Lingüística e investigación musical en México

Abstract

The influence of linguistics has been of great importance in the development of ethnomusicology and musicology, accompanying them from the beginning. The application of theories, methods and concepts, in linguistic and musical studies began in the mid-20th Century, contemporary to the growing tide of structuralism. However, there are few specialists who dominate both these fields of study, which gave rise to a conceptual confusion, or rather, the readings applied to the said concepts are relegated, given that they seemed sophisticated from a methodological point of view. Due to the above, the objective of this paper is to present three research projects, by way of a brief overview, that link linguistics and music, breaking down the most basic elements in
both disciplines in such a way as to make them understandable for both linguists and musicians, and any others interested in the theme. This article is part of a literature review that presents
concepts and theories of the language used in music research developed in Mexico from 1985, the year in which the career of Ethnomusicology was created in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (unam), until 2009, demonstrating that structuralist linguistics may be used as a starting point for ethnomusical studies in our country.