In linguistics as well as semiotics,words have long been deemed as symbols instead of icons or indexes.Although in some particular cases words can be iconic,such as the Chinese characters日,月,火,etc.,or indexical,suc...In linguistics as well as semiotics,words have long been deemed as symbols instead of icons or indexes.Although in some particular cases words can be iconic,such as the Chinese characters日,月,火,etc.,or indexical,such as pronouns(e.g.,he,she,it)and demonstratives(e.g.,this,that,these,those),most words are believed to be symbols,whose signifier and signified sustain an arbitrary relation in nature.Icon and symbol are distinct concepts and have been clearly defined to a large extent,but index seems to be rather vague in signification.Based on relevant research and Peirce’s trichotomy of signs,we propose a pan-indexicality model used for interpreting linguistic signs.In this model,a linguistic sign is taken as an index that guides the addressee to search for objects or senses at three levels,i.e.,the formal sense level,the conventional sense level,and the overall sense level.Interference of the Interpretant in meaning understanding varies at two general levels.At the formal and conventional levels,it is the Interpretanti(knowledge shared by both the addresser and the addressee)that determines meaning understanding,but at the overall sense level,the personalized Interpretantii(knowledge owned solely by the addressee)plays a key role.Throughout the whole pan-indexicality process,formal sense and the Interpretantii are two key factors that are related to the particular and distinct features of English and Chinese.展开更多
New Mexico composer Michael Mauldin's string quartet, A'ts' ina: Place of Writings on the Rock, was inspired by the ruins of an ancient Zu?i city at El Morro National Monument(USA) and by the surrounding l...New Mexico composer Michael Mauldin's string quartet, A'ts' ina: Place of Writings on the Rock, was inspired by the ruins of an ancient Zu?i city at El Morro National Monument(USA) and by the surrounding landscape. Like many of Mauldin's works, the quartet aims to communicate "an environmental essence, rather than... a literal soundscape." "Art is a metaphor for life," the composer maintains. "Though art includes descriptive gestures from our shared physical experience... I feel [it] should distill and interpret that experience rather than just describe it... or randomly recreate it."New Mexico composer Michael Mauldin’s string quartet, A’ts’ina:Place of Writings on the Rock,was inspired by the ruins of an ancient Zu?i city at El Morro National Monument(USA) and by the surrounding landscape. Like many of Mauldin’s works, the quartet aims to communicate"an environmental essence,rather than...a literal soundscape.""Art is a metaphor for life,"the composer maintains."Though art includes descriptive gestures from our shared physical experience . . . I feel [it] should distill and interpret that experience rather than just describe it...or randomly recreate it."Mauldin’s approach to composition points toward a semiotically-nuanced way of thinking about musical meaning that is rooted in our common experience as embodied human organisms. This essay examines the iconic and indexical roles of musical gesture and voicing to convey embodied experience in the context of landscape throughout A’ts’ina.I draw upon Mark Johnson’s theory of the bodily grounding of metaphor to show how this work exhibits and enacts a "play of musical signs" that celebrates, in the words of New Mexico author Peggy Pond Church,one of those"certain places in the earth where the great powers that move between earth and sky are closer and more available than others."展开更多
文摘In linguistics as well as semiotics,words have long been deemed as symbols instead of icons or indexes.Although in some particular cases words can be iconic,such as the Chinese characters日,月,火,etc.,or indexical,such as pronouns(e.g.,he,she,it)and demonstratives(e.g.,this,that,these,those),most words are believed to be symbols,whose signifier and signified sustain an arbitrary relation in nature.Icon and symbol are distinct concepts and have been clearly defined to a large extent,but index seems to be rather vague in signification.Based on relevant research and Peirce’s trichotomy of signs,we propose a pan-indexicality model used for interpreting linguistic signs.In this model,a linguistic sign is taken as an index that guides the addressee to search for objects or senses at three levels,i.e.,the formal sense level,the conventional sense level,and the overall sense level.Interference of the Interpretant in meaning understanding varies at two general levels.At the formal and conventional levels,it is the Interpretanti(knowledge shared by both the addresser and the addressee)that determines meaning understanding,but at the overall sense level,the personalized Interpretantii(knowledge owned solely by the addressee)plays a key role.Throughout the whole pan-indexicality process,formal sense and the Interpretantii are two key factors that are related to the particular and distinct features of English and Chinese.
文摘New Mexico composer Michael Mauldin's string quartet, A'ts' ina: Place of Writings on the Rock, was inspired by the ruins of an ancient Zu?i city at El Morro National Monument(USA) and by the surrounding landscape. Like many of Mauldin's works, the quartet aims to communicate "an environmental essence, rather than... a literal soundscape." "Art is a metaphor for life," the composer maintains. "Though art includes descriptive gestures from our shared physical experience... I feel [it] should distill and interpret that experience rather than just describe it... or randomly recreate it."New Mexico composer Michael Mauldin’s string quartet, A’ts’ina:Place of Writings on the Rock,was inspired by the ruins of an ancient Zu?i city at El Morro National Monument(USA) and by the surrounding landscape. Like many of Mauldin’s works, the quartet aims to communicate"an environmental essence,rather than...a literal soundscape.""Art is a metaphor for life,"the composer maintains."Though art includes descriptive gestures from our shared physical experience . . . I feel [it] should distill and interpret that experience rather than just describe it...or randomly recreate it."Mauldin’s approach to composition points toward a semiotically-nuanced way of thinking about musical meaning that is rooted in our common experience as embodied human organisms. This essay examines the iconic and indexical roles of musical gesture and voicing to convey embodied experience in the context of landscape throughout A’ts’ina.I draw upon Mark Johnson’s theory of the bodily grounding of metaphor to show how this work exhibits and enacts a "play of musical signs" that celebrates, in the words of New Mexico author Peggy Pond Church,one of those"certain places in the earth where the great powers that move between earth and sky are closer and more available than others."
