背景介紹：
語言是人類進行溝通交流的表達方式，是人類在演化發展過程中的一項偉大發明。人們藉助於語言不僅能夠相互傳達信息，更能傳遞思想、表達觀點。雖然全球各地有著截然不同的語言，但在世界任何一個角落的人們都有著自己語言。音樂和語言有著諸多相似之處，那麼音樂是否也是一門語言？
Is music a language, as Stevie Wonder sang?
是否像史提夫·汪達所唱的那樣，音樂也是一門語言？
One of the liveliest debates in linguistics is over whether all languages share fundamental properties. If so, perhaps language is a universal feature of evolution. To find out, scholars have looked to other universal features, and one in particular: no society on Earth lacks music. The comparison illuminates what is special about both.
語言學中最具爭議的一個話題就是，是否所有語言都具有共同的基本特性。如果真的如此，那麼語言或許是人類進化過程中的普遍特徵。為了找到答案，學者們將目光投向了人類進化過程中所存在的其他普遍特徵上，尤其有一點引起了學者們的注意：音樂同樣普遍存在於世界的每一個角落。通過比較方能闡明兩者之間的特別之處。
Music and language seem intimately linked, but how? Did language start with song, as Darwin believed? Or is music 「auditory cheesecake」 that developed from language and other useful faculties, as Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, has said? Is music itself a language, as Stevie Wonder intoned? Might the two be fundamentally the same?
音樂和語言似乎是密不可分的，但它們之間究竟存在著怎樣的關聯？是否就像達爾文所認為的那樣，語言是由音樂發展而來？亦或像哈佛大學心理學家史蒂芬·平克所說的那樣，音樂是由語言及其他能力發展而來的「聽覺盛宴」？音樂本身是一門語言嗎？兩者從本質上來說是否具有一致性？
Some similarities are obvious. Both can utilise the unique human vocal tract. Both have a kind of beat. Both can express emotion. Both can be either carefully composed or spontaneously improvised. And both are highly social. Although the origin of music is unclear, it seems likely to have involved celebration, communal worship or martial inspiration and co-ordination.
音樂和語言的相似之處顯而易見。兩者都依靠人類獨特的聲道、都具有節奏感、都能用來表達情感、都可精心創作或即興發揮、都呈現高度的社會化。雖然音樂的起源仍然是個謎，但它的由來似乎與慶典、集體禮拜、士氣鼓舞以及排兵布陣有關。
At a structural level the parallels are striking, too. With a finite set of notes or words, and a finite set of rules, an inexhaustible variety of novel melodies or sentences can be created. This 「discrete infinity」 is often said to be the hallmark of human language. Animal communication, by contrast, is only able to convey a limited number of thoughts (the location of a source of food, for example, or the presence of a predator).
兩者在結構方面也同樣非常相似。只需有限的音符或詞彙，加之有限的規則或語法，就能創造出無窮無盡的新奇旋律與妙語。這種「離散無限性」的特點常常被看作是人類語言的標誌。相比之下，動物之間的交流則僅能傳達有限的信息（比如交流獵物的位置，或提醒捕食者的到來）。
Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University has argued that music and language, rather than being essentially the same, rely on the same bit of the brain. In an experiment he presented his subjects with a sentence that contained a grammatical trick (「The scientist confirmed the hypothesis was being studied in his lab」), revealing one word at a time. The subjects were to press a button for each word at their own pace. Many paused at the unexpected 「was」. 「The scientist confirmed the hypothesis」 seemed a complete sentence.
塔夫斯大學的阿尼魯德·帕特爾認為，音樂和語言在本質上並不相同，只不過調用的大腦部位相同。為此他做了一項實驗，他向受試者展示了一個包含語法技巧的句子（「Thescientist confirmed the hypothesis was being studied in his lab」），但每次只顯示一個單詞。受試者按照自己的節奏在每個單詞出現時按下按鈕。許多人在「was」突然出現時停頓了一下。因為「Thescientist confirmed the hypothesis」似乎已經是一個完整的句子了。
They also heard music as they performed this exercise. Some were treated to a new chord in a pleasing progression with every word that was revealed. Others heard a jarring chord at the moment they reached the trick word 「was」. Both groups slowed down—but those given the discordant notes did so much more. Mr Patel hypothesises that this is because sentence structure, and the structure of the harmony, draw on shared, limited resources in the brain.
他們在參與這項實驗的過程中還會聽到音樂。其中一部分人在整個實驗過程都伴以舒緩愉悅的音樂。而另一部分人則會在暗藏玄機的「was」出現時突然聽到刺耳的音樂。兩組參與者都會在「was」出現時停頓一下，但聽到刺耳音樂的人停頓的時間更久。帕特爾認為，這是因為加工句子或音樂所佔用的是大腦同一塊區域的有限資源。
For all the overlap, there are big differences. Both music and language can make you feel and even think, but only language is truly propositional. A quip attributed to Bertrand Russell—「no matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest」—might be adapted for music. Language can express contingencies, pose counterfactuals and talk about the future. Music’s nuances are of a different order.
雖然兩者確有相似之處，但也大有不同。音樂和語言都能讓你為之觸動甚至引人思索，但只有語言才能真正地表達觀點。伯特蘭·羅素曾經說過一句名言：「一隻狗叫得再動聽，它都無法告訴你，它的父母雖然窮但很誠實。」這句話很適合用來形容音樂。語言可以用來表達偶發事件、提出反設事實，還能展望未來。音樂的精妙所在則截然不同。
Another stark contrast lies in the range of human aptitude for each ability. Nearly all children produce complex sentences by the age of three and become fluent speakers just a few years after that. As adults, they create striking and novel utterances every day. Conversely, only a minority of adults are talented musicians; even fewer are skilled composers of new, hitherto unheard works.
兩者之間的另一個鮮明對比在於，人類掌握這兩種能力的天賦不同。幾乎所有的三歲小孩都能說出複雜的語句，再過幾年就能流利地與人交流。而成年人更是能夠出口成章、妙語連珠。反之，天賦異稟的音樂家卻很少見，而能夠創作出新穎絕倫樂曲的作曲家更是少之又少。
Victor Wooten, a bass player and music teacher, has an explanation for that disparity. Children, he points out, learn to talk by being constantly surrounded by linguistic virtuosos—fluent older speakers who, in musical parlance, are 「jamming」 with the novices almost from birth. Their fumbling efforts are encouraged. On the other hand, students of music often keep company with other beginners, and are stopped every time they make a mistake.
貝斯手兼音樂教師維克多·伍頓就這一差異進行了解釋。他指出，孩子們自打一出生就在語言大師（那些能夠流利交談的年長者）的薰陶下不斷地學習語言，用音樂術語來說，這些人自打一出生起就在和語言大師「即興合奏」。人們往往會對牙牙學語的孩子加以鼓勵。反之，音樂生通常是和其他初學者一起學習，一旦犯錯便會受到老師的嚴厲斥責。
It is not that simple, reckons Jay Keyser, an emeritus professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a jazz trombonist. For him, music is not like spoken prose, which almost everyone can do proficiently, but instead resembles a specific, rhythmic form of language: poetry. And, he says, 「most human beings are bad at poetry.」 The number of grammatical sentences is vast. But the number that are fit for verse, in terms of both meaning and prosody, is much smaller. Finding those is hard—like composing music, or improvising jazz.
麻省理工學院語言學榮譽退休教授、爵士長號手傑伊·凱瑟認為，事情或許並沒那麼簡單。在他看來，音樂不同於幾乎人人都能張口就來的口語化散文，它更像是一種特定、有節奏的語言形式：詩歌。他還說：「大多數人都不擅長詩歌創作。」合乎語法規則的句子不勝枚舉。但既具有含義、又具有韻律的詩歌卻少之又少。因此，詩歌的創作就好比作曲或即興說唱一樣很難。
On Mr Keyser’s plausible view, using ordinary language is a less rarefied talent than making music. But while it may not instil wonder and joy, as music can, it is still a miracle—just an everyday one.
在凱瑟看來，日常語言交流不比創作音樂那般需要天賦。雖然語言不像音樂那樣能給人帶來震撼與快樂，但語言的誕生仍然是個奇蹟——只不過人們已經習以為常了。
重難點詞彙：
illuminate[ lu m ne t] v. 闡明；說明；照亮
hallmark[ h lmɑ rk] n. 標誌；印記 v. 使具有…標誌
contingency[k n t nd nsi] n. 意外事件；偶發事件
fumble[ f mbl] v. 笨手笨腳地做；摸索
emeritusprofessor 名譽教授；榮譽教授
prosody[ prɑ s di] n. 韻律
圖片來源：pexels
亞洲浪潮，博鰲視野
立足亞洲 面向世界
傳遞論壇最新動態 促進亞洲深度合作
全球重要對話的傳達者 亞洲共同發展的瞭望者