Resumen de Implications—The Limits of Semiotic Inquiry in Musicology

Barron Mosher

• This paper examines the mechanics of theory and methodology in the production of musicology. Of particular importance to this writing are the conflicting interpretations of linguist and semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure's work: in their references to it, semiotician Marshall Blonsky sees terminal stasis, linguist Benjamin Fortson, bold scientific thinking. Having inherited a critical approach aligned with semiotics, musicology's approach to analysis has resulted in the construction of what Blonsky describes as transcendentally stable meaning, which, by extension, has fragmented and factionalized musicology. It is this paper's arguments that linguistic theory is more favorable to musicology than semiotic theory and that the alignment of linguistics and musicology will allow these disciplines to integrate research and perspectives on shared interests.