Musical Semiotics in Growth - SemioticSigns.com

90 Mtu'iei ,lrrl'tfttri,skr
Vttlrtc,s and their cognition in the semiotic theory ctf C.S.pcirce
gl
reflection). since at the moment when we realiz.e the fact that
"somelhing" is "first", that "something" ceases being "first" and
l'recornes "second". i.e.. "sourething" that has ctlttte inttl existence in the
p11rst rudimentary lirrnt itt ()Llr cttt.tsciousness. While Secondness
introchrccs lhe elcntent o1' "cliscretencss" to our cclnsciousncss. 'l'hirdness
ret-ers to relations charactcristic of evetrts, phenttmena, tlh.jccts.
Therefirre, Thirclncss is a category of "law", "relativity", "rule".
Ref'erring here to tltc earlicr mentioned exatnplc (adduced by Peirce) of
a musical work, we can state that in a direct, pre-reflectional perception
it appears as a category of [;irstness. Then, after a definite existence of
the particular souttcl in "tinre atrd space". it is seen as Secondness; while
in the frorn of an identifiablc structrlre of morphtllogical elements it is a
category of the Thirdness.
This rcl'erence to the thcorv of "category", although carried out in a
rathcr superficial and abbrcviated filrm, facilitates and in some degree
"softens" our passing into thc sphere of connectiotrs betweetr Peirce's
conception of aesthctics and his theory of signs. Defining the interpretant
as thc: "proper cfl'cct of thc nteaning" ttf tltc sign. Pcirce madc two
significarrt triaclic clivisiotts of thc category of nteaning. devcloping
particularly the analysis of onc of them, namely. thc logical interpretant.
Accorcling to the classification bascd on the ontological categories. the
interpretant is dcfined as the category of Thirdness. At the same time,
we obtain three types of interpretants: the direct, the dynamic, and the
l-inal interpr-etant. Ry means of the sccond of the proposed divisions -
crnotioual, cnergetic. and logical interpretattlsr - alrd its usability for
lurther considerations, I shall fircus my attention on the direct and
dyuaurie intclprcturlts.
The first of the above-tnentiotred types of interpretant refers to the
sign "itsclf" (rnediurn of transfer in the tcrminology of Bense) and is
clelined as the ". . effect evoked by the sigtt without carrying out any
reflection on il" (Bense 1980: 43). The sccond type, the dynamrc
interpretant, is "thc real cl'f'ecthat the given sigtl cxerts" (Bttczynska
197-5: 133). It consists irr thc "direct cf'f'ect factually excrted by thc sigtt
orl its interprctcr" (ihid.). Utilizirrg again the classification of
interprclants on the basis of tlntological "categorics", we filrd rn
rct'erence t