Topic 5 (session A) - Sound > Sound symbolism

Sound Symbolism (e.g. onomatopoeia) - 'Words that sound like what they mean'

This topic will look at sound symbolism, or 'words that sound like what they mean'. The most obvious examples of this are onomatopoeic words like 'buzz' or 'hum', where the sound structure of the nouns mimic the sound they represent in the world outside language. But as we shall soon see, words can sound appropriate not just in relation to the sense of hearing, but also in relation to the other senses. For example, some sounds can symbolize size, length and so on. Onomatopoeia is one kind of sound symbolism. This is why we use the general term 'sound symbolism' rather than 'onomatopoeia'.

Are all words sound symbolic?

The short answer to this question is no. In fact, most words in languages (including English) are not sound symbolic. The phonemic composition of the vast majority of words is arbitrary.

There is nothing particularly dog-like or cat-like about the phonemic composition of the words 'dog' or 'cat', and one easy way of grasping this is by noting how the phonemic make-up of these words differs when we provide English synonyms for the same concepts (e.g. 'hound' and 'moggy') or, indeed, words from other languages. If the words of languages had to be sound symbolic, you would expect the phonemic composition of words in different languages referring to the same thing to have lots of phonetic similarities.

It takes quite a lot of time and effort to explain how sound symbolism works, and because of this, if you are not careful, as you learn about sound symbolism you will begin to assume that it is more prevalent than it actually is (a sort of phonetic equivalent to seeing beauty everywhere!).

The Sound Symbolism Checksheet

We have provided you with a checksheet of the major sound symbolic effects associated with particular phonetic qualities. It is very difficult to produce a list which is completely inclusive, but you might find it useful to consult this checksheet as you try to do the following tasks.

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