275 The “Musilanguage”Model of Music
Figure 16.1
The two levels of functioning of music and language:phonological and meaning.Both levels
are derived from the process of phrase formation involving discrete units,combinatorial
syntax,and expressive phrasing.The phonological level is the acoustic level.It is governed
by a type of phonological syntax in which discrete acoustic units (phonemes,pitches) are
combined to form functional units (morpheme,motifs) that feed into the meaning level of
each system.The meaning levels of language and music are governed by different types of
syntax systems:propositional and blending,respectively.At their highest level of function,
music and language differ more in emphasis than in kind,and this is represented by their
placement at different ends of a spectrum.The poles of the spectrum represent the differ-
ent interpretations of communicative sound patterns that each system exploits in creating
meaningful formulas,where language emphasizes sound as referential meaning and music
emphasizes sound as emotive meaning.A large number of functions occupy intermediate
positions along this spectrum in that they incorporate both the referentiality of language
and the sound-emotion function of music.Verbal song is the canonical intermediate func-
tion,which is why it occupies the central position.The functions of music’s vehicle mode
(see footnote 2 for details) lie toward the music side,whereas linguistic functions that incor-
porate sound-emotion or isometric rhythms lie toward the language side of the spectrum.
(“Word painting”refers to the technique by which a composer creates an iconic relation-
ship between music and words,such as the association of a descending melodic contour
with the word “falling.”This is use of music as symbolizer,as described in footnote 2).