MULTILEVEL GROUNDING develops a new approach to musical meaning - Multilevel-Grounded Semantics, addressing the well-known paradox that music seems full of meaning yet there is little consensus among listeners on what exactly it is that this meaning communicates.
The book combines cutting edge insights from the fields of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, semiotics, linguistics, and music cognition, using a broad range of examples from traditional, classical and popular world musics, into a theoretical system that shows how the focus on the grounding problem may help researchers convincingly resolve the apparent ungraspability of musical semantics.
Mihailo Antovic is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, and Head Researcher at the Centre for Cognitive Sciences, University of Nis , Serbia. He has published extensively in the areas of cognitive linguistics, semantics, semiotics, and music cognition, including three books in Serbian and numerous articles in international journals and edited volumes. He is the recipient of Fulbright and Humboldt Fellowships.
1. Defining the problem
2. The Basics
3. Level 1: Physiological Constraints
4. Level 2: Embodiment
5. Level 3: Connotation
6. Level 4: Conceptual Musical Meaning
7. Level 5: Elaborated Cultural Musical Meaning
8. Level 6: Individual Musical Meaning
9. Integration
10. Implications and Extensions