Is there a limit to language / music combo?

[admiral_ju00]

I know that I'm probably the only one here who's actually in Anthropology, and this question / response will be better if presented to someone who's studying Linguistic Anthropology, but I want to give it a shot anyway.

 

Keeping a language pure(just work with me here): ie: no slang, no mix-ins of other languages 'popular' words, etc, is there a limit that will eventually be reached when writing a song?

 

Meaning, taking say the (British)English(to appease the many members here ), can a society produce unique word combination with an equally unique musical combination?

 

Just one further clarification:

Songs with different word structures but similar notes/tones/melodies/harmony is what will not desired.

 

Say taking a particular language, the possibility is almost limitless of creating new things or meanings. But say taking an intrument(violin) which has a finite tones or melodies that it can produce before stuff gets repetitive(not just in that one song, but each song must be unique).

 

What are your thoughts on this IF any?

[bloodhound]

no. i dont think there is any limit to the melodies composed. it also depends what you call music. mathematically speaking, the number of combinations depend of the range of notes the instrument can play and the number of notes in the melody. now the lenght of the melody can be as much as you want. and including all the possibilities of various types of rests, phrasing, accentuations and interpretations. the word/music combo is practically infinite. i.e. humans will never use up all the possible combos and they will probably repeat some of the combos from times past without anyone realising.

 

Most of todays music uses the same chord progressions from classical music scores.