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Language and
Music as Cognitive
Systems
Edited by
Patrick Rebuschat
Martin Rohrmeier
John A. Hawkins
Ian Cross
1
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1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Contents
Contributors xiii
Introduction xvii
Section 1 Structural comparisons
1 Introduction 3
2 Grouping in the stressing of words, in metrical verse,
and in music 4
Nigel Fabb and Morris Halle
3 The Fabb–Halle approach to metrical stress theory as a
window on commonalities between music and language 22
Laura Dilley and J. Devin McAuley
4 Metrical structure and the prosodic hierarchy 32
Brechtje Post
5 Metre is music: a reply to Fabb and Halle 43
Bert Vaux and Neil Myler
6 Comments and a conjecture inspired by Fabb and Halle 51
Ian Roberts
7 Response to commentaries 67
Nigel Fabb and Morris Halle
Section 2 Evolution
8 Introduction 71
9 The biology and evolution of rhythm: unravelling a paradox 73
W. Tecumseh Fitch
10 Darwin’s musical protolanguage: an increasingly
compelling picture 96
Simon Kirby
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CONTENTS
11 The significance of stones and bones: understanding the
biology and evolution of rhythm requires attention to the
archaeological and fossil record 103
Steven Mithen
12 A grand gesture: vocal and corporeal control in melody, rhythm, and
emotion 110
Iain Morley
13 An ethnomusicological perspective on animal ‘music’ and human
music: the paradox of ‘the paradox of rhythm’ 121
Elizabeth Tolbert
14 Reweaving the strands: welcoming diverse perspectives on the
biology of music 128
W. Tecumseh Fitch
Section 3 Learning and processing
15 Introduction 137
16 Musical communication as alignment of brain states 139
Jamshed Bharucha, Meagan Curtis, and Kaivon Paroo
17 Communicating structure, affect, and movement 156
Zoltán Dienes, Gustav Kuhn, Xiuyan Guo, and Catherine Jones
18 Computer models of (music) cognition 169
Geraint A. Wiggins
19 Alignment in language and music 189
John N. Williams
20 Alignment of brain states: response to commentaries 195
Jamshed J. Bharucha, Kaivon Paroo, and Meagan Curtis
Section 4 Neuroscience
21 Introduction 201
22 Language, music, and the brain: a resource-sharing framework 204
Aniruddh D. Patel
23 Response to target article ‘Language, music, and the brain:
a resource-sharing framework’ 224
Stefan Koelsch
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CONTENTS
xi
24 Advances in neuroimaging techniques: implications for the
shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis 235
Jessica A. Grahn
25 Schemas, not syntax: a reply to Patel 242
Justin London
26 Advancing the comparative study of linguistic and musical
syntactic processing 248
Aniruddh D. Patel
27 Music, language, and modularity in action 254
Isabelle Peretz
28 Human subcortical auditory function provides a new
conceptual framework for considering modularity 269
Erika Skoe and Nina Kraus
29 What remains of modularity? 283
Mireille Besson and Daniele Schön
30 Language, music, and children’s brains: a rhythmic timing
perspective on language and music as cognitive systems 292
Usha Goswami
31 Towards the role of working memory in pitch processing in
language and music 302
Leigh VanHandel, Jennie Wakefield, and Wendy K. Wilkins
32 Modularity in music relative to speech: framing the debate 310
Isabelle Peretz
Section 5 Conclusion
33 Music as a social and cognitive process 315
Ian Cross
Index 329
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Contributors
Mireille Besson
Institut de Neurosciences
Cognitives de la Méditerranée
CNRS – Marseille Universités
Marseille, France
Jamshed Bharucha
Department of Psychology
Tufts University
Medford, MA, USA
Ian Cross
Centre for Music and Science
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Meagan Curtis
School of Natural and Social Sciences
Purchase College, State University of
New York
Purchase, NY, USA
W. Tecumseh Fitch
Department of Cognitive Biology
University Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Usha Goswami
Centre for Neuroscience in Education
Faculty of Education
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Jessica A. Grahn
Centre for Brain and Mind
Department of Psychology
University of Western Ontario
London, ON, Canada
Xiuyan Guo
Department of Psychology
East China Normal University
Shanghai, China
Zoltán Dienes
School of Psychology and Sackler
Centre for Consciousness Science
University of Sussex
Brighton, UK
Morris Halle
Department of Linguistics and
Philosophy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA, USA
Laura Dilley
Department of Communicative
Sciences & Disorders
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
John A. Hawkins
Research Centre for English &
Applied Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Nigel Fabb
Department of English
University of Strathclyde
Glasgow, UK
Catherine Jones
School of Psychology
University of Sussex
Brighton, UK
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xiv
CONTRIBUTORS
Simon Kirby
Language Evolution and
Computation Research Unit
School of Philosophy, Psychology and
Language Sciences
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK
Stefan Koelsch
Cluster of Excellence “Languages of
Emotion”
Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin, Germany
Nina Kraus
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory
Department of Communicative
Sciences & Disorders
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA
Neil Myler
Department of Linguistics
New York University
New York, NY, USA
Kaivon Paroo
Department of Neuroscience
Brown University
Providence, RI, USA
Aniruddh D. Patel
The Neurosciences Institute
San Diego, CA, USA
Isabelle Peretz
Laboratory for Brain, Music, and
Sound Research (BRAMS)
Department of Psychology
Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC, Canada
Gustav Kuhn
Department of Psychology
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UK
Brechtje Post
Department of Theoretical and
Applied Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Justin London
Department of Music
Carleton College
Northfield, MIN
Patrick Rebuschat
Department of Linguistics
Georgetown University
Washington, DC, USA
J. Devin McAuley
Department of Psychology
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH, USA
Ian Roberts
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Steven Mithen
Department of Archeology
University of Reading
Reading, UK
Martin Rohrmeier
Cluster of Excellence “Languages of
Emotion”
Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin, Germany
Iain Morley
Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary
Anthropology
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
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Daniele Schön
Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de
la Méditerranée
CNRS – Marseille Universités
Marseille, France
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CONTRIBUTORS
Erika Skoe
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory
Department of Communication
Sciences & Disorders
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA
Elizabeth Tolbert
Peabody Institute
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD, USA
Leigh VanHandel
College of Music
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
Bert Vaux
Department of Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
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xv
Jennie Wakefield
Department of Learning Technologies
University of North Texas
Dallas, TX, USA
Geraint A. Wiggins
Department of Computing
Goldsmiths
University of London, UK
Wendy K. Wilkins
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM, USA
John N. Williams
Research Centre for English &
Applied Linguistics
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
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Introduction
The past 15 years have witnessed an increasing interest in the comparative study of
language and music as cognitive systems. Language and music are uniquely human
traits, so it is not surprising that this interest spans practically all branches of cognitive
science, including linguistics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, education, anthropology, and computer science (see e.g. the contributions in Avanzini, Faienza, &
Minciacchi, 2003; Avanzini, Lopez, & Koelsch, 2006; Bigand, Lalitte, & Dowling, 2009;
Dalla Bella et al., 2009; Hallam, Cross, & Thaut, 2009; Hardon & Purwins, 2009; Peretz
& Zatorre, 2003; Peretz, 2006; Spiro, 2003; Wallin, Merker, & Brown, 1999). Underlying
the study of language and music is the assumption that the comparison of these two
domains can shed light on the structural and functional properties of each, while also
serving as a test case for theories of how the mind and, ultimately, the brain work.
Language and music share many properties, which makes them particularly suitable
for comparison (see Besson & Schön, 2006; Jackendoff, 2009; McMullen & Saffran,
2004; Patel, 2008, for overviews). For example, both domains rely primarily on the
auditory modality and involve the perception and production of sound. They require
memory capacity for storing representations (words, chords, etc.) and the ability to
combine these representations by means of a system of rules or structural schemata
(Jackendoff, 2009). In both cases, some aspects are universal and thus shared across
cultures, whereas other aspects are culture-specific. Moreover, we are not born with
the ability to comprehend a specific language or appreciate a specific tonal system.
Instead, both abilities are formed through a prolonged learning process that results
predominantly in implicit knowledge.
The present volume contributes to the study of language and music by bringing
together researchers from a variety of scientific disciplines. The book spans a wide
range of fields, including archaeology, anthropology, cognitive psychology, computer
science, cognitive neuroscience, education, linguistics, and musicology. The purpose
is to provide a snapshot of the different research strands that have focused on language
and music, to identify current trends and methodologies that have been (or could be)
applied to the study of both domains, and to outline future research directions. We
also hope that the volume will promote the investigation of language and music by
fostering interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration.
Background
This volume is based on an eponymous conference which was organized by the
editors. It took place in Cambridge, UK, between 11–13 May 2007 and was co-hosted
by the Centre for Music & Science (CMS) and the Research Centre for English &
Applied Linguistics (RCEAL), both University of Cambridge. The conference was
originally planned as a one-day event, with two or three invited speakers and about
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INTRODUCTION
eight paper presentations. We quickly realized, however, that there was an extraordinary
amount of interest in the topic and that the demand greatly outnumbered the available
slots for presentations. Our small, local symposium thus quickly developed into a threeday international conference, with five keynote presentations, four panel discussions,
seven paper and three poster sessions, as well as receptions, music performances, and
a formal hall at Jesus College. In the end, the conference featured 172 presenters, who
travelled to the UK from 21 different countries, ranging from Australia and Austria via
Greece and Israel to Singapore and the United States.
Like the present volume, the conference was structured around four core areas in
which the study of music and language has been particularly fruitful: (1) structural
comparisons, (2) evolution, (3) learning and processing, and (4) neuroscience. For
each research strand, we invited outstanding researchers to serve as keynote speakers
or panellists. Since one of our objectives was to encourage collaboration and discussion across disciplines, we decided to follow each keynote presentation with a panel
discussion. The keynote speakers were asked to send their presentations to their
respective panellists several weeks before the conference so that the latter could prepare a 10-minute commentary. After each panellist had presented their commentary,
the session concluded with an open discussion, in which members of the audience
could join in.
In the structural-comparisons strand, the keynote was delivered by Nigel Fabb and
Morris Halle (‘Grouping in the stressing of words, in metrical verse, and in music’)
and followed by commentaries from Laura Dilley and Devin McAuley, Brechtje Post,
Bert Vaux, and Ian Roberts. In the evolution strand, Tecumseh Fitch’s keynote (‘The
evolution of rhythm: Embodiment and musical syntax’) was followed by commentaries from Simon Kirby, Steven Mithen, and Iain Morley. The learning-and-processing
strand featured a keynote address by Jamshed Bharucha (‘Musical communication as
alignment of non-propositional brain states’) and commentaries from Ted Briscoe,
Zoltán Dienes, Geraint Wiggins, and John Williams. The neuroscience strand featured
two keynote presentations, the first by Aniruddh Patel (‘Language, music, and the
brain: a resource-sharing framework’), the second by Isabelle Peretz (‘Comparisons
between music and language as tests of modularity’). Patel’s keynote was followed
by commentaries from Jessica Grahn, Larry Parsons, and Stefan Koelsch. Peretz’s
keynote was intended as a concluding address, so there was no panel discussion.
This volume
The feedback we received from the conference presenters and delegates was very positive throughout. When we were approached by Oxford University Press regarding the
possibility of producing an edited volume inspired by the conference we readily agreed
to do so. We have decided to maintain the four core areas that provided the structure
for the conference because these continue to be areas in which much of the research
on language and music concentrates. And because our conference format—a keynote
address, followed by a panel discussion—proved very successful, we decided to apply
this to the volume as well. The current volume thus consists of four sections, each of
which contains a target article, several commentaries on the target article, and a
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INTRODUCTION
xix
response to the commentaries by the author(s) of the target article. Our fourth section
(neuroscience) is the exception, as it contains two target articles and two sets of commentaries. Each of the sections is preceded by a short introduction from the editors.
Our keynote speakers agreed to convert their presentations into much expanded
and updated chapters, and all panellists, with two exceptions, agreed to produce a
commentary on their respective target articles. We also recruited several commentators who were not involved in the original conference. In the case of Isabelle Peretz’s
contribution, this was necessary because her keynote address had not been followed by
a panel discussion. In other cases, we believed that the discussion would benefit from
the addition of contributors with different research backgrounds.
The target article for Section 1 (Structural comparisons) was co-authored by Nigel
Fabb and Morris Halle (‘Grouping in the stressing of words, in metrical verse, and in
music’). It is followed by commentaries from Laura Dilley and Devin McAuley,
Brechtje Post, Bert Vaux, Neil Myler, and Ian Roberts. The target article for Section 2
(Evolution) is written by Tecumseh Fitch (‘The biology and evolution of rhythm:
unravelling a paradox’) and followed by commentaries from Simon Kirby, Steven
Mithen, Iain Morley, and Elizabeth Tolbert. Section 3 (Learning and processing) features a co-authored target article by Jamshed Bharucha, Meagan Curtis, and Kaivon
Paroo. This is followed by commentaries from Zoltán Dienes, Gustav Kuhn, Xiuyan
Guo, Catherine Jones, Geraint Wiggins, and John Williams. Section 4 (Neuroscience)
features two target articles. Aniruddh Patel’s contribution (‘Language, music, and the
brain: a resource-sharing framework’) is followed by commentaries from Stefan
Koelsch, Jessica Grahn, and Justin London. Isabelle Peretz’s target article (‘Music,
language, and modularity in action’) is followed by commentaries from Erika Skoe,
Nina Kraus, Mireille Besson, Daniele Schön, Usha Goswami, Leigh VanHandel, Jennie
Wakefield, and Wendy Wilkins. The volume concludes with a chapter by Ian Cross
(‘Music as a social and cognitive process’) that ties together many of the topics covered
in the other sections of the volume.
The chapters in this volume were carefully read by the editors and the contributors.
In addition, the first drafts were also used as readings in an undergraduate course on
Language and Music taught by the first editor at Georgetown University. This enabled
us to gain feedback on the readability of the texts and on the clarity of the arguments
expressed by the contributors. The final product is a volume that is written in an
accessible and engaging fashion and that gives readers a glimpse into the exciting
research that is being conducted on language and music.
Acknowledgements
The volume, and the conference which inspired it, would not have been possible
without the extensive help of many people.
We would like to thank our invited speakers, presenters, and delegates for making it
such a unique event. We are very grateful to the members of our scientific committee,
who diligently evaluated a substantial amount of submitted abstracts: Theresa
Biberauer, Alan Blackwell, Ted Briscoe, Eric Clarke, Zoltán Dienes, Jessica Grahn,
Sarah Hawkins, Simon Kirby, Stefan Koelsch, David MacKay, William Marslen-Wilson,
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INTRODUCTION
Steven Mithen, Iain Morley, Larry Parsons, Isabelle Peretz, Pierre Perruchet, Brechtje
Post, Ian Roberts, Carson Schuetze, Mark Steedman, Dan Tidhar, Bert Vaux, Graham
Welch, and Geraint Wiggins. Henkjan Honing, Francis Nolan, Ted Briscoe, Stefan
Koelsch, and William Marslen-Wilson served as session chairs and/or panel moderators,
for which we are also very grateful.
We would like to thank Mary Jacobus, Catherine Hurley, Gemma Tyler, Philippa
Smith, and Anna Malinowska at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences
and the Humanities (CRASSH) as well as Susan Rolfe, Barbara Jones, and Mike
Franklin at RCEAL for their help in several important administrative aspects of this
conference. Many student volunteers helped by manning the registration desk, setting
up the audiovisual equipment, carrying chairs, tables, and poster boards, and we are
very grateful for their assistance and support.
Finally, the organization of this event, and thus the publication of the present
volume, would not have been possible without substantial funding. We would like to
acknowledge the generous financial support of CRASSH, the Society for Education,
Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), the Arts & Humanities Research Council
(AHRC), the Faculty of Music, Cambridge, and Oxford University Press.
With regards to the volume, we would like to thank our authors for their excellent
contributions and their patience with inevitable delays. At Oxford University Press,
we would like to thank our editor, Martin Baum, for suggesting this project and for his
continued support, as well as Charlotte Green and Carol Maxwell for their assistance
with the logistics. At Georgetown, we are grateful to the students of Language and
Music (Ling 370) for their valuable feedback on the texts and to Phillip Hamrick and
Elizabeth Kissling, who provided editorial assistance during the final stages of this
project. We hope the volume will stimulate further interest in the comparative study
of language and music and encourage discussion across scientific boundaries.
Patrick Rebuschat, Washington, DC
Martin Rohrmeier, Berlin
John Hawkins, Cambridge and Davis, CA
Ian Cross, Cambridge
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