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Improvisation, Language, and Cognition

Peter Blouw

Published: 2010-07-22

This article explores the way conversational language is both improvisational and structured. It touches on Noam Chomsky's idea of 'universal grammar' but also highlights the way we use preset linguistic phrases to create language in the same way that improvising musicians draw on a personal repertoire of motifs.

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There is a curious yet enormously fruitful duality in the way that improvisation plays on our expectations and perspectives.

– Tracey Nicholls