Re: sometimes behave so strangely

[Brian Gygi <bgygi@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:10 AM 12/13/2006, Valter Ciocca wrote:
> Dear Diana, Al and list,
>
> ....
> > You also raise the point that the transformation of the phrase from 
> > speech to song endures - so that when people listen again to the 
> > full sentence, I appear to burst into song. This , to my mind, is a 
> > particularly  puzzling aspect of the effect. People have told me 
> > that the effect is still present, unattenuated, even months  later 
> > - and this was certainly my experience. As you point out, perhaps 
> > the most important question raised by this demonstration is why 
> > people don't always hear speech as song. After all,  the vowel 
> > components of words are harmonic complexes - yet  the pitch 
> > characteristics of speech are usually suppressed in perception.
> > ...
>
> true, unless you speak a tonal language, in which case you will 
> focus on pitch patterns in order to figure out the meaning of words. 
> In fact, I wonder whether speakers of tonal languages might be more 
> resistant to transforming pitch into singing since for them focusing 
> on pitch patterns has become part of the speech schema.
> Valter

I wondered about this, and I asked a Chinese friend how they 
reconcile tones and melodies.  She said they basically ignore the 
tones in song lyrics.  However, I would think that might led to some 
(perhaps amusing) confusions.  I don't know Chinese, would it be 
possible to have some lyrics which when put in a particular melody 
would have a drastically different meaning?

I also wonder how strong the effect of Diana's repeated phrase would 
be if spoken in a flat Midwestern accent rather than a lilting British one :)