Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2026

Publication Title

Émergences: Son, musique et médias audiovisuels

Volume

3

First page number:

1

Last page number:

22

Abstract

This essay advocates Michael Riffaterre’s concept of “ungrammaticality”—a moment within a text that appears illogical or confusing according to its own internal grammar— as a useful heuristic for analyzing film music. While intertextuality has long underpinned film music studies, scholars have yet to fully engage with Riffaterre’s model, which emphasizes how such disruptions compel interpretive work by sending audiences outside the text to make meaning.

In cinema, music often functions precisely this way: moments like the entrance of nondiegetic underscoring or abrupt changes in sonic logic interrupt the coherence of the diegetic world and thereby activate the viewer’s intertextual competence. The result is a cinematic meaning-making process rooted not in mimesis but in structured deviation from preexisting models (what Riffaterre calls “hypograms”). The essay employs this analytical approach through diverse examples to reveal that ungrammaticality is a constitutive feature of cinematic music. Such moments affirm film’s identity as an intertextual medium—one that encodes meaning as much through violation of norms as it does through adherence to them.

Keywords

intertextuality; ungrammaticality; audiovisual contract; Godard (Jean-Luc); Riffaterre (Michael)

Disciplines

Music | Musicology | Music Theory

File Format

PDF

File Size

2020 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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