Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 35:1 (2025) ► pp.25–50
Syntax and music for interaction
‘Music-taking-predicate’ constructions in Hebrew musician-to-musician discourse
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 15 September 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.23033.gev
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.23033.gev
Abstract
Multimodal constructions which intertwine language and music are characteristic of the discourse of creative
encounters among musicians. This interactional linguistic study reports on one such construction: the ‘music-taking-predicate’
(MTP) construction. MTP constructions consist of a projective verbal predicate, and a stretch of sung or played musical expression
following it. Based on naturalistic video data of Hebrew-speaking musicians in rehearsals and production sessions, I show that
instances of this construction emerge as formulae for the achievement of several interactional tasks integral to the process of
joint music making.
Keywords: music, CTP, interactional linguistics, multimodality, Hebrew, multimodal syntax
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 3.Data and methods
- 4.Designing MTP constructions
- 4.1Lexico-semantic design
- 4.2Prosodic design
- 4.3Embodied behavior
- 5Syntax and music for interaction
- 5.1Music making
- 5.2Music making with MTP constructions
- 5.2.1Introducing the “Freezers”
- 5.2.2Repairing musical errors
- 5.2.3Making musical suggestions
- 5.2.4Navigating musical structure
- 6.Discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
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