Mahler within Mahler: allusion as quotation, self-reference, and metareference

The music of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) is ideal as a focus for discussion of the role of self-quotation within musical works. Although self-quotation is not in a technical sense the same thing as a narrow usage of self-reference, these two terms converge in the case of Mahler, through his creation of a semiotic ‘idiolect’ or vocabulary of musical signs which define his works as a single system. This contribution traces a progress from self-quotation, through a more semiotically potent kind of self-reference, to a situation in Mahler’s last completed symphony in which one can speak of metareference within the musical text. Mahler quotes constantly and copiously from other composers and his own works throughout his oeuvre. The most thoroughgoing examination of this habit to date is a 1997 article by Henry Louis de La Grange, whose observations are summarised and discussed here. The concern of this contribution is to focus on Mahler’s self-quotations, and to investigate whether these are a special case, in semiotic terms, and whether their use develops over time. The most straightforward case, in terms of sign functioning, is provided by Mahler’s First Symphony and its quotation of his own song, “Gieng heut’ Morgens über’s Feld”. This is a use of quotation to incorporate the suppressed text of the poem within the semiotic economy of the symphonic narrative. A more tangential and allusive technique is seen in the Fifth Symphony, where the relationship to pre-existing songs and their texts is more distant, and their function within the symphony is indirect and subtle, whilst remaining undeniable. Finally, the present contribution discusses the closing bars of the Ninth Symphony, hearing in them a Proustian representation of the operation of memory through Mahler’s use of fragmented units, which are self-referential within the Mahlerian idiolect. This way of composing attains a modernist, metareferential form of signification

Стилістичний аспект ідеологічного дискурсу Бориса Джонсона під час його першої промови як Прем’єр-міністра, 24.07.09

The following work is focused on the problem of the Stylistic devices and Expressive means usage within the Boris Johnsons’ first speech as a Prime Minister of the UK, 07.24.19, to realize his pragmatic purposes. The first speech of Boris Johnsons is defined as political, institutional, ideological discourse to promote the idea of Brexit among the population of the UK as the most relevant idea for the given community. It is stated that all the language inventory in the form of Stylistic devices and Expressive means used within the Boris Johnsons’ first speech as a Prime Minister of the UK serves to influence the addressee to accept the idea of Brexit as the only one way for the better life in the UK. It is stressed that the author of message uses a great number of epithets to show the benefits of Brexit. Metaphors used in the message are considered not only to appeal to the feelings, emotions of the addressee, but to provoke thinking about the described objects, subjects and phenomena. It is underlined that parallel constructions in the form of anaphora and epiphora within the speech of Boris Johnsons are able to make the information more stressed and valuable. Parenthetic sentences and detachments used in the message are determined as means to give some additional information, some arguments for Brexit, as well as means to express Boris Johnsons’ attitude to the described events and facts. It is pointed out that polysyndeton, asyndeton within the Boris Johnsons speech are used to arrest addressee’s attention to the enumerated items. The usage of polysyndetons and asyndetons within the limited space of speech is defined as specific feature of Boris Johnsons’ first speech as a Prime Minister of the UK, as the means to strike addressee, to etch the given information in the addressee’s memory. It is stated that all used Stylistic devices and Expressive means within the Boris Johnsons’ first speech as a Prime Minister of the UK serve not only to realize speaker’ s pragmatic purposes, but they represent the idiolect and form the idiostyle of Boris Johnsons, as well as create the textual ornament of the given message.У дослідженні cфокусовано увагу на використанні стилістичних прийомів та виразових засобів у першій промові Бориса Джонсона як Прем’єр-міністра Об’єднаного Королівства від 24.07.19. з метою реалізації своїх прагматичних намірів. Перша промова Бориса Джонсона визначена як політичний, інституційний, ідеологічний дискурс – просування ідеї Брекзиту серед населення Об’єднаного Королівства як найбільш релевантної для цієї спільноти. Стверджено, що весь мовний інвентар, тобто стилістичні прийоми та виразові засоби першої промови Бориса Джонсона, слугує впливу на адресата для визнання ним ідеї Брекзиту як єдиного способу покращити життя в Об’єднаному Королівстві. Підкреслено, що промовець послуговується великою кількістю епітетів для демонстрації переваг Брекзиту. З’ясовано, що метафори, використані у повідомленні, не тільки апелюють до емоцій та почуттів адресата, але й здатні провокувати думки щодо зображених об’єктів, суб’єктів, явищ; паралельні конструкції у фор- мі епіфори та анафори перетворюють інформацію на більш виразну та ціннісну; вставні речення та конструкції сприяють наданню детальнішої інформації та аргументів щодо Брекзиту, а також є способом для Бориса Джонсона висловити своє ставлення до зображуваних подій та фактів. Визначено, що використання в промові полісиндетона та асиндетона є особливою рисою виступу Бориса Джонсона як Прем’єр-міністра Об’єднаного Королівства, засобом здивувати адресата та закарбувати в його пам’яті подану інформацію. Підсумовано, що всі стилістичні прийоми та виразові засоби слугують не тільки для реалізації прагматичних цілей промовця, але й репрезентують його ідеолект та формують його ідіостиль, а також створюють текстовий орнамент поданого повідомлення

Evolution, Consciousness, and the Internality of Mind

Articl

Conformity, deformity and reformity

In any given field of artistic practice, practitioners position themselves—or find themselves positioned—according to interests and allegiances with specific movements, genres, and traditions. Selecting particular frameworks through which to approach the development of new ideas, patterns and expressions, balance is invariably maintained between the desire to contribute towards and connect with a particular set of domain conventions, whilst at the same time developing distinction and recognition as a creative individual. Creativity through the constraints of artistic domain, discipline and style provides a basis for consideration of notions of originality in the context of activity primarily associated with reconfiguration, manipulation and reorganisation of existing elements and ideas. Drawing from postmodern and post-structuralist perspectives in the analysis of modern hybrid art forms and the emergence of virtual creative environments, the transition from traditional artistic practice and notions of craft and creation, to creative spaces in which elements are manipulated, mutated, combined and distorted with often frivolous or subversive intent are considered. This paper presents an educational and musically focused perspective of the relationship between the individual and domain-based creative practice. Drawing primarily from musical and audio-visual examples with particular interest in creative disruption of pre-existing elements, creative strategies of appropriation and recycling are explored in the context of music composition and production. Conclusions focus on the interpretation of creativity as essentially a process of recombination and manipulation and highlight how the relationship between artist and field of practice creates unique creative spaces through which new ideas emerge

Function, Semantics And Pragmatics Of Evaluative Adjectives In Fictional Discourse

We constantly assess other people, objects, phenomena, and events around us. The process of evaluation is based on a set of values pertaining to an individual and on certain norms and traditions of the society. The use of certain language means expressing people's attitudes may shed light on such complex cognitive process. Evaluative adjectives are frequently used and form an integral part of the world view in conceptual and language aspects. The present paper provides the results of syntactic, semantic, functional and pragmatic peculiarities of evaluative adjectives in fiction

Semantics through Reference to the Unknown

In this paper, I dwell on a particular distinction introduced by Ilhan Inan—the distinction between ostensible and inostensible use of our language. The distinction applies to singular terms, such as proper names and definite descriptions, or to general terms like concepts and to the ways in which we refer to objects in the world by using such terms. Inan introduces the distinction primarily as an epistemic one but in his earlier writings (1997: 49) he leaves some room for it to have some semantic significance i.e., the view that in certain intensional de re contexts whether a term occurring in a sentence is ostensible or inostensible may have a bearing on the semantic content of the sentence. However, in his later writings e.g., The Philosophy of Curiosity, he appears to abandon his earlier thoughts regarding the semantic significance of his distinction. He says: “the ostensible/inostensible distinction is basically an epistemic one.... It is an epistemic distinction that has no semantic significance” (2012: 65). I argue that there are indeed such intensional contexts in which the distinction has some semantic significance, i.e., whether a term is ostensible or inostensible has in fact a bearing on what proposition is expressed by the sentence in which the term occurs