Myth and music are "two sisters begotten by language"? What does he mean by this?
The Connection between Myth, Music and Language
Allison Moss
When Levi-Strauss writes that myth and music are "two sisters begotten by language," he simply means that both forms have elements that are seen in language, but branch off in different directions. For example, language is made up of phonemes, which make up words, which make up sentences. Levi-Strauss argues that myths are made up of elements that resemble words and sentences, but not phonemes, because phonemes are essentially meaningless sounds. Music, according to Levi-Strauss, incorporates phoneme-like sounds (notes) and sentence-like sounds (phrases of music) but does not have an element that corresponds to words. In pointing out where myth and music fall short of language, Levi-Strauss means to illustrate how both myth and music use language as a jumping-off point, but then go in different directions.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.