Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>]

two clarifications.

re will wagers.  I know nothing about downturning wails.  but what i was
suggesting was something simpler.  spoken language has its own music,
a tonal progression that can be examined in a generative perspective.
when you speak, that progression underlies the prosody, the natural
contour of spoken syntax.  it appears that the music priniciples
underlying the Tiberian chant are identical.  therefore, the Tiberian
chant can be viewed as based on the normal prosody of a normal spoken
language.  as a linguistic object, it also serves as the basis of the
musical performance.

re randy buth. yes, when I say prosody, I'm talking about something
that in some cases mirrors the generative syntax, and in some cases
systematically deviates from the syntax. in the latter case, I can
show how and why the deviation occurs: it's natural prosodic
principles of balance and tempo, etc. perhaps "spoken syntax" might
not be the best way to describe prosody. have you seen Aronoff 1985
too? 

I did fail to get the point about such a prosodic parse not encoding
length or type of constituent: why would it? yes, it would be
incomplete for a pragmatic analysis. the actual reading would be,
wouldn't it?

by the way, the subject heading for this business is "Music and
Language". pulled up over 70 books on the topic over at the music
library here. guess it'll keep me busy this weekend. ;-)

V.
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Vincent DeCaen, Ph.D.  <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~decaen/hsei/intro.html
c/o Deparment of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, M5S 1A1
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