Experimental methods in phonosemantics: preliminary testing of the
antonymic hypothesis as a way of mediating between the arbitrary nature
of linguistic representation and aspects of iconism
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Abstract
- The question of whether or not linguistic sounds might convey
inherent meaning has never conclusively been resolved. This is an
empirical study weighing evidence for and against the existence of
phonosemantics, also known as sound symbolism or iconism. Contrary to
well established principles such as the arbitrary nature of the sign and
the double articulation, the phonosemantic hypothesis proposes that the
sounds which compose a given word correlate with aspects of the meaning
of that word by virtue of their articulatory features. 116 individuals
of 19--73 years of age from both sexes were interviewed to determine
their intuitions regarding potential meanings of linguistic sounds. The
experiment consisted of three distinct parts. First, participants were
asked to define nonsense words with their only cueing being the sound
segments of the nonsense word. Second, for a given definition,
participants were asked to create an appropriate-sounding nonsense word,
uninfluenced by any real words. Finally, for a given image,
participants were asked to create an appropriate-sounding nonsense word,
uninfluenced by any real words. Participants' responses from the first
part were analyzed for semantic patterns, while responses from the
second and third parts were analyzed for phonic patterns. Data was
interpreted according to the antonymic hypothesis, which states that
iconism is most readily observable in articulations that can be set in
antonymic contrast to other articulations. This includes points of
articulation from the extremities of the vocal apparatus such as front,
back, high, and low and manners of articulation such as stops and
continuants. The data gathered presents little evidence in support of
phonosemantics; hence, by default, the opposite case is made in support
of arbitrary designative processes. However, it was determined that
certain experimental procedures could be altered during future
endeavors, perhaps leading to different results. This alteration
primarily involves ways to better control extra-stimulus motivation
(interference from real words) which was judged as the most crucial
variable of the experimental process.
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- Author
- Freeman, Geremy Richard
- Thesis advisor
- Picone, Michael D.
- Committee member
- Godorecci, Maurizio
- Committee member
- Lightfoot, Douglas
- Committee member
- Cipria, Alicia
- Committee member
- Davies, Catherine
- Department
- University of Alabama. Dept. of Modern Languages and Classics
- Topic(s)
- Language, Linguistics
Iconism
Phonosemantics
Sound Symbolism
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Date Issued
- 2009
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Physical Description
- 1004 p.
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Access Condition(s)
- All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.