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The question: music, language, and the minor third
Is the minor third a "musico-linguistic universal" (Bernstein 1976)? More generally, are there universal elements of phonological practice that correspond with universal elements of musical practice?
Careful investigation into these and related questions would likely bear important implications for more fundamental questions in musical anthropology and evolutionary psychology, such as the apparent existence of similarities among the musical scales of the world, and indeed, speculations about the origins of human language and music-making.
In pursuit of these questions, I have undertaken the first systematic study of the English stylized interjection and am currently extending this research through a large cross-cultural study.
Is the minor third a "musico-linguistic universal" (Bernstein 1976)? More generally, are there universal elements of phonological practice that correspond with universal elements of musical practice?
Careful investigation into these and related questions would likely bear important implications for more fundamental questions in musical anthropology and evolutionary psychology, such as the apparent existence of similarities among the musical scales of the world, and indeed, speculations about the origins of human language and music-making.
In pursuit of these questions, I have undertaken the first systematic study of the English stylized interjection and am currently extending this research through a large cross-cultural study.
Background: my journey from music theory to linguistics
As a researcher, I have been most actively concerned with music theory and analysis, particularly with respect to the 19th-century European repertoire. My book, Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century to Debussy (Rochester: 2007) undertook a comprehensive account of the use of the pentatonic scale in 19th-century music--its history and sources, its meanings and ideological bases, and its ramifications for musical technique and musical structure. This and related research also appeared in a pair of articles in Music Theory Spectrum (2002 and 2009).
One small but potent observation that I made in the course of this work has spawned an entirely new research program for me--indeed a drastic shift of subject and methodology. In the standard European diatonic scale, the constituent intervals between adjacent pitches are the major and minor seconds, melodic steps that are the formal primitives of melodic motion. In the pentatonic scale, on the other hand, the "steps" comprise major seconds and minor thirds. Much of the emerging appeal of the pentatonic scale for 19th-century Europeans, I believe, had to do precisely with this discrepancy in step size--as well as with a certain natural, speech-like quality associated with the minor third. The minor third, for instance, has been frequently cited in connection with English "stylized intonation," a particular form of playful or attention-seeking speech intoned in deliberate, discrete dyads (as in "Yoo-hoo" or "Bye-bye"). The use of the pentatonic scale in European music, I argued, partly represented an allusion to this linguistic mannerism and to the attendant connotations of simplicity, domesticity, and directness.
As a researcher, I have been most actively concerned with music theory and analysis, particularly with respect to the 19th-century European repertoire. My book, Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century to Debussy (Rochester: 2007) undertook a comprehensive account of the use of the pentatonic scale in 19th-century music--its history and sources, its meanings and ideological bases, and its ramifications for musical technique and musical structure. This and related research also appeared in a pair of articles in Music Theory Spectrum (2002 and 2009).
One small but potent observation that I made in the course of this work has spawned an entirely new research program for me--indeed a drastic shift of subject and methodology. In the standard European diatonic scale, the constituent intervals between adjacent pitches are the major and minor seconds, melodic steps that are the formal primitives of melodic motion. In the pentatonic scale, on the other hand, the "steps" comprise major seconds and minor thirds. Much of the emerging appeal of the pentatonic scale for 19th-century Europeans, I believe, had to do precisely with this discrepancy in step size--as well as with a certain natural, speech-like quality associated with the minor third. The minor third, for instance, has been frequently cited in connection with English "stylized intonation," a particular form of playful or attention-seeking speech intoned in deliberate, discrete dyads (as in "Yoo-hoo" or "Bye-bye"). The use of the pentatonic scale in European music, I argued, partly represented an allusion to this linguistic mannerism and to the attendant connotations of simplicity, domesticity, and directness.
Initial research: the stylized interjection
Stylized intonation is often used in calling at a distance ("Din-ner!"), as well as in infant-directed speech and consequently in adult-directed speech for endearing (or mock-endearing) effect. It has been cited (albeit only casually) by many musicologists and linguists, who have advanced vague claims of cultural universality. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of stylized intonation and the provocative suggestion of a universal phonetic fingerprint (the minor third), however, scholars have never studied this phenomenon systematically but have contented themselves with largely anecdotal evidence. The lack of serious literature on the topic can perhaps be explained by its precarious location at the intersection of disparate disciplines.
In a pilot study, I confirmed that a particular example of stylized intonation--the "knock-knock" of the classic joke formula--is typically performed with intervals around a minor third. My more substantive laboratory study of English stylized interjections--the first detailed acoustic study of stylized intonation in any language--subsequently appeared in Music Perception. In that article, I considered a wide range of stylized and non-stylized utterances, confirming but refining previous anecdotal reports, and demonstrating a number of phonetic distinctions of stylized intonation as compared to other sentence types. Accordingly, I interpret the stylized interjection as a rare, but conventionalized incorporation of singing production into spoken communication; I suppose a physiological (presumably vocal) constraint to account for a purported linguistic universal.
Having thus laid some conceptual and methodological groundwork for the interpretation of what I now call "sung speech," what remains is to explore this phenomenon cross-culturally. How closely does stylized intonation in other languages follow patterns in English--whether acoustically (Is the minor third a sort of "musico-linguistic universal," as Leonard Bernstein supposed?), pragmatically (Does stylized intonation broadly serve as a marker of "playfulness," as I concluded in my English study?), and socio-linguistically (Are, for instance, women more likely to use stylized intonation than men? Mothers more than fathers?)? As for universality: in a preparatory study, informants have confirmed that English stylized intonation has analogues in very many languages across the world; but my one informant from a tonal language (Mandarin) reported that there is no equivalent. Could it be that the use of lexical tone interferes in some way with the potential use of stylized intonation? Or could it be that lexical tone can indeed be stylized in a way that native speakers might be unaware of?
My current project, Fafa and Mama (in progress) will begin to answer many of these questions.
Stylized intonation is often used in calling at a distance ("Din-ner!"), as well as in infant-directed speech and consequently in adult-directed speech for endearing (or mock-endearing) effect. It has been cited (albeit only casually) by many musicologists and linguists, who have advanced vague claims of cultural universality. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of stylized intonation and the provocative suggestion of a universal phonetic fingerprint (the minor third), however, scholars have never studied this phenomenon systematically but have contented themselves with largely anecdotal evidence. The lack of serious literature on the topic can perhaps be explained by its precarious location at the intersection of disparate disciplines.
In a pilot study, I confirmed that a particular example of stylized intonation--the "knock-knock" of the classic joke formula--is typically performed with intervals around a minor third. My more substantive laboratory study of English stylized interjections--the first detailed acoustic study of stylized intonation in any language--subsequently appeared in Music Perception. In that article, I considered a wide range of stylized and non-stylized utterances, confirming but refining previous anecdotal reports, and demonstrating a number of phonetic distinctions of stylized intonation as compared to other sentence types. Accordingly, I interpret the stylized interjection as a rare, but conventionalized incorporation of singing production into spoken communication; I suppose a physiological (presumably vocal) constraint to account for a purported linguistic universal.
Having thus laid some conceptual and methodological groundwork for the interpretation of what I now call "sung speech," what remains is to explore this phenomenon cross-culturally. How closely does stylized intonation in other languages follow patterns in English--whether acoustically (Is the minor third a sort of "musico-linguistic universal," as Leonard Bernstein supposed?), pragmatically (Does stylized intonation broadly serve as a marker of "playfulness," as I concluded in my English study?), and socio-linguistically (Are, for instance, women more likely to use stylized intonation than men? Mothers more than fathers?)? As for universality: in a preparatory study, informants have confirmed that English stylized intonation has analogues in very many languages across the world; but my one informant from a tonal language (Mandarin) reported that there is no equivalent. Could it be that the use of lexical tone interferes in some way with the potential use of stylized intonation? Or could it be that lexical tone can indeed be stylized in a way that native speakers might be unaware of?
My current project, Fafa and Mama (in progress) will begin to answer many of these questions.
The current project: why Fafa and Mama?
The empirical phonologist faces an inevitable compromise when it comes to data collection. A heavy-handed laboratory approach (involving scripted elicitation, for instance) will ensure a sampling of the precise phenomenon under investigation, but the "ecological validity" will be suspect. On the other hand, a corpus-based or observational approach ensures that the data correspond closely to real linguistic practice, but the researcher may have to sift through a prohibitive volume of recordings in order to locate relevant materials. This problem is especially acute in the case of stylized intonation, a relatively rare, and highly context-sensitive phenomenon. And my interest in cross-cultural comparison only amplifies the methodological difficulties.
My solution to these problems was to prepare scripted materials that nevertheless suited a natural interpersonal situation: a mother reading a picture book to her child. Previous thinking had suggested that the intimacy, spontaneity, and playfulness of mother-child interactions might be at the heart of the function of stylized interjections, and I felt I could trust the authenticity of such interactions while also benefitting from a controlled laboratory setting.
Thus was born Fafa and Mama, which I have also had translated into eleven languages, facilitating the rich data of the Fafa linguistic corpus.
The empirical phonologist faces an inevitable compromise when it comes to data collection. A heavy-handed laboratory approach (involving scripted elicitation, for instance) will ensure a sampling of the precise phenomenon under investigation, but the "ecological validity" will be suspect. On the other hand, a corpus-based or observational approach ensures that the data correspond closely to real linguistic practice, but the researcher may have to sift through a prohibitive volume of recordings in order to locate relevant materials. This problem is especially acute in the case of stylized intonation, a relatively rare, and highly context-sensitive phenomenon. And my interest in cross-cultural comparison only amplifies the methodological difficulties.
My solution to these problems was to prepare scripted materials that nevertheless suited a natural interpersonal situation: a mother reading a picture book to her child. Previous thinking had suggested that the intimacy, spontaneity, and playfulness of mother-child interactions might be at the heart of the function of stylized interjections, and I felt I could trust the authenticity of such interactions while also benefitting from a controlled laboratory setting.
Thus was born Fafa and Mama, which I have also had translated into eleven languages, facilitating the rich data of the Fafa linguistic corpus.
The corpus
To date, I have collected speech samples from ten languages, which I have made available for browsing through an interactive webpage.
To date, I have collected speech samples from ten languages, which I have made available for browsing through an interactive webpage.
Credits and acknowledgments
This project has benefitted from the input and generosity of many people and institutions.
My entrée into linguistics and laboratory phonology was undertaken during a highly stimulating Fulbright Distinguished Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh, under the sponsorship of Bob Ladd. Ladd's kind mentorship and the facilities and personnel of Edinburgh's Department of Linguistics and English Language helped to make this disciplinary transition as smooth as I could have hoped. Other institutional support along the way has come from Knox College, Skidmore College, the Infant Studies Centre at the University of British Columbia, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology at McGill University.
The production of Fafa and Mama was very much a collaborative effort. I worked with the exceptionally talented and responsive children's book illustrator Vicki Gaudsen, who provided the wonderfully endearing images--each one carefully tailored (often after several revisions) to conform to my precise methodological requirements. In addition, a cracker-jack team of translators and international research assistants helped bring the cross-cultural study to fruition (full credits here).
This project has benefitted from the input and generosity of many people and institutions.
My entrée into linguistics and laboratory phonology was undertaken during a highly stimulating Fulbright Distinguished Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh, under the sponsorship of Bob Ladd. Ladd's kind mentorship and the facilities and personnel of Edinburgh's Department of Linguistics and English Language helped to make this disciplinary transition as smooth as I could have hoped. Other institutional support along the way has come from Knox College, Skidmore College, the Infant Studies Centre at the University of British Columbia, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology at McGill University.
The production of Fafa and Mama was very much a collaborative effort. I worked with the exceptionally talented and responsive children's book illustrator Vicki Gaudsen, who provided the wonderfully endearing images--each one carefully tailored (often after several revisions) to conform to my precise methodological requirements. In addition, a cracker-jack team of translators and international research assistants helped bring the cross-cultural study to fruition (full credits here).
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© 2018 Jeremy Day-O'Connell