Toward a Theory of Music Syntax: Some Observations of Music Babble in Young Children

Abstract

The idea that music is a language is neither new nor correct. The expression “music is the universal language” is often used to convey the fact that speakers of different languages may be members of a common music culture. Unfortunately, some musicians have taken the expression more literally to mean either that music is a language, or that music may be explained by principles of linguistics (Bernstein, 1976). Some scholars have attempted to explain music by “borrowing” principles from linguistics in conjunction with traditional music theory (Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983). Relatively little progress has been made with those proposed explanations. Nonetheless, the fact remains that language and music do share common characteristics. Because both language and music are experienced fundamentally as patterns of sound arranged in time, it seems reasonable to suggest that the cognitive capacity for language and the cognitive capacity for music are analogous, but not homologous, processes. That is, although language and music share similar sensory and motor systems in the human body, there is no substantive evidence to suggest that the two cognitive capacities stem from common biological, genetic, or evolutionary origins. At a sufficiently abstract level of analysis, however, it may be possible to derive fundamental analogies between the cognitive capacity for language and the cognitive capacity for music.