American Journal of Semiotics

From Propp’s functions to Levi-Strauss’s mythemes, from Greimas’s actants to Barthes’s narrative units, and beyond, numerous scholars of linguistics, comparative mythology, and narratology have proposed frameworks for identifying and systematizing the fundamental particles of narrative and describing how they interact. The term “narreme” was suggested by Eugèn Dorfman and has caught on, as the proposed basic unit of narrative structure, analogous to the “phoneme” in phonology; however, although the term has been deployed by many contemporary scholars (primarily within the context of ludology (or “game studies”), this has not yet led to definitions or descriptions of the narreme and its associated architecture that have been broadly accepted, nor has it produced any robust descriptive or generative model that has come into wide use. None of the proposed formulations provide a sufficient degree of precision or granularity, and none operate at a suitable level of abstraction to make generative research on the subject possible. Building on the insights of the aforementioned classic scholars in the fields of structuralist semiotics and cognitive studies, as well as contemporaries such as David Herman, Bruno Latour, Umberto Eco, and others, I propose a preliminary model of the narreme, its available values, permissible combinations, and codified conventional patterns within the construction of the narrative objects that the human mind instinctively recognizes as a “story”. My intent is to contribute to an atomic theory of narrativity that can be further developed and deployed as an apparatus for the analysis and creation of works of narrative art, in addition to possible uses in education and narrative-based therapies.

Richard Rosenbaum

The American Journal of Semiotics

Toward a Renewed Theory of the Narreme

迈向一种新的叙事单元理论

Kermit Snelson

The Phanerochemical Wedding of Logic and Philosophia Perennis: On Morrissey’s The Way of Logic

逻辑与永恒哲学之显化学联姻：论莫里西的《逻辑之道》

Marc Champagne

Consciousness and the Philosophy of Signs: A New Précis

意识与符号哲学：新概述

Jamin Pelkey

A Watershed for Qualia: Marc Champagne’s Unified Theory of Consciousness

意识质素的分水岭：马克·香槟的意识统一理论

Hongwei Jia

Signs, Language, and Listening: A Review

符号、语言与倾听：综述

A fundamental issue for music semiotics is how we might address the signification and interpretation of complex amalgams that do not neatly subdivide into what I call “atomistic signs.” At all levels of musical organization, we are confronted with complex amalgams that demand a more synthetic kind of perception and cognition (e.g., gestures) or a more integrative approach to reconstruction and implementation (e.g., musical styles, understood as competencies guiding interpretation). Although many music-theoretical models helpfully address the temporality of musical events, they cannot fully capture the immediacy of a complex musical gestalt that demands qualitative, aesthetic, affective, and, ultimately, synthetic interpretation. This essay considers ways we can enhance our theoretical understanding of, and our own competency for, musically artistic interpretation. I conclude with an application of this approach to the opening of the Sarabande from Bach’s keyboard Partita no. 4 in D Major.

Robert S. Hatten

Toward an Adequate Theoretical Framework for Interpreting Complex Signification in Music

迈向解释音乐中复杂意义的充分理论框架

In this paper, I consider the creation and performance of Leah Asher’s TRAPPIST-1 (2017), a solo piano work in graphic notation that I commissioned and premiered. Musical works that utilize open notations often have a complex relationship to the work-concept and, in turn, an elusive ontology. I consider the role of conceptual palettes as significant sites in the creative process where ontological boundaries are delineated. I analyze four sites in the creation of TRAPPIST-1—from project proposal to premiere performance—where conceptual palettes play a dynamic role in narrowing, restricting, and guiding the identity of the work. Using Jakobson’s notion of the poetic function and Harkness’s concept of qualic transitivity, I show that conceptual palettes facilitate performance as highly cu­rated acts of translation not just of open notations but also of intangible concepts.

Tristan McKay

Conceptual Palettes as Sites of Creative Negotiation in Leah Asher’s TRAPPIST-1

概念调色板作为莉亚·阿舍尔《TRAPPIST-1》中创意协商的场所

Navigating the multicursal pattern of labyrinths is at the core of De-sign (the fusion of design and signs). Due to the ephemerality of de-sign situations and the infinite possibility of outcomes, the navigational trajectory, while intentional, is ambiguous and labyrinthine. Intentionality entices us to engage in the process of creating that which-is-yet-to-become—not deliberately looking for those that are already existent as ontic things but engaging in a process that allows qualities to emerge unexpectedly. Considering the immateriality of intentionality and its indeterminate outcomes, the process of navigating through the labyrinth of De-sign should not be perceived as a set of predetermined activities aiming at an expected result or thing. Navigating through unknown territories for the purpose of seeking qualitatively desired outcomes is the effective, nonlinear, reiterative de-sign process, which is constantly adjusted pragmatically by feedback and feedforward loops in order for the emergent outcome to become compatible with intentionality.

Farouk Y. Seif

Navigating the Labyrith of De-sign

探索设计的迷宫

Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner’s model of conceptual blending is especially helpful in illustrating the type of text-music correspondences that often occur in Felix Mendelssohn’s songs and other vocal works. It corresponds to the way he spoke of his “poetics of song” compositions in his writings on the topic. Following a comparison of the Berlin-based approach to the songwriting of Mendelssohn to that of the Vienna-based song composers, such as Schubert, this essay will examine Mendelssohn’s own writings on text-music for such correspondences with the language of conceptual blending. I conclude with a close reading of “Es weiss und räth es doch Keiner,” Op. 99 no. 6, illustrating how Mendelssohn depicts the overall structure and specific meaning of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem through a variety of musical techniques.

Michael Baker

Conceptual Blending and Mendelssohn’s Poetics of Song

概念融合与门德尔松的歌曲诗学

Charles Tomlinson Griffes was a visionary American composer at the turn of the twentieth century who synthesized highly diverse elements into a new artistic voice. This essay explores two instances of musical irony in Griffes’s oeuvre. “The Vale of Dreams” introduces a new tonal center at the end, which casts doubt on the overall structural role of the recurring bass pedal. Griffes’s use of irony in “Prelude #3” has a more critical character in that he questions underlying theoretical assumptions about scale-degree identity and the traditional concepts of consonance and dissonance. In addition, the double irony awakened in the final chord undermines the model of binary form and the aesthetic principle of closure upon which that model is based. As a result, the third prelude constitutes a kind of musico-philosophical challenge, an aesthetic exclamation point that invites listeners to reconsider traditional definitions of interval quality, tonality, and formal closure.

Taylor A. Greer

A Tale of Two Cadences

两种节奏的故事

Publication Information	Publisher: Philosophy Documentation Center，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2000，Proportion of original research papers: 0.00%，Self Citation Rate:0.00%， Gold OA Rate: 0.00%

American Journal of Semiotics

Journal Citation Format

A journal article with 1 author

A journal article with 2 authors

A journal article with 3 authors

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Books Citation Format

Thesis Citation Format

Web sites Citation Format

Patent Citation Format

Staying up late manually editing references? ivySCI automatically matches journals and helps you generate references with a single click.

Share Submission Experience