In a recent essay, I suggested that both semantic and syntactic distortion enhance audience attention to a message. Yet, to date, we have been hard-pressed to explore that contention with reference to syntactic distortion. We have lacked the appropriate measures for capturing syntactic structure. This article offers a starting point for developing such measures. I use a specific type of communication—music—to develop these techniques. Using the indicators presented here, we can systematically compare messages with normative syntax to those that are syntactically distorted. In the future, such tools would allow us to determine the relative effectiveness of the two styles in a precise and easily replicatable manner. The article begins with a detailed presentation of these new measures. After a brief discussion of their validity, the article demonstrates one of their many potential applications. Specifically, I examine the social forces that influence the use of normative versus distorted syntax. My study focuses on national anthems, comparing the social events occurring at the times of an anthem's composition and adoption with the musical syntax of the anthem.
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