Talkability

Chapter 4

Paralinguistics

(it’s the ‘melody’ as well as the ‘lyrics’)

‘And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.’

Friedrich Nietzsche

Scientists at University College London have been looking into solving one of the great mysteries of speech: the way that we as humans are capable of imparting and perceiving information not only with words but also by observing intonation and rhythm.

There’s nothing else like human speech in nature – as well as the information carried by the words, you can tell someone’s mood, their gender, their age and where they may come from.

The neurobiologists at UCL, using fMRI brain-scanning techniques, have shown how the brain takes speech and divides it into its ...