The Tritone Paradox: An Influence of Language on Music Perception
The Tritone Paradox: An Influence of Language on Music Perception
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三全音悖论：语言对音乐感知的影响
DOI：
10.2307/40285517
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发表时间：
1991
期刊：
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
D. Deutsch
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Deutsch
当两个以半八度（或三全音）相联系的音调连续出现时，就会产生三全音悖论。每个音调由一组与八度相关的谐波组成，其振幅由钟形的频谱包络决定；因此，音调在音高类别上有明确的定义，但在音高方面却没有明确的定义。当听者判断这些音调对是否形成上升或下降的模式时，他们的判断通常与音调在音阶圈中的位置有系统的关系：圆圈中一个区域的音调听起来更高，而相反区域的音调听起来更低。然而，对于一个给定的音调对是形成上升还是下降的模式，因此哪些音调听起来更高，哪些音调听起来更低，听众们存在很大的分歧。本文论证了这种音乐模式感知的个体差异的基础在于听者所使用的语言。两组受试者对三全音悖论做出判断。一组在加利福尼亚长大，另一组在英格兰南部长大。结果发现，当加利福尼亚人听起来是升的时候，英国人听起来是降的，当加利福尼亚人听起来是降的时候，英国人听起来是升的。这一发现，与Deutsch、North和Ray（1990）的早期研究结果相结合，表明了对三全音悖论的感知与听者自发说话声音的音高范围之间的相关性，有力地表明，同样的，文化习得的音高等级表征影响了语言的产生和对这种音乐模式的感知。
The tritone paradox is produced when two tones that are related by a half- octave (or tritone) are presented in succession. Each tone is composed of a set of octave- related harmonics, whose amplitudes are determined by a bell-shaped spectral envelope; thus the tones are clearly defined in terms of pitch class, but poorly defined in terms of height. When listeners judge whether such tone pairs form ascending or descending patterns, their judgments generally show systematic relationships to the positions of the tones along the pitch-class circle: Tones in one region of the circle are heard as higher and those in the opposite region are heard as lower. However, listeners disagree substantially as to whether a given tone pair forms an ascending or a descending pattern, and therefore as to which tones are heard as higher and which as lower. This paper demonstrates that the basis for the individual differences in perception of this musical pattern lies in the language spoken by the listener. Two groups of subjects made judgments of the tritone paradox. One group had grown up in California, and the other group had grown up in southern England. It was found that when the Californian group tended to hear the pattern as ascending the English group tended to hear it as descending, and when the Californian group tended to hear the pattern as descending the English group tended to hear it as ascending. This finding, coupled with the earlier results of Deutsch, North, and Ray (1990) that showed a correlate between perception of the tritone paradox and the pitch range of the listener9s spontaneous speaking voice, indicates strongly that the same, culturally acquired representation of pitch classes influences both speech production and perception of this musical pattern.