Not so fast: Speed-related conceptsin Chinese music and beyond
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Adrian Tien
Abstract
While speed as a sonic and musical experience may be a universal phenomenon, concepts referring to kinds of speed are language-specific and culture-dependent. This paper focuses on the notion of speed in Chinese and concepts associated with speed in Chinese, especially in relation to music. Five speed-related concepts in Chinese are subjected to scrutiny: kuai, ji, su, man and huan. These concepts are scrutinised in traditional musical, contemporary musical and general contemporary contexts. The musical genres in which these concepts present themselves are the music of guqin (a seven-stringed zither) and Peking Opera. Semantic analyses adopting the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach are utilised in order to explicate these concepts.
Preliminary findings demonstrate that, unlike in some other musical traditions in which one might expect the capacity to play at markedly contrastive speeds in a musical performance to be aesthetically desirable or even essential, as the meanings of the speed-related concepts in Chinese reveal, the ability to play fast is not necessarily aesthetically praiseworthy in at least traditional Chinese music, nor is speed necessarily a major consideration as one executes speed in a Chinese musical interpretation.
摘要
纵然声音与音乐中存在的速度是一种普遍性的现象， 指称速度的一些概念却是极具语言特定性与文化独特性的。此篇文章探讨中国语言里所反映对速度此现象的文化观与存在着的速度概念，尤其是与音乐相关的一些速度概念。我们调查了快、急、速、慢、缓这五个速度概念出现在传统音乐、现代音乐与一般现代语境的语言状况。为此，我们藉用了古琴（五弦琴）音乐与京剧来作为我们专注研究的音乐类型。之后，我们使用了自然语义原语言 (NSM) 分析了这五个速度概念的语义。
初步调查结果与速度概念的语义分析显示，中国音乐并不像许多其他的音乐传统那么注重利用具鲜明与对比性的速度去呈现音乐之美。事实上，至少从传统中国音乐的审美角度来看，音乐之美并不一定取决于演奏的速度之快或否，而速度也并非诠释传统中国音乐的要素。
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Hong Kong Cantonese language: Current features and future prospects
- Tracing ethnic socialisation of Chinese in Malaysia to Chinese-medium school
- Not so fast: Speed-related conceptsin Chinese music and beyond
- Learning Mandarin in Singapore Preschools: Laying the Foundation for Multilingualism
- 上海市常住人口的语言选择和语言使用度研究
- 从虚词变异看马来西亚华语与早期现代汉语的关系
- 海峡两岸同素异序词历时考察————以“熊猫” 和 “猫熊” 为例
- 普通话叙事语篇中复句的凸显度
- Book Reviews and Notices
- Linda Tsung: Language Power and Hierarchy: Multilingual Education in China
- 两本中文译著介评：《语言政策》和《语言管理》
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Hong Kong Cantonese language: Current features and future prospects
- Tracing ethnic socialisation of Chinese in Malaysia to Chinese-medium school
- Not so fast: Speed-related conceptsin Chinese music and beyond
- Learning Mandarin in Singapore Preschools: Laying the Foundation for Multilingualism
- 上海市常住人口的语言选择和语言使用度研究
- 从虚词变异看马来西亚华语与早期现代汉语的关系
- 海峡两岸同素异序词历时考察————以“熊猫” 和 “猫熊” 为例
- 普通话叙事语篇中复句的凸显度
- Book Reviews and Notices
- Linda Tsung: Language Power and Hierarchy: Multilingual Education in China
- 两本中文译著介评：《语言政策》和《语言管理》
