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The Evolution of Musicality: What Can Be Learned from Language Evolution Research?
Andrea Ravignani1,2,3, Bill Thompson1,2, Piera Filippi1,4,5,6
1Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|February 23, 2018
Summary
The evolution of language and music share commonalities. By integrating empirical and formal methods from language evolution studies, we can advance research into music
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Evolutionary Biology
- Linguistics
- Musicology
Background:
- Language and music are complex natural phenomena with shared characteristics.
- Intellectual inquiry into both fields has a long history.
- Previous research has explored connections but often lacks methodological integration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore methodological cross-pollination between the study of language evolution and music evolution.
- To identify how advances in language evolution research can inform music evolution studies.
- To advocate for empirical and formal methodologies over mysterianism in evolutionary studies.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of methodologies in language and music evolution research.
- Identification of successful empirical and formal approaches in linguistics.
- Conceptual integration of these methods into the study of music's origins and evolution.
Main Results:
- Scholarship on language evolution offers valuable methodological frameworks for music evolution.
- Coupled empirical and formal methodologies are crucial for robust evolutionary studies.
- Mysterianism, the view that evolutionary questions are empirically intractable, is a declining and unproductive stance.
Conclusions:
- Integrating methodologies from language evolution can significantly advance the study of music evolution.
- Empirical and formal approaches provide a productive path for understanding the origins and evolution of both language and music.
- Future research should focus on interdisciplinary methodological integration to overcome limitations in studying complex evolutionary phenomena.
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