Subject: Re: sometimes behave so strangely From: Brian Gygi <bgygi@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:44:30 -0800 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>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 :)