 | This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. (April 2007) |
In semiotics the neutral level of a sign is the "trace" left behind; the physical or material creation or remains of esthesic and poietic processes, levels, and analyses of symbolic forms. A part of all signs according to a tri-partitional definition, it corresponds to Saussure's "sound-image" (or "signified", thus Pierce's "representamen").
Thus, "a symbolic form...is not some 'intermediary' in a process of 'communication' that transmits the meaning intended by the author to the audience; it is instead the result of a complex process of creation (the poetic process) that has to do with the form as well as the content of the work; it is also the point of departure for a complex process of reception (the esthesic process that reconstructs a 'message.')"[1]
Molino and Nattiez's diagram:
| Poietic Process | Esthesic Process | |||
| "Producer" | → | Trace | ← | Receiver |
An immanent description is an analysis of the neutral level.(Nattiez 1990, p. 75).
- ^ Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (November 21, 1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-691-02714-5. OCLC 318387960.