The semantic aspect of the language of music: a comparative study

The purpose of this article is a study of the features of the music semantics on the basis of its comparison with the mathematical system of signs and their correlations with the peculiarities of the natural language semantics. The problems in the article are as following: - to give the main definition of the sign from the standpoint of semiotics, using this definition to compare it with the music sign, and to reveal the specific differences between music semantics and the natural language semantics; - to consider the features of the mathematical sign system in relation to the natural language; - to state the main theses of G. Frege's theory of sense and, basing on them, to compare the semantics of the natural language, mathematics and music; - to reveal the specifics of music semantics on the basis of the analysis. In semiotics, the sign is a unity of the signifier and the signified that are in derivative relation, but their use is limited by the rules of the society using the language system. The sign claims to be stable and universal. Also the sign has its direct meaning (denotation), that is, concrete indication of the referent, and can have an accompanying indirect meaning (connotation). It is impossible to define a constant sense-making unit in music, consequently, it is impossible to find a definite referent in the external world. Thereby, the absence of the referent becomes the absence of the semantic content in musical utterances. To find this content Frege's theory is used, since Frege introduces the notion of sense that belongs neither to the notional sphere nor to the sphere of things and subject meanings. Mathematics does not have a definite referent in the external world either, since it is distracted from things themselves and operates the pure structures of relations. In this sense music is similar to mathematics, but, unlike the latter, has a much smaller level of abstraction. According to Frege, musical signs have sense, but it is the sense that will place them in the system, since they have no definite referent. A subjective idea, in the philosopher's opinion, cannot be the referent. Consequently, emotional perception expressed in music can be interpreted as the sense of the utterance conditionally only. Music does not speak "about something", it is a realization of "something", a pure act of speaking.

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