DAY 103 Is music a language, as Stevie Wonder sang?

DAY 103 Is music a language, as Stevie Wonder sang?

Stevie Wonder  

史提夫·汪达（Stevie Wonder），1950年5月13日出生于美国密歇根州，盲人，美国黑人歌手、作曲家、音乐制作人、社会活动家。

史提夫·汪达擅长多种乐器，如电子琴，钢琴等键盘乐器，口琴，鼓，吉他，是一位唱乐皆精的全能艺人。 

sang  [sæŋ]

A comparison between the two illuminates what is special about both

comparison/kəmˈpærɪsn/  
[u] the process of comparing two or more people or things

illuminate /ɪˈluːmɪneɪt/    照亮;照明;照射         阐释;说明
 (formal) to shine light on something 

1 One of the liveliest debates in linguistics is over whether all languages share fundamental properties. If so, perhaps language is a universal feature of evolution. To find out, scholars have looked to other universal features, and one in particular: no society on Earth lacks music. The comparison illuminates what is special about both.

liveliest  lively  /ˈlaɪvli/  
full of life and energy; active and enthusiastic  = animated, vivacious
（事件、讨论等）热闹的，热烈的，激烈的A lively event or a lively discussion, for example, has lots of interesting and exciting things happening or being said in it.

linguistics  [lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk]   n    语言学 
Linguistics is the study of the way in which language works.

language   /ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/  

property /ˈprɒpəti/  n   特性；性质；性能；属性
​[countable, usually plural] (formal) a quality or characteristic that something has

universal [ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsl]  普遍的；全体的

evolution   /ˌiːvəˈluːʃn/  
[uncountable, countable] the slow steady development of something

find out
to get some information about something/somebody by asking, reading, etc.

look to something​
(formal) to consider something and think about how to make it better
朝（某物）看去; 面对[面朝]（某物）; 留神[照看]（某人或某物）; 依靠[指望]（某人或某事）;

in particular​   /pəˈtɪkjələ(r)/
especially or particularly

2 Music and language seem intimately linked, but how? Did language start with song, as Darwin believed? Or is music “auditory cheesecake” that developed from language and other useful faculties, as Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, has said? Is music itself a language, as Stevie Wonder intoned? Might the two be fundamentally the same?

intimately  ['ɪntɪmɪtlɪ]
​in a very close and friendly way

auditory /ˈɔːdətri/   a
connected with hearing

faculty  官能；能力
1> Your faculties are your physical and mental abilities.
  or  any of the physical or mental abilities that a person is born with
2>  [c] a department or group of related departments in a college or university

psychologist  /saɪˈkɒlədʒɪst/  n
a scientist who studies and is trained in psychology

intone /ɪnˈtəʊn/  v  缓慢庄重地说;(以单一的音调)吟咏，吟诵
to say something in a slow and serious voice without much expression

3 Some similarities are obvious. Both can utilise the unique human vocal tract. Both have a kind of beat. Both can express emotion. Both can be either carefully composed or spontaneously improvised. And both are highly social. Although the origin of music is unclear, it seems likely to have involved celebration, communal worship or martial inspiration and co-ordination.

 vocal tract  声道

carefully composed or spontaneously improvised.  精心创作 即兴表演

improvise /ˈɪmprəvaɪz/  v
1>   to make or do something using whatever is available, usually because you do not have what you really need   临时做;临时凑成  
2>  to invent music, the words in a play, a statement, etc. while you are playing or speaking, instead of planning it in advance   即兴表演;即兴演奏;即兴创作

communal worship  集体崇拜

martial inspiration   军事鼓舞

4 At a structural level the parallels are striking, too. With a finite set of notes or words, and a finite set of rules, an inexhaustible variety of novel melodies or sentences can be created. This “discrete infinity” is often said to be the hallmark of human language. Animal communication, by contrast, is only able to convey a limited number of thoughts (the location of a source of food, for example, or the presence of a predator).

striking  [ˈstraɪkɪŋ]  a  引人注目的;异乎寻常的;显著的
Something that is striking is very noticeable or unusual.

finite  有限的

inexhaustible  [ˌɪnɪgˈzɔ:stəbl]   
so much of it that it cannot all be used up.
 or   ​that cannot be exhausted (= finished); very great

discrete infinity  离散无限性
目前的认识是人类的语言能力具有的discrete infinity（离散无限性）的特点。
discrete  /dɪˈskriːt/   a   
independent of other things of the same type
<反> separate

hallmark    /ˈhɔːlmɑːk/  特性
a feature or quality that is typical of somebody/something

predator   /ˈpredətə(r)/  
an animal that kills and eats other animals

5 Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University has argued that music and language, rather than being essentially the same, rely on the same bit of the brain. In an experiment he presented his subjects with a sentence that contained a grammatical trick (“The scientist confirmed the hypothesis was being studied in his lab”), revealing one word at a time. The subjects were to press a button for each word at their own pace. Many paused at the unexpected “was”. “The scientist confirmed the hypothesis” seemed a complete sentence.

Tufts University 新常春藤

grammatical /ɡrəˈmætɪkl/  a
connected with the rules of grammar

trick    /trɪk/  n 陷阱
something that you do to make somebody believe something that is not true, or to annoy somebody as a joke

subject   研究对象;实验对象    /ˈsʌbdʒɪkt/,  /ˈsʌbdʒekt/  
In an experiment or piece of research, the subject is the person or animal that is being tested or studied.

6 They also heard music as they performed this exercise. Some were treated to a new chord in a pleasing progression with every word that was revealed. Others heard a jarring chord at the moment they reached the trick word “was”. Both groups slowed down—but those given the discordant notes did so much more. Mr Patel hypothesises that this is because sentence structure, and the structure of the harmony, draw on shared, limited resources in the brain.

chord  和弦

 jarring

discordant

 draw on   利用

7 For all the overlap, there are big differences. Both music and language can make you feel and even think, but only language is truly propositional. A quip attributed to Bertrand Russell—“no matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest”—might be adapted for music. Language can express contingencies, pose counterfactuals and talk about the future. Music’s nuances are of a different order.

overlap /ˈəʊvəlæp/  n.重叠部分; 覆盖物，涂盖层; [数]交叠，相交;
the amount by which one thing covers another thing

propositional /ˌprɒpəˈzɪʃənl/  a.建议的，提议的; 命题的;
​in the form of a statement

attributed to 归因于
attribute something to somebody  = modify
to say or believe that somebody is responsible for doing something, especially for saying, writing or painting something

quip [kwɪp]   俏皮话;谐语;妙语
A quip is a remark that is intended to be amusing or clever.

eloquently   /ˈeləkwəntli/  ad 雄辩的;口才流利的;能言善辩的
​in a way that uses language and expresses your opinions well, especially when you are speaking in public

bark [bɑːk]   （犬）吠

be adapted for  ——> 适应
adapt something for something
to change something in order to make it suitable for a new use or situation

contingency  /kənˈtɪndʒənsi/    n 可能发生的事;不测之事;突发事件  
1> an event that may or may not happen; the fact that events are not certain  = possibility
2>  a sum of money that you keep for additional payments

pose   /pəʊz/  v  提出；陈述
1>   to create a threat, problem, etc. that has to be dealt with
2>  pose a question 
(formal) to ask a question, especially one that needs serious thought

counterfactual   /ˌkaʊntəˈfæktʃuəl/  
n
a statement that expresses what did not happen or what is not the case
a
​connected with what did not happen or what is not the case
adj.反事实的（指在不同条件下有可能发生但违反现存事实的）;

nuance   /ˈnjuːɑːns/  n (声音、感受、外貌或意义的)细微差别
a very slight difference in meaning, sound, colour or somebody’s feelings that is not usually very obvious

8 Another stark contrast lies in the range of human aptitude for each ability. Nearly all children produce complex sentences by the age of three and become fluent speakers just a few years after that. As adults, they create striking and novel utterances every day. Conversely, only a minority of adults are talented musicians; even fewer are skilled composers of new, hitherto unheard works.

 in the range of 人类不同天赋的差异

  stark contrast   鲜明的对比
 lies in  来源于

aptitude /ˈæptɪtjuːd/  n  = talent   
natural ability or skill at doing something  

utterance   /ˈʌtərəns/  
1>  the act of expressing something in words    言辞；言语；言论
2>  [c] something that you say  吐露；表达

Conversely   /ˈkɒnvɜːsli/   ad
in a way that is the opposite of something

hitherto  /ˌhɪðəˈtuː/   ad  前所未闻
until now; until the particular time you are talking about

9 Victor Wooten, a bass player and music teacher, has an explanation for that disparity. Children, he points out, learn to talk by being constantly surrounded by linguistic virtuosos—fluent older speakers who, in musical parlance, are “jamming” with the novices almost from birth. Their fumbling efforts are encouraged. On the other hand, students of music often keep company with other beginners, and are stopped every time they make a mistake.

bass player  贝斯手

disparity 差异  /dɪˈspærəti/
a difference, especially one connected with unfair treatment

parlance  /ˈpɑːləns/    /ˈpɑːləns/  术语
​a particular way of using words or expressing yourself, for example one used by a particular group  

jam  /dʒæm/
1>  jam something (up) (with somebody/something) to fill something with a large number of people or things so that it is unable to function as it should  = block
2>  to play music with other musicians in an informal way without preparing or practising first

with

novices

fumbling

10 It is not that simple, reckons Jay Keyser, an emeritus professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a jazz trombonist. For him, music is not like spoken prose, which almost everyone can do proficiently, but instead resembles a specific, rhythmic form of language: poetry. And, he says, “most human beings are bad at poetry.” The number of grammatical sentences is vast. But the number that are fit for verse, in terms of both meaning and prosody, is much smaller. Finding those is hard—like composing music, or improvising jazz.

reckon = consider

emeritus professor   荣誉退休教授

trombonist.   长号手

 prose    /prəʊz/  散文 n 
 writing that is not poetry

 verse [vɜːs] 诗;诗体;韵文 —— 诗句
1>  [u] writing that is arranged in lines, often with a regular rhythm or pattern of rhyme  
= poetry
2>  [c] a group of lines that form a unit in a poem or song
(verse是主歌，chorus是副歌)

prosody   /ˈprɒsədi/  n 韵律
1> the patterns of sounds and rhythms in poetry; the study of this
2>  ​(phonetics) the part of phonetics that deals with stress and intonation as opposed to individual speech sounds

11 On Mr Keyser’s plausible view, using ordinary language is a less rarefied talent than making music. But while it may not instil wonder and joy, as music can, it is still a miracle—just an everyday one.

plausible  /ˈplɔːzəbl/  a 貌似真实的; 貌似有理的; 花言巧语的; 有眉有眼;
1>  ​(of an excuse or explanation) reasonable and likely to be true
2>  ​(disapproving) (of a person) good at sounding honest and sincere, especially when trying to trick people

rarefied /ˈreərɪfaɪd/ a 
1>  ​(often disapproving) understood or experienced by only a very small group of people who share a particular area of knowledge or activity   过于高雅的;过于高贵的;脱离现实生活的
2>  ​(of air) containing less oxygen than usual  （空气）稀薄的，含氧量少的 

instil    /ɪnˈstɪl/    v   逐渐灌输 培养——> 传递 （翻译出潜移默化的意思）
to gradually put an idea or attitude into somebody's mind; to make somebody feel, think or behave in a particular way over a period of time

miracle   /ˈmɪrəkl/  n
1>  [c] an act or event that does not follow the laws of nature and is believed to be caused by God
2>  [singular] (informal) a lucky thing that happens that you did not expect or think was possible