Syncopation - the occurrence of a musical event on a metrically weak position preceding a rest on a metrically strong position - represents an important challenge in the study of the mapping between rhythm and meter. In this contribution, we present the hypothesis that syncopation is an effective strategy to elicit the bootstrapping of a multi-layered, hierarchically organized metric structure from a linear rhythmic surface. The hypothesis is inspired by a parallel with the problem of linearization in natural language syntax, which is the problem of how hierarchically organized phrase-structure markers are mapped onto linear sequences of words. The hypothesis has important consequences for the role of meter in music perception and cognition and, more particularly, for its role in the relationship between rhythm and bodily entrainment. In this contribution, we present the hypothesis that syncopation is an effective strategy to elicit the bootstrapping of a multi-layered, hierarchically organized metric structure from a linear rhythmic surface. The hypothesis is inspired by a parallel with the problem of linearization in natural language syntax, which is the problem of how hierarchically organized phrase-structure markers are mapped onto linear sequences of words. The hypothesis has important consequences for the role of meter in music perception and cognition and, more particularly, for its role in the relationship between rhythm and bodily entrainment. We formulate this hypothesis by considering some recent empirical results and theoretical ideas concerning a parallel problem in natural language syntax: the problem of linearization. This is the problem of how hierarchically organized phrase-structure markers are mapped onto linear sequences of terminal nodes (Section 4). The hypothesis we propose has important consequences for the notion of musical meter and the role it plays in music perception and cognition, which we discuss in Section 5. Typically, meter is regarded as a governing framework, marking expectations concerning the temporal distribution of musical events. In turn, this propensity, may be formalized in terms of a bootstrapping mechanism that allows assuming larger sequences of IOI’s as a predictive prior provided doing so does not produce prediction errors. 5.1. Some considerations on the relationship between music and language We conclude by discussing our proposal in the broader context of the relationship between language and music. At the other end, Patel’s (2012) shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (SSIRH) contends that music and language originate from a shared set of neurobiological resources and begin their life in human cognition by relying on a common neural network although, as the developing brain is exposed to novel inputs, it ‘prunes’ out inefficient connections and ends up establishing two separate pathways that share a pool of cognitive features. An even stronger stance is that of Katz and Pesetsky’s (2011) Identity Thesis for Language and Music (ITLM), according to which “all formal differences between language and music are a consequence of differences in their fundamental building blocks (arbitrary pairings of sound and meaning in the case of language; pitch-classes and pitch-class combinations in the case of music). In all other respects, language and music are identical” (p. 3). Both speech and music are perceived as sequences of sound events that unfold in time and are organized around a The hypothesis, in this respect, suggests a view of the relation between music and language in the spirit of Katz and Pesetsky’s ITLM. In particular, it suggests that music and language share a common syntactic component that supports the bootstrapping of hierarchical relations from relations of linear order (precedence in the case of language and distance in terms of IOI’s in the case of rhythm) but applies this common syntactic strategy to different primitive elements. Asymmetric relations based on c-commands have also been adopted to account for syntactic phenomena such as movement ( Ross, 1967 ; Chomsky, 1981 ; Rizzi, 1990 ), agreement ( Chomsky, 1998 ; Di Sciullo, 1999 ) and phenomena at the syntax-semantics interface, such as anaphora, operator-binding, and the scope of logical operators ( Reinhart, 1976 , 1983 ; Chomsky, 1981 ; Kayne, 1984 ; Higginbotham, 1985 ; Aoun and Li, 1993 ; Hornstein, 1999 ; Di Sciullo, 2012 ). Asymmetric configurations in language are, therefore, the parallel of syncopation in musical rhythm, in that, by their very nature, guide and constraint the projection of hierarchical structure. Recent neurological evidence brings further support to the proposed perspective. Heard and Lee (2020) perform a meta-analysis to identify brain regions that are consistently implicated across studies of both musical rhythm and natural language syntax. These frontal motor processors exhibited overlaps between rhythm and syntax in the present study, suggesting that they are also at play in analyzing the temporally unfolding hierarchies of musical rhythm and linguistic syntax. Relatedly, early left anterior negativities (ELAN) and parietal P600 components were observed when canonical structures were violated in action and language ( Maffongelli et al., 2015 )” ( Heard and Lee, 2020 , p. 9). On these grounds, a number of interesting possibilities emerge concerning the relation between rhythm and language. The most important one – we submit – is that hierarchy should not be presupposed but should be derived, both for language and music. For language, this means that the real issue is not so much how we map rooted directed acyclic graphs into a linear ordering defined in terms of precedence/subsequence but, rather, how we build syntactic trees on the basis of the linear ordering defined by precedence/subsequence. More particularly, what matters for syntax is the arrangement of morphemes, with this arrangement resulting from selection.

Notes Towards Understanding His Music Andrew Shenton. his texts letter by letter using his musical alphabet , but chose to set parts using a reductive version of Latin grammar . Grammar and Syntax ... language , including phonology ... Andrew Shenton's groundbreaking cross-disciplinary approach to Messiaen's music presents a systematic and detailed examination of the compositional techniques of one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century as they relate to his desire to express profound truths about Catholicism. It is widely accepted that music can have mystical and transformative powers, but because 'pure' music has no programme, Messiaen sought to refine his compositions to speak more clearly about the truths of the Catholic faith by developing a sophisticated semiotic system in which aspects of music become direct signs for words and concepts. Using interdisciplinary methodologies drawing on linguistics, cognition studies, theological studies and semiotics, Shenton traces the development of Messiaen'