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summary
ʽThree “ears”ʼ
Keywords: musicality, tone deafness, linguistic intuition, ear for alliteration, critical period
This paper compares three types of “ears”: Having an “ear” for music (vs. being tone deaf),
having an “ear” for language (mainly in the sense of having linguistic intuitions) and having
an “ear” for the seemingly complex rules for alliteration in traditional (Icelandic) poetry. It
is maintained that the development of all three “ears” depends to a large extent on the right
kind of stimulus at an early age (cf. ideas about a critical period in language acquisition). It
is then argued that just as tone deafness (or amusicality) has been shown to exist, it seems
that “alliteration deafness” also exists. “Linguistic deafness” does not exist in the same
sense, on the other hand, since all normal humans develop linguistic intuitions. It is poin-
ted out that it would be interesting, and presumably possible, to investigate whether sen-
sitivity to alliteration rules can be localized in the brain, just as sensitivity to music and
different aspects of linguistic abilities have been localized.
Höskuldur Þráinsson
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Háskóla Íslands
IS-101 Reykjavík, ÍSLAND
hoski@hi.is
Höskuldur Þráinsson164