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ARTIGOS

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2013)

Joint speech: The missing link between speech and music?

DOI
https://doi.org/10.34018/2318-891X.1(1)17-32
Submitted
December 2, 2020
Published
2013-11-30

Abstract

This paper argues that music and speech are not accidentally related as some have claimed. The argument is made by emphasising the coordinative aspects to speaking and music making, and downplaying the role of message passing with which linguistics has traditionally been concerned. A continuum is identified from silent speech on one hand to full blown music and song on the other. At each point, we see different coordinative forms and opportunities among subjects. Joint speech, where a group of people say the same text at the same time, is identified as an important point on this continuum, linking speech and music. Joint speech is familiar from collective prayer, protest chants, and many other contexts in which group purpose finds expression. An experimental form of joint speech, called synchronous speech, has been studied and some findings are recounted here. However the larger question of how and why joint speaking arises remains to be studied. I present a dynamical systems perspective on the coordination that joint speakers employ and show how it can account for some, but not yet all, aspects of the observed phenomenon.

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