subtle persistent causes

In his book THE SPELL OF THE SENSUOUS David Abram refers to some studies that
show how languages around the world tend to use words that sound like the
objects they refer to. E.g. words that refer to flowing water, like "stream",
tend to sound a bit like flowing water.

Abram argues that this can be explained by the fact that over the millenia
languages have internal dynamics that cause them to evolve in complex ways,
but the actual physical sounds of things stay constant. So this steady
reference point will tend to sort of entrain the complex language system, to
bring it into some kind of resonance.

Similarly it doesn't seem too outlandish to argue that the pitch and rhythm
structures that naturally occur could entrain the complex social dynamics of
musical practise. The natural structures being fixed, over a very long time,
even if they can exert only a weak force, they will tend to draw musical
practise into some kind of alignment.

Jim

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