“If the coming consciousness of the disjunction between remains the founding act of the theory of the sonic object and of a general science of sound, nonetheless it does not seem that we are able to hear a sound other than as the sound of.” 

This quote from (Sound by Michel Chion) addresses how sounds are essentially created to represent another sound. In this instance it is poorly explained in a way that is not clear and concise to the reader due to the grammatical phrasing. This may be in part that the book in my possession is a translation from French to English by James A. Steintrager and so a well written sentence that makes perfect sense in French can become horrible to read once translated to English.

I will try to rewrite the quote in a way that makes the point direct and understood without getting rid of the author’s intention and use of necessary vocabulary…

“In the consciousness of the listener there may or may not appear to be a disjunction between a physical sound or a sound which acoustically, in our preconceived understanding of sounds that we recognise, represents another sound. Nonetheless, it does not seem that we are able to hear a difference between either, we only recognise that both imitation and original represent the same sonic idea or event.”

Chion, M. (2016) Sound. Translated by J. A. Steintrager,  Duke University Press.