Emotional Voice Intonation: A Communication Code at the Origins of Speech Processing and Word-Meaning Associations?

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to investigate the facilitating effect of vocal emotional intonation on the evolution of the following processes involved in language: (a) identifying and producing phonemes, (b) processing compositional rules underlying vocal utterances, and (c) associating vocal utterances with meanings. To this end, firstly, I examine research on the presence of these abilities in animals, and the biologically ancient nature of emotional vocalizations. Secondly, I review research attesting to the facilitating effect of emotional voice intonation on these abilities in humans. Thirdly, building on these studies in animals and humans, and through taking an evolutionary perspective, I provide insights for future empirical work on the facilitating effect of emotional intonation on these three processes in animals and preverbal humans. In this work, I highlight the importance of a comparative approach to investigate language evolution empirically. This review supports Darwin’s hypothesis, according to which the ability to express emotions through voice modulation was a key step in the evolution of spoken language.

Iconic Associations Between Vowel Acoustics and Musical Patterns, and the Musical Protolanguage Hypothesis

“…The hypothesized common ancestor is often referred to as "musilanguage" (Brown, 2000), "musical protolanguage" (Fitch, 2005), or "prosodic protolanguage" (Fitch, 2006). A growing number of researchers further emphasizes the idea that affective/emotional and iconic vocalizations could have played a significant role in the joint evolution of speech and music (Rousseau, 1781;Darwin, 1871;Fonagy, 1981;Levman, 1992;Scherer, 1995;Thompson et al, 2012;Perlman and Cain, 2014;Brown, 2017;Filippi and Gingras, 2018;Reybrouck and Podlipniak, 2019;Filippi, 2020).…”

Audio misinformation on WhatsApp: A case study from Lebanon

“…Step 3: Manipulation of tone and emotions to increase panic Studies on vocal emotional intonations have consistently shown that emotional valence in speech allows interlocutors to infer communicative functions such as comforting, alerting, disapproving, or alarming (Dolan, 2002;Fernald, 1992;Filippi, 2020;Trainor et al, 2000). Fernald and colleagues (1989) found this to be consistent across human societies.…”

Psychometric Properties of an Emotional Communication Questionnaire for Education and Healthcare Professionals

“…Even in the proto-conversations that infants have with adults, affection is shared, based on the exchange of glances, smiles, and vocalisation [6]; just as voice modulation or prosody is fundamental when emotions are transmitted or received in preverbal humans [7]. The latter author points out that, as hypothesised by Darwin, the ability to express emotions through voice modulation was a key step in the evolution of spoken language.…”