Prosodic Structure as a Parallel to Musical Structure

Heffner, Christopher C.; Slevc, L. Robert

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01962

Cited by 36 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 174 publications

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“…While prior work has demonstrated an influence of metric structure on short, repeated phrases (Cummins & Port, 1998), the current study is the first to demonstrate this influence for connected speech. Moreover, the similarity of the results observed in the current study to those from musical productions (Todd, 1985) provides further evidence of the similarities between musical and prosodic structure (e.g., Heffner & Slevc, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat

Breen

2018

Cognition

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Word durations convey many types of linguistic information, including intrinsic lexical features like length and frequency and contextual features like syntactic and semantic structure. The current study was designed to investigate whether hierarchical metric structure and rhyme predictability account for durational variation over and above other features in productions of a rhyming, metrically-regular children's book: The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss, 1957). One-syllable word durations and inter-onset intervals were modeled as functions of segment number, lexical frequency, word class, syntactic structure, repetition, and font emphasis. Consistent with prior work, factors predicting longer word durations and inter-onset intervals included more phonemes, lower frequency, first mention, alignment with a syntactic boundary, and capitalization. A model parameter corresponding to metric grid height improved model fit of word durations and inter-onset intervals. Specifically, speakers realized five levels of metric hierarchy with inter-onset intervals such that interval duration increased linearly with increased height in the metric hierarchy. Conversely, speakers realized only three levels of metric hierarchy with word duration, demonstrating that they shortened the highly predictable rhyme resolutions. These results further understanding of the factors that affect spoken word duration, and demonstrate the myriad cues that children receive about linguistic structure from nursery rhymes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat

Breen

2018

Cognition

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“…Also, our mental images of timbre in music and phonemes in speech differ, although both are based on the interpretation of the spectral shape of sound. Therefore, even though language grammar (Lerdahl and Jackendoff, 1983 ), prosodic structure (Heffner and Slevc, 2015 ) as well as phonotactics and morphonotactics are to some extent comparable to musical syntax (Lerdahl, 2013 ), the perceptual salience of these phenomena is disparate. The crucial difference between language and musical syntax however is related to the function which these syntaxes fulfill in music and language being different communicative phenomena.…”

Section: Musical Syntax As a Music Specific Featurementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of the Baldwin Effect in the Evolution of Human Musicality

Podlipniak

2017

Front. Neurosci.

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From the biological perspective human musicality is the term referred to as a set of abilities which enable the recognition and production of music. Since music is a complex phenomenon which consists of features that represent different stages of the evolution of human auditory abilities, the question concerning the evolutionary origin of music must focus mainly on music specific properties and their possible biological function or functions. What usually differentiates music from other forms of human sound expressions is a syntactically organized structure based on pitch classes and rhythmic units measured in reference to musical pulse. This structure is an auditory (not acoustical) phenomenon, meaning that it is a human-specific interpretation of sounds achieved thanks to certain characteristics of the nervous system. There is historical and cross-cultural diversity of this structure which indicates that learning is an important part of the development of human musicality. However, the fact that there is no culture without music, the syntax of which is implicitly learned and easily recognizable, suggests that human musicality may be an adaptive phenomenon. If the use of syntactically organized structure as a communicative phenomenon were adaptive it would be only in circumstances in which this structure is recognizable by more than one individual. Therefore, there is a problem to explain the adaptive value of an ability to recognize a syntactically organized structure that appeared accidentally as the result of mutation or recombination in an environment without a syntactically organized structure. The possible solution could be explained by the Baldwin effect in which a culturally invented trait is transformed into an instinctive trait by the means of natural selection. It is proposed that in the beginning musical structure was invented and learned thanks to neural plasticity. Because structurally organized music appeared adaptive (phenotypic adaptation) e.g., as a tool of social consolidation, our predecessors started to spend a lot of time and energy on music. In such circumstances, accidentally one individual was born with the genetically controlled development of new neural circuitry which allowed him or her to learn music faster and with less energy use.

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“…as produced by a native Spanish speaker (left panel) and by a Mandarin-speaking beginner learner of Spanish (right panel). many others, Brown, Martinez, & Parsons, 2006;Heffner & Slevc, 2015;Ludke, Ferreira, & Overy, 2014;McMullen & Saffran, 2004;Slevc, 2012;Slevc & Miyake, 2006). Patel (2011Patel ( , 2014 summarized the empirical findings in former research and proposed the so-called OPERA (Overlap-Precision-Emotion-Repetition-Attention) hypothesis.…”

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confidence: 99%

Observing Pitch Gestures Favors the Learning of Spanish Intonation by Mandarin Speakers

Yuan

González-Fuente

Baills

et al. 2018

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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Recent studies on the learning of L2 prosody have suggested that pitch gestures can enhance the learning of the L2 lexical tones. Yet it remains unclear whether the use of these gestures can aid the learning of L2 intonation, especially by tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic-level Spanish were asked to learn three Spanish intonation patterns, all involving a low tone on the nuclear accent. In a pre-post test experimental design, half of the participants received intonation training without the use of pitch gestures (the control group) while the other half received the same training but with pitch gestures representing nuclear intonation contours (the experimental group). Musical (melody, pitch) abilities were also measured. The results revealed that (a) the experimental group significantly improved intonational production outcomes, and (b) even though participants with stronger musical abilities performed better, those with weaker musical abilities benefited more from observing pitch gestures.

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Prosodic Structure as a Parallel to Musical Structure

Cited by 36 publications

References 174 publications

Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat

Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat

The Role of the Baldwin Effect in the Evolution of Human Musicality

Observing Pitch Gestures Favors the Learning of Spanish Intonation by Mandarin Speakers

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