Title: Dance, language and the brain

Authors: Ivar Hagendoorn

Addresses: Department of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between dance and language in the light of recent findings from linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. I will argue that at a formal level of sentence construction dance and language share many characteristics, but that the analogy breaks down at the level of meaning, reference, truth and function. With this in mind, I will argue that dance and language build on a shared cognitive architecture and may have a joint evolutionary origin. Finally, I will show how the analysis of language may be put to creative use.

Keywords: dance; language; brain; cognitive science; grammar; metaphor; linguistics; cognitive neuroscience; evolutionary psychology; evolution; creativity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2010.032565

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2010 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.221 - 234

Published online: 07 Apr 2010 *

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