A Comparison between Language and Music, language: English, abstract: Language and music—-both can be found in every human society—-are the most basic socio-cognitive domains of the human species. At first glance, they share fundamental similarities, such as being based on acoustic modalities and involving complex sound sequences. Language, as well as music, functions as a means of communication and a form of expression. Both systems are organized into hierarchically structured sequences, and a written system was developed for language and for music. The interest in music-language relations has a long history, of course, and does not originate with modern cognitive science: "The topic has long drawn interest from a wide range of thinkers, including philosophers, biologists, poets, composers, linguists, and musicologists. Over 2,000 years ago, Plato claimed that the power of certain musical modes to uplift the spirit stemmed from their resemblance to the sounds of noble speech (Neubauer, 1986). Much later, Darwin (1871) considered how a form of communication intermediate between modern language and music may have been the origin of our species’ communicative abilities. Many other historical figures have contemplated music-language relations, including Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. This long line of speculative thinking has continued down to the modern era (e.g., Bernstein, 1976). In the era of cognitive science, however, research into this topic is undergoing a dramatic shift, using new concepts and tools to advance from suggestions and analogies to empirical research." (Cp. PATEL (2008): Music, Language, and the Brain) The production of music and language is a prime example of the human brain’s capacities. But does the brain process music as it processes language? Are language and music processed in the same hemisphere(s)? Are linguistic and musical irregularities processed by the same brain area(s)? What are the cognitive differences and similarities? And how can brain activity be measured? These and other very complex questions are to be approached in this seminar paper. The central interest is to explore and compare some of the structural and cognitive properties of language and music (and the links between them) in order to find out whether music is language-like in certain regards. The central questions are: Does music have something like a grammar or syntax? Is music able to transfer meaningful information? Chapter 2.1 examines the structural units (...)
Why do people attach importance to the wordless language we call music? Musical Cognition suggests that music is a game. In music, our cognitive functions such as perception, memory, attention, and expectation are challenged; yet, as listeners, we often do not realize that the listener plays an active role in reaching the awareness that makes music so exhilarating, soothing, and inspiring. In reality, the author contends, listening does not happen in the outer world of audible sound, but in the inner world of our minds and brains.Recent research in the areas of psychology and neuro-cognition allows Henkjan Honing to be explicit in a way that many of his predecessors could not. His lucid, evocative writing style guides the reader through what is known about listening to music while avoiding jargon and technical diagrams. With clear examples, the book concentrates on underappreciated musical skills—sense of rhythm and relative pitch—skills that make people musical creatures. Research on how living creatures respond to music supports the conviction that all humans have a unique, instinctive attraction to music. Everyone is musical.Musical Cognition includes a selection of intriguing examples from recent literature exploring the role that an implicit or explicit knowledge of music plays when one listens to it. The scope of the topics discussed ranges from the ability of newborns to perceive a beat, to the unexpected musical expertise of ordinary listeners. The evidence shows that music is second nature to most human beings—biologically and socially. This paperback edition contains a new afterword that details cutting-edge research on musicality and language.
This book brings together selected revised papers representing a multidisciplinary approach to language, music, and gesture, as well as their interaction. Among the number of multidisciplinary and comparative studies of the structure and organization of language and music, the presented book broadens the scope with the inclusion of gesture problems in the analyzed spectrum. A unique feature of the presented collection is that the papers, compiled in one volume, allow readers to see similarities and differences in gesture as an element of non-verbal communication and gesture as the main element of dance. In addition to enhancing the analysis, the data on the perception and comprehension of speech, music, and dance in regard to both their functioning in a natural situation and their reflection in various forms of performing arts makes this collection extremely useful for those who are interested in human cognitive abilities and performing skills. The book begins with a philosophical overview of recent neurophysiological studies reflecting the complexity of higher cognitive functions, which references the idea of the baroque style in art being neither linear nor stable. The following papers are allocated into 5 sections. The papers of the section “Language-Music-Gesture As Semiotic Systems” discuss the issues of symbolic and semiotic aspects of language, music, and gesture, including from the perspective of their notation. This is followed by the issues of "Language-Music-Gesture Onstage" and interaction within the idea of the "World as a Text." The papers of “Teaching Language and Music” present new teaching methods that take into account the interaction of all the cognitive systems examined. The papers of the last two sections focus on issues related primarily to language: The section "Verbalization Of Music And Gesture" considers the problem of describing musical text and non-verbal behavior with language, and papers in the final section "Emotions In Linguistics And Ai-Communication Systems” analyze the ways of expressing emotions in speech and the problems of organizing emotional communication with computer agents.
This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts of the 10th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANGX), held in Vienna on 14–17th April 2014. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterised by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, biology, cognitive science, computer science, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, palaeontology, primatology and psychology. For this 10th conference, the proceedings will include a special perspectives section featuring prominent researchers reflecting on the history of the conference and its impact on the field of language evolution since the inaugural EVOLANG conference in 1996. Contents:Diachronic Processes in Language as Signaling Under Conflicting Interests (Christopher Ahern and Robin Clark)Syntactic Development in Phenotypic Space (Lluís Barceló-Coblijn and Antoni Gomila Benejam)Linguistic Animals: Understanding Language Through a Comparative Approach (Piera Filippi)Social Interaction Influences the Evolution of Cognitive Biases for Language (Seán G Roberts, Bill Thompson and Kenny Smith)Symbol Extension and Meaning Generation in Cultural Evolution for Displaced Communication (Kaori Tamura and Takashi Hashimoto)The Origins of Combinatorial Communication (Richard A Blythe and Thomas C Scott-Phillips)Social Origins of Rhythm? Synchrony and Temporal Regularity in Human Vocalization (Daniel L Bowling, Christian T Herbst and W Tecumseh Fitch)The Effect of Pitch Enhancement on Spoken Language Acquisition (Piera Filippi, Bruno Gingras and W Tecumseh Fitch)Bow-and-Arrow Technology: Mapping Human Cognition and Perhaps Language Evolution (Alexandra Regina Kratschmer, Miriam Noël Haidle and Marlize Lombard)The Cognitive Underspinnings of Metaphor as the Driving Force of Language Evolution (Andrew D M Smith and Stefan H Höfler)Model Fitting and Prediction for Language Evolution (Bill Thompson and Vanessa Ferdinand)and other papers Readership: Graduate students, academics and researchers working on the evolution of language, artificial intelligence, genetics and psychology. Key Features:Keywords:Evolution;Language;Evolang;Origin;Protolanguage
Why do people attach importance to the wordless language we call music? Musical Cognition suggests that music is a game. In music, our cognitive functions such as perception, memory, attention, and expectation are challenged; yet, as listeners, we often do not realize that the listener plays an active role in reaching the awareness that makes music so exhilarating, soothing, and inspiring. In reality, the author contends, listening does not happen in the outer world of audible sound, but in the inner world of our minds and brains. Recent research in the areas of psychology and neuro-cognition allows Henkjan Honing to be explicit in a way that many of his predecessors could not. His lucid, evocative writing style guides the reader through what is known about listening to music while avoiding jargon and technical diagrams. With clear examples, the book concentrates on underappreciated musical skills-"sense of rhythm" and "relative pitch"-skills that make people musical creatures. Research on how living creatures respond to music supports the conviction that all humans have a unique, instinctive attraction to music. Everyone is musical. Musical Cognition includes a selection of intriguing examples from recent literature exploring the role that an implicit or explicit knowledge of music plays when one listens to it. The scope of the topics discussed ranges from the ability of newborns to perceive a beat, to the unexpected musical expertise of ordinary listeners. The evidence shows that music is second nature to most human beings-biologically and socially.
