Languages & Linguistics
Sound Symbolisms
Sound symbolisms refer to the phenomenon where certain sounds are associated with specific meanings or emotions across different languages. This concept suggests that there is a non-arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning, and that certain sounds may convey universal or cross-linguistic associations. Sound symbolisms can be found in onomatopoeic words, ideophones, and other linguistic elements.
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5 Key excerpts on "Sound Symbolisms"
eBook - PDF- Roman Jakobson, Linda R. Waugh(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
On the other hand, linguists began to turn their atten- tion toward the immediate and autonomous significance of the constit- uents of the verbal sound shape in the life of language. This signifi- cance was supposed to be prompted directly by their nature, physei, ac- cording to Plato's dialogue Kratylos dramatizing the contest between the two permanent linguistic forces - convention and nature. One cannot but agree with Coseriu (1969) when he acclaims Georg von der Gabelentz (1840-1893) as a "precursor of present-day linguis- tics" and especially as a promoter of "fruitful ideas on sound symbol- ism". Let us mention here that the widespread use in linguistics, poet- 182 THE SOUND SHAPE OF LANGUAGE ics, and psychology of the term 'symbolism' for the figurative relation - physei - is at variance with the semiotic terminology introduced by Peirce, who called those signs built physei, 'icons', in contradistinction to those based thesei, which he labeled 'symbols'. However, the term 'sound symbolism', designating an inmost, natural similarity associa- tion between sound and meaning (signans and signatum), is so deeply enrooted in the protracted scholarly debates on this problem that our survey of this discussion will keep to the locution 'sound symbolism'. In the comprehensive critical scrutiny of linguistic "tasks, methods, and achievements" which concluded Gabelentz's research (1891), he repeatedly raised the question of the proper expressive values inherent in the sounds of language. He detected such values in the creative pro- cess of children's linguistic growth and cited, for instance, the case of a little German boy who used the root m-m for anything round. This child named the bright moon and a white plate mem, a large round pan mom or mum, and the little white stars mim-mim-mim-mim-mim, using a symbolic repetition. In his lexicon, a regular chair was lakeil, a little doll's chair likill, and grandpa's armchair lukul.
eBook - PDF- Edward Sapir, Judith T. Irvine(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
3. Speech as a Symbolic System Reading poetry we frequently experience [the way in which] the words as well as the whole evocative structure of the spoken poem have symbolic values. [Leaving the question of the poem's overall structure aside,] the symbolism of words is highly dissociated, highly abstracted. [Now, the symbolism in them that is most often and easily experienced is the] referential — referring, that is, to meanings which are not given in the sounds themselves and that are not primary, [to use the nomenclature I proposed in an earlier lecture. The referential is often taken to be the essential form of symbolism in language, what we might even call lin-guistic symbolism par excellence.] But in the person speaking, there appear symbolisms very different from the referential symbolism of language, primary symbolisms which are over and above linguistic symbolisms, and which are frequently used consciously or subconsciously by poets and actors, [in their management of] sounds, rhythm, and intonation, [for example. The meanings conveyed with these symbolisms may turn out to be quite at odds with what the words express referentially. As they say,] it is the actor's art to use any word to express anything. 228 Symbolic Structures and Experience (1933 — 34) This observation leads to the question, have sounds as such a potential quality aside from what they mean? In 1929 I started an experimental investigation in this point, a preliminary report on which is published under the title A Study in Phonetic Symbolism. 12 These studies are still going on, [thanks to] Dr. [Stanley] Newman, [who has taken over the work.] [In the course of] that study it became obvious that there is [something we might call] a natural phonetic alignment — that is, that certain meanings which don't come from the situation [itself] are applied to certain sounds. [We found that] there exists a phantasy vocabulary, that certain vowels [seem to] sound bigger ([or smaller,] etc.) than others.
- Michael Bock, Gert Rickheit, Michael Bock, Gert Rickheit(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
In both cases the symbolic function is the result of a learning process. It should therefore be a matter of random choice which signal should be used in which (situational) context, just as in the case of words. This position of learning theory is contradicted by phenomena of the so-called natural sound symbolism (cf. the surveys by Brown 1958 and Hörmann 1977). This includes the onomatopoetic words (such as Kuckuk — cuckoo, knarren — to creak, and summen — to hum). Words of this kind fulfil a natu-ral symbolic function which is not solely based on a learning process because they imitate at least in part, the sound of their non-linguistic referent. In contrast to this one should mention the numerous cases of homonymy and synonymy (Schippan 1975; cf. also Wichter 1980): homonymous words can symbolize different concepts (for instance Ball — ball: toy/dance), and vice versa: concepts with identical meanings can be symbolized by different sound structures (for example lahm — lame/gehbehindert; Gasthaus — inn/ Restaurant). It follows that an onomatopoetic relationship between a word and its referent is not the rule, but the exception. This explains why, in the 34 Μ. Bock above-mentioned sign models, an unlearned natural relation between sym-bol and concept is not included. However, there is another form of natural sound symbolism which is far more subtle than the phenomenon of onomatopoeia. This is shown by investigations which, in the German-speaking countries, are primarily associated with Ertel. One of these investigations will be presented here in greater detail (Ertel 1969, Experiment 8): 24 German language word pairs were used with different affective meanings according to Osgood et al. (1957): three groups of eight pairs each represented opposite poles in terms of one of three dimensions of meaning, i.e. evaluation (for instance pleasant vs. unpleasant), potency (for instance man vs. woman) and activity (for instance to run vs. to walk).
eBook - PDF- Paul Bouissac(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Continuum(Publisher)
The nature of the concept does not constrain the form of the “acoustic image,” which could be any other sound pattern as it is the case in languages other than English; third, a linguistic sign has no meaning by itself. Signs are not isolated units whose meanings would be determined by positive relations between the “acoustic images” and the concepts. Signs signify through their differences with each other. Their meanings depend more on what they are not than on what they are. They form systems of differential values. Let us now consider in more detail each of these properties. SAUSSURE: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED 92 2 THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN 2.1 The two sides of the linguistic sign For Saussure, the association between what he calls most of the times the “acoustic image” and the “concept” or the “idea” is distinct from the relation between form and meaning that the philosophical tradition had construed in the past in its discussions of language. The philosophical view is based upon the assumption that there exists an autonomous thought that can be expressed under various guises. In opposition to this view, Saussure contends that linguistic forms cannot be considered independently of their meanings. A skeptic may object that parts of the example given above, such as the complex sounds “fr,” “lan,” or “ges,” can be described as acoustic forms. Saussure would retort that these are sound patterns but not linguistic forms in the English language.
eBook - ePub- Jethro Bithell(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
CHAPTER ISOUNDS, SYMBOLS AND ALPHABETS
MEANS OF CONVEYING MEANINGPronunciation. Language (in the general significance of the word) is made up of sounds. The pronunciation (Aussprache) of a given language is the way in which the sounds of this language are made. They are made by the organs of speech; and they are made to express, and usually to convey, a meaning. Meaning may be expressed by speech without being conveyed to a hearer (for instance, when one speaks or reads to oneself); it is conveyed when it is apprehended by the ears of a second person or of other persons.Language (Sprache) has two meanings. It means (1) language in general, that is, the faculty of speech as distinguished from silence, the power of speech, 1 and (2) any individual language as the mode of expression, by words and the arrangement of words, of any one nation as distinguished from the languages of other nations.Etymologically ‘language’ (<Fr. langage <langue) means that which is produced by the tongue;2 but language’ has been extended to mean that which is conveyed by signs: thus ‘finger language’ or ‘finger and sign language’ is the means of expression of deaf and dumb people (Fingersprache der Taubstummen). The language of animals (die Sprache der Tiere, die Tiersprache) consists of inarticulate or inconglomerate sounds; that is, sounds not divisible into syllables and words. The language of flowers conveys meaning by treating flowers as symbols; that is, by ascribing to them a fixed and separate meaning. Meaning may also be conveyed by gestures (Gebärdensprache)3
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