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 special: no society on Earth lacks 【M1】_________
music. The comparison illuminates that is special about both. 【M2】_________
Music and language seem intimately linked, but how? Did language
start with song, as Darwin believed? Or is music “auditory cheesecake”
that developed of language and other useful faculties, as Steven Pinker, 【M3】_________
a Harvard psychologist, has said? Is music it a language, as Stevie 【M4】_________
Wonder intoned? Might the two be fundamentally same? 【M5】_________
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 neither carefully composed or spontaneously improvised. And 【M6】_________
both are high social. Although the origin of music is unclear, it seems 【M7】_________
likely to have involved in celebration, communal worship or martial 【M8】_________
inspiration and coordination.
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 a hallmark of human language. Animal communication, 【M9】_________
by contrast, is only able to convey a limited number of thought (the 【M10】________
location of a source of food, for example, or the presence of a
predator).
【M10】
thought—thoughts
- 支付寶捐助
- 微信捐助
