The sound itself is less important than what it stands for. We are oriented in time if we can readily associate the literal sounds with a time period , such as morning, evening, night. Nonliteral sound has no literal meaning. It is not symbolic, which means that it does not stand for a particular thing or event. The most common nonliteral sound is music.
Nonliteral sound can be descriptive and expressive .
Descriptive nonliteral sounds describe a certain quality or event. They describe what a thing or event looks like, and tell more about the condition of the thing or event. Program music is an example of nonliteral descriptive sound. Expressive nonliteral sound evokes a specific feeling, or mood. A musical fugue or sonata is an example of expressive non literal sound.