form of abstract and emotionally neutral cognitive representations.
Affectivity,when it is taken into account at all,intervenes only in the
form of a response or an emotional discharge that is added onto some
abstract cognitive state.However,this is an inversion of the importance
and,without a doubt,the origins of these two components of semantics:
affective semantics,which carries the mark of the ties that connect
humans and our environment,is the foundation of cognitive semantics
(and not vice versa).It is critical not to forget that the most important
sentences in human language are not those that logicians and linguists
have habitually analyzed of the type “the cat is on the mat,”but of
phrases “listen!”“stop!”“look out!”“I love you,”aud so on.The emotive
power of language is comparable with that of music and is dependent on
similar mechanisms associated with the brain stem and limbic system
(Edelman 1992).
Thus a certain number of components are common to music and
language,among them the melodic component,which is found in the
suprasegmental level of language;the rhythmic component,present in
articulation,the syllable,and the organization of sentences;and affective
semantics,whose nature is similar in the two cases.It must be added
that syntax,as a combination and linking of sequences,is also present in
music.The relationship between music and language seems greater yet
if one takes into account what one could call,although incorrectly,hybrid
forms,participating in the two processes.The most significant example
of this is poetry,in which linguists and musicologists are almost never
interested.Throughout the greater part of its history,that is,until the
most recent period,poetry has been chanted,and a methodological error
seems to the involved in seeing chant as a kind of mixture,as a hybrid
form.Maybe,on the contrary,it gives us a clear idea of the first forms of
something that was at the same time music and language,keeping in
mind that music is first and foremost vocal.Similarly,a close relationship
exists between music,language,and poetry,and the ensemble of per-
forming arts—dance,pretend play,theater,festival,and ritual—in which
song,rhythmic motion,imitation,and narrative are combined.
This leads me to a final comment concerning these diverse forms.We
are accustomed to placing them within the framework of “communica-
tion,”as this seems to be their common trait.I think that one should be
dubious of this notion,first introduced in the 1940s by the creators of
communication theory (Shannon and Weaver 1949) and taken up
without much caution by specialists in almost all fields.The definition of
communication as an abstract exchange of information belies the con-
crete reality that underlies interactions among living things.Alarm calls,
territory markings,and sexual displays are not merely communications;
they are,most especially,constructive and complex exchanges among172 Jean Molino