Music contact and language contact: A proposal for comparative research

Francis, Norbert (2013) Music contact and language contact: A proposal for comparative research. Linguistic Review, 30 (1). 1–24. ISSN 1613-3676

Preview

Text Francis_N_2013_Music_contact_and_language_contact.pdf Download (179kB) | Preview

Abstract

The concept of convergence, from the study of language contact, provides a model for better understanding interactions between cognitive systems of the same type (for example, in bilingualism, subsystem instantiations of the same kind of knowledge representation and its associated processing mechanisms). For a number of reasons, musical ability is the domain that allows for the most interesting comparisons and contrasts with language in this area of research. Both cross-language and cross-musical idiom interactions show a vast array of different kinds of mutual influence, all of which are highly productive, ranging from so-called transfer effects to total replacement (attrition of the replaced subsystem). The study of music contact should also help investigators conceptualize potential structural parallels between separate mental faculties, most importantly, it would seem, between those that appear to share component competence and processing modules in common. The first part of the proposal is to determine if the comparison between the two kinds of convergence (in language and in music) is a useful way of thinking about how properties of each system are similar, analogous, different and so forth. This leads to a more general discussion about the design features of mental faculties, what might define them “narrowly,” for example.

Item Type:	Article
Publisher’s Statement:	© DeGruyter Mouton
ID number or DOI:	10.1515/tlr-2013-0001
Keywords:	Bilingualism; Cognitive Processes; Music; Bilingualism; central-africa; Cognitive Processes; cognitive systems; convergence; Cross-language interaction; Faculty of Music; identification; Inductive Deductive Reasoning; jazz; knowledge representation; Language; language contact; music; music contact; Scales; science; speech; Tonality
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Faculty/Staff
Department/Unit:	College of Education > Educational Specialities
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2016 17:45
URI:	http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/1028

Actions (login required)

IR Staff Record View

Downloads