Meaning in the context of sound quality assessment

摘要

The aim of this paper is to point out the role of meaning the listener associates with a sound in the context of sound quality assessment. In the area of sound quality assessment the quality of a sound is often reduced to its surface form alone. However, to the listener a sound has not only a form, but a sound is also perceived as a carrier of information: Each sound has a meaning to its listener, and as such each sound is perceived as a sign. Consequently, the meaning of sounds does have a weighty influence on its judged quality. The science which guides the understanding of this aspect is sign theory, also called semiotics. The paper briefly outlines basic principles of semiotics and relates them to the field of sound quality assessment. [References: 9]