RE: [humanmarkup-comment] Speech and Melody: How Different Parts of the Brain are Used Dep ending on the Language

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

Title: February Minutes

6.  What greater competencies does the requirements for melodic control and

processing require that can affect miscommunication and are these classifiable

into contextual categories?  For example, a skilled English speaker can succeed

based on clarity of the voice, such as the competence of a news broadcaster,

without understanding the text.  On the other hand, interpretation and composition

require text understanding.  

 

Are there domains that are harder to express in mandarin?

Is the language modified such as relaxation of the melodic requirements to

make it easier to understand conceptually complex utterances?  For example,

we sing popular songs, musicals, and so on, but we simplify the texts and

we tend to rely on indexical forms, etc., to get greater meaning and still make

the melody/timing palatable? 

 

How much are the contemporary and historical

sets of signs in fashion (eg, argot, popular phrases) affected by the melodic

component?  Could we tell from such styles when and where a concept

originated ? (Think of pottery analysis.)  Do these simplifications affect the

complexity of artifacts, acts, etc., the culture is capable of?  Is this also

domain dependent (eg, do melodic language cultures exhibit competence

and lack of competence depending on the tasks, for example, animal

husbandry vs road or bridge engineering?)

 

len

-----Original Message-----
From: Bullard, Claude L (Len)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/06/30/brain.language.reut/index.html

This story is a fascinating tidbit relating the parts of the brain used to process

speech and the dependency on the artifacts of the particular language, in this

case, Mandarin.  One could ask some questions:

 

1.  How does such a language evolve given the greater resource requirements

for processing the language?

 

2.  Do any unique capabilities emerge as a result of this extra use of both

hemispheres of the brain?  For example, parallel capabilities such as easy

of musical training?

 

3. Do musicians, particularly singers, rate higher than the average westerner

when learning Mandarin?  Does learning Mandarin increase one's musical skills?

 

4. While it is stated that English-speakers have greater difficulty learning

Mandarin, are there miscommunications that emerge more often when

an English speaker and a Mandarin speaker interact that could be attributed

to this difference in the way the brain processes the language?

 

5.  Would any capabilities of HumanML help with these problems of communication

beyond noting the fact of the melodic dependencies of the presentation of the

Mandain sign sets?  Are some sign sets more or less melodically dependent?

 

Fascinating stuff.  Beyond us here, but the sorts of problems one might conceivably

bring to HumanML.  For example, representation of the vocal utterance given a

library based on Rex's work is certainly possible. 

 

len