Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. kötet (1990)

Tanulmányok - Péter, Mihály: Once again on Language and Music (A semiotic approach) 163

ONCE AGAIN ON LANGUAGE AND MUSIC 167 against regarding language as a structure based solely on the relations of opposition between discrète éléments. By defining the musical sign and linguistic intonation as belonging to the type of dynamic and analogous signs, we hâve not yet exhausted the füll complexity of their structure. Research in this íield has begun relatively recently, but it already has some promising results, especially in the works of Asafyev, Sabouk and Jiránek. It seems that the sign character of both music and intonation has several aspects that can be distinguished: an indexicai aspect (the timbre of human voice, or of particular musical instruments), an iconic aspect (tempo, pitch-intervals, dotted rhythm, etc.), and a convention alized, i.e. socially-historically fixed aspect (to which, for instance, lullabies, marches and liturgie music belong on the one hand, and "clergymen's intonation", "soldiers' intonation", "advertisers' intonation", etc. on the other). With respect to music, one naturally has to take into considération the effects of language as well (the influence upon music of the phonological System, articulatory basis, characteristic intonational contours of the national language, and the "tectonic stylization" of speech in music, etc.) (cf. Jiránek 1967 and 1981). In language, special attention is to be paid to interjections and modal particles. From the point of view of their function, thèse hâve a striking similarity to intonation. The common semiotic status of intonation and thèse éléments is also shown by the synonymie relationship that can be found between them (cf. Schubiger 1965). At the same time interjections like alas!, hurray!, etc., though organically linked to certain intonational forms, are basically digital signs and may even carry some vague conceptual meaning as well (e.g. what the deuce!, God bless y ou!). Ail this shows that the semiotic heterogeneity of language manifests itself not only in the gênerai composition of the inventory of its signs, but also within particular types of signs, and even within the particular signs themselves. MIHÁLY PÉTER Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. 1990.