Essays on Language, Music, and Cognition

 Jackendoff’s lead  “divide and conquer” in both musical and linguistic

domains  any cognitive capability will prove to rely upon a suite of
interacting cognitive and neural capabilities – each with its own
independent evolutionary history and neural implementation
 (Emily’s idea in relation to Jackendoff’s breakdown) – is there another
way to break down instead of phonology, syntax, and semantics and
instead of rhythm, melody, and harmony?
 “Both are generative systems that make ‘infinite use of finite means,’”
combining atomoic primitives (notes, phonemes) into hierarchal
complexes (melodies, words, sentences).
 In re: language and music being spatially nonoverlapping in the brain –
that’s not the point. I’m not looking at where they lie in the brain to
connect them, I’m looking at the similarities in the processes of learning
a second language and the process of learning music – we aren’t born
with either skill so this type of scientific data is irrelevant