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speaking a native language that requires tones appears to?boost perception of melody, but at the cost of rhythm, researchers report april 26 in?current biology. the massive global study hints at how?language skills seep into other areas of cognition.?tonal languages use pitch to distinguish words that otherwise might sound the same. in mandarin, for instance, m? means horse whereas mā means mother. nontonal languages like spanish sometimes include pitch changes to suggest emotion, for example, but not to change a word’s meaning.
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研究人员4月26日发表在《当代生物学》上的报告表示,说需要音调的母语似乎可以增强对旋律的感知,但代价是丧失节奏。这项大规模的全球研究揭示了语言能力是如何渗透到认知的其他领域的。声调语言使用音调来区分那些听起来可能意思一样的单词。例如,在汉语普通话中,m?是马的意思,而mā是母亲的意思。例如,像西班牙语这样的无声调语言有时会通过音调变化来表示情感,但不会改变单词的意思。
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as a mandarin speaker and flutist, jingxuan liu wondered about the crossover between language and music. while studying psychology as an undergraduate at duke university, liu helped analyze the musical abilities of nearly half a million people from 203 countries. her colleagues had launched an online game in which participants completed several musical tasks, including identifying matching melodies at different pitches and finding beat tracks that fit songs’ rhythms.
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刘静轩是一个既说普通话又吹长笛的人,她想知道语言和音乐之间有什么样的交叉关系。在杜克大学读心理学本科期间,刘 助分析了来自203个国家的近50万人的音乐能力。她的同事们推出了一个线上游戏,受试者需要完成几个音乐相关的任务,包括对不同音调的旋律匹配相应的旋律,找到符合歌曲节奏的节拍等。
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on average, native speakers of the 19 represented tonal languages were better at the melody task compared with speakers of 29 nontonal languages. and the effect wasn’t small — a tonal first language enhanced melodic perception by about half the amount that music lessons did, which was also surveyed. but tonal language speakers tended to be worse at the rhythm task.
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?平均而言,与29种非音调语言的使用者相比,19种音调语言的母语使用者(样本有代表性)在旋律任务中表现得更好。研究还发现,这个差异还并不小——有声调的第一语言对旋律感知的增强效果大约是上音乐课效果的一半左右。但说有声调语言的人往往在节奏任务中表现更差。
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humans must be choosy about what they pay attention to. pitch patterns are vital in tonal languages, which might explain the musical trade-off. “you’ve got a finite resource of attention, and you’ve got to allocate that somehow,” says study coauthor courtney hilton, a cognitive scientist at the university of auckland in new zealand.
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人类必须对自己关注的东西有所选择。音调模式在声调语言中至关重要,这或许可以解释音乐上的取舍。“你的注意力是有限的,必须以某种方式进行分配,”该研究的合著者、新西兰奥克兰大学的认知科学家考特尼·希尔顿说。
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prior research on language and music often compared just two tongues, usually english and cantonese or mandarin. but other cultural influences, such as eastern and western music styles, could have affected results. by examining a wide range of people, the new study included languages never assessed in this way and reached more generalizable conclusions. “our result here is showing that the language someone speaks — which is an important part of culture — also shapes cognition,” hilton says.
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此前对语言和音乐的研究通常只比较两种语言,通常是英语和粤语或英语和普通话。但其他文化等影响,如东西方音乐风格,可能会影响结果。通过对大范围的人群进行调查,这项新研究囊括了此前从未以这种方式评估过的语言,并得出了更普遍的结论。希尔顿说:“我们的研究结果表明,人们所说的语言——作为文化的重要组成部分——也会塑造认知。”
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本文节选自:science news(科学新闻)
发布时间:2023.04.26
作者:mckenzie prillaman
原文标题:native language might shape musical ability
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◆词汇积累
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1.seep
/si?p/?
v.(液体)渗漏,渗透;逐渐移动,渐渐散开
n.(油、水)渗出地表的地方
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2. ?pitch
/p?t?/
n. 体育场地,球场; (感情或活动的)激烈,强烈; (音符的)高低度,音高; 推销用语; (棒球中的)投,掷
v. 投,掷,扔; ?触地,(使球)定点落地; (使)跌倒(猛然移动); ?把……定于某水平; 使(产品)针对,面向; 推销,争取支持(或生意等); 定音高
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3. ?prior
/?pra??/?
adj. 先前的,事先的; 优先的,更重要的; 在前面的
n. 犯罪前科; 小修道院院长
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◆词组搭配
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1.tonal language 声调语言 (指用声调来区分词语意思的语言)
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◆写作句总结
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our result here is showing that the language someone speaks — which is an important part of culture — also shapes cognition.
结构:our result here is showing that … — which is an important part of culture — also shapes cognition.
我们的研究结果表明,…——作为文化的重要组成部分——也会塑造认知。
例句:our result here is showin
g that the costume someone wears— which is an important part of culture — also shapes cognition.????