I was very confused by this bit about "a certain fixed number of sentences", since sentences can famously achieve infinite length via recursion! Chomsky has said plenty of silly stuff but AFAIK that particular claim has held up.
After reading this piece, though, I think I get a sense of what is meant. The set of 'vowel sequences' is much more restricted than the set of full sentences, somewhat like the vocal runs of a bird; and sentences are made by riffing on and combining those vowel sequences. Or something like that?
This was great. I hadn't heard that vowels exercise before...
Steely Dan's lyrics are also strong in this regard, and I've never seen any writing about their use of language as sound:
"Greek medallion sparkles when you smile"
"I move to dissolve the corporation / in a pool of margaritas."
"I would guess she's in Detroit, with lots of money in the bank..."
Steely Dan is new to me, I shall investigate...
They are very dear to me.
They have a song about the odyssey : Home at Last , start there and then we can talk. “She serves the smooth retsina…”
https://open.substack.com/pub/yearofbach/p/an-interlude-living-the-steely-dan?r=s8ze&utm_medium=ios
Octaves- octets- vowels. Yes, makes perfect sense
Well, well - Frost, good man!
I was very confused by this bit about "a certain fixed number of sentences", since sentences can famously achieve infinite length via recursion! Chomsky has said plenty of silly stuff but AFAIK that particular claim has held up.
After reading this piece, though, I think I get a sense of what is meant. The set of 'vowel sequences' is much more restricted than the set of full sentences, somewhat like the vocal runs of a bird; and sentences are made by riffing on and combining those vowel sequences. Or something like that?
Something like that yes