Towards an integrative coding of qualitative interjections

Interrelating Emotive Interjections in Response to Integrative Failure (Part #5)

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Huff's encoding method might then be applied to the experience of discourse, especially political discourse or communications intended to evoke an effect -- and in response to which challenging meta-narrative interjections may be made (if only out of frustration). The distinctions made earlier may then be extended into an 8-fold set, more specifically adapted to political discourse. This is designed to capture "tangible" distinctions between:

• "sight", namely how a policy "looks": distinguishing "billboarding vision" from "lack of transparency" (stealth politics, etc)
• "sound", namely how a policy "sounds": distinguishing "sound" policy from "unsound" policy ("sounding funny")
• "sense", namely claims that a policy is "sensible" as opposed to "senseless" ("nonsense", meaningless, etc)

It is the evident inconsistencies and contradictions (as encoded by the table) which evoke pattern-breaking interjections. The table is used to relate the Ba Gua pattern of trigrams of the I Ching to the "Eight Sound" pattern of the Ba Yin derived from it and representing distinct tone qualities. These are the eight categories of natural materials out of which musical instruments were constructed, in terms of which it was held that all categories (and musical instruments) had to be represented in any ritual music ensemble in order to produce music in harmonious accord with nature. A theoretical system of 12 pitches per octave was also used, of which the first frequency of the system was called 'Yellow Bell' (Huangzhong) -- serving as the primal generator of the whole series of twelve (Darryl Lyman, Yellow Bell: music of the universe in Ancient China, 26 October 2009; Fred Fisher, The Yellow Bell of China and the Endless Search, Music Educators Journal, 59, 8, 1973). There is a case for exploring the corrspondences between the mythical status (and assumed role) of the Yellow Bell in China and that of the Language of the Birds in other cultures -- especially in the light of the significance of harmony in both.

Both traditional and current reflection on the correspondences to various tuning systems are the subject of continuing study, as noted in a thoughtful description of Chinese Theories of Music by Gregory Youtz (Silk and Bamboo: an introduction to Chinese musical culture, 1999, ch. 9). Whilst the Ba Gua, Ba Yin and instrumental correspondences in the following table are derived from Youtz, the association of "mnemonic group" with trigrams in the table is purely arbitrary at this stage, serving only to indicate the possibility of a useful future association with types interjection. The ambiguity of the "discourse interpretation" follows (tentatively) from the classic distinction made by Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media, 1994) between "hot" and "cool" modes of communication. In Alternate A the mode effectively favours "hot", treating "coolth" as questionable and unserious -- emphasizing closure. With Alternate B, "coolth" is favoured, with the contrary considered questionably "overbearing" and suspect -- emphasizing openness.

Fig. 3a: Distinguishing potential for interjection in discourse
Classical Chinese correspondences				Attributions of significance			Discourse interpretation		Mnemonic group (arbitrary)
Trigram	Ba Yin (tonal quality)	Examples of musical instruments	Ba Gua (I Ching)	Sight ("vision") Lower line	Sound ("declaration") Middle line	Sense ("meaning") Upper line	Alternate A (favouring closure)	Alternate B (favouring openness)
	Shi (stone)	stone chimes	Heaven (sky, creative force, strength)				consistent, decided, looks, sounds and seems OK	completely overbearing and uncool	Do
	Jin (metal)	bells, gongs and metal drums	Lake (marsh, joyous, open, devotion)				looks and sounds OK, but relatively meaningless	cool intentions, but seemingly uncool	Re
	Si (silk)	stringed instruments	Fire (clinging, radiance, clarity)				looks OK, meaningful, but sounds curious ("speaks with forked tongue"?)	sounds cool but uncool looks and intentions	Mi
	Mu (wood)	wood blocks	Wind (gentle, penetrating)				looks bizarre, but sounds OK and is meaningful	looks cool, but otherwise uncool	Fa
	Zhu (bamboo)	woodwinds: flutes, reed-based	Thunder (arousing, initiative)				looks OK, but sounds bizarre and relatively meaningless	looks uncool, but otherwise cool	So
	Ge (hide)	leather-headed drums	Water (abysmal, dangerous)				looks bizarre, sounds fine, but relatively meaningless	sounds uncool, but cool looks and intentions	La
	Bao (gourd)	mouth organs	Mountain (keeping still, stand-still)				looks and sounds bizarre, but relatively meaningful	looks and sounds cool but uncool intentions	Ti
	Tu (clay)	clay flutes and drums	Earth (receptive, devoted, yielding)				uncertain, questioning, looks and sounds bizarre, and is relatively meaningless	consistently and completely cool	Do'

Alternation between the "closure" interpretation of Alternate A and the "openness" interpretation of Alternate B is the essence of any system limited to binary logic -- as in contemporary politics in which each alternate demonizes the other. The enrichment of such distinctions is a characteristic of epistemological frameworks honouring variety (Systems of Categories Distinguishing Cultural Biases, 1993) -- notably the mindscapes of Magoroh Maruyama and the "pre-logical biases" of W. T. Jones. The interplay of alternatives will no doubt be a preoccupation of the future (Ed Bremson, The Tao of Politics, 2005; Thomas Cleary, Tao of Politics: lessons of the Masters of Huainan, 1990).

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