DOCSLIB.ORG

Margaret Magnus What's in a Word?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Margaret Magnus What's in a Word? Margaret Magnus What’s in a Word? Studies in Phonosemantics Submitted to NTNU for evaluation for the degree 'Doctor Philosophiae' 4/20/01 Acknowledgements To Catherine Chvany and Lars Hellan especially -- two of the finest linguists I have ever had the pleasure to know. My gratitude goes out not only for these last months, but in general for years and years of support, through thick and through thin. When I suggested the possibility to Lars of submitting a dissertation to the University of Trondheim, he didn’t hesitate, but took me on immediately. Catherine has read through this dissertation twice in such minute detail, that I’m almost left with the impression that she knows it better than I do. I’m no less indebted to my beautiful mother, who literally made this work possible by supporting me materially as I was writing it. Her generosity throughout has been unconditional, unsolicited and disarmingly cheerful. She has followed me through this process with great interest as a good friend, advisor and confidante. Thank you also, Greg Carlson, who agreed to fly all the way from Rochester to Norway on behalf of someone he has never met. Thanks to my children, Rachel and Arne, who keep me young and on my toes. Thanks to my baby brother, John, and to his wife, Terri, for providing an alternative place to hang out, shoot the breeze and play Mah Jongg in the evenings. And to all my friends and supporters who have endured my interminable sound-meaning talk and my other extraneous rantings and ravings with a smile, including but not limited to Frank Abbate, Thomas Everth, Joseph Gilbert, Kay Gillespie, Linda Hardesty, Dick Kane, Allen Kaplan, Aron Katsenelinboigen, Irina Kirilenko, TK, Volodya Kozhemiakov, Kristin Kvam, Paul Magnus, Sasha Nizhnikov, Charles Pyle, Alexander Romanul, Haj Ross, Andrew Rothovius, Sid Shinedling, Constantin Simun, Stephanie Smolinsky, Danny Solomon, Janice Tarver and Charles Zapata. Thanks, folks. Table of Contents 0. Abstract..................................................................................................................................1 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2 1.1 Conflicting Data............................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Overview of Major Results.............................................................................................3 1.3 Methods Employed........................................................................................................9 1.4 Brief Outline................................................................................................................ 11 2. Overview of the Phonosemantics Literature..........................................................................12 2.1 The Beginnings of Phonosemantics...............................................................................12 2.1.1 The Ancients........................................................................................................12 2.1.2 The 17th-19th Centuries......................................................................................14 2.2 Prewar Phonosemantics -- Major Trends in the 20th Century...................................... 19 2.2.1 Maurice Grammont............................................................................................. 19 2.2.2 Velemir Khlebnikov............................................................................................19 2.2.3 Leonard Bloomfield............................................................................................20 2.2.4 Psycholinguistic Experiments -- Sapir et al........................................................ 21 2.2.5 Otto Jespersen......................................................................................................22 2.2.6 Richard Paget......................................................................................................22 2.2.7 African Ideophones -- Doke et al........................................................................ 22 2.2.8 John Rupert Firth................................................................................................. 23 2.3 Structuralism -- Saussure.............................................................................................. 24 2.4 Postwar Phonosemantics............................................................................................... 26 2.4.1 Dwight Bolinger..................................................................................................26 2.4.2 Ivan Fónagy......................................................................................................... 26 2.4.3 Hans Marchand.................................................................................................... 27 2.4.4 Suitbert Ertel.......................................................................................................28 2.4.5 Gérard Genette....................................................................................................29 2.4.6 Roman Jakobson..................................................................................................29 2.4.7 Roger Williams Wescott.....................................................................................30 2.4.8 Richard Rhodes & John Lawler........................................................................... 31 2.4.9 Keith McCune......................................................................................................32 2.4.10 Yakov Malkiel...................................................................................................32 2.5 Research after 1990.......................................................................................................33 3. Theoretical Preliminaries.................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Recapitulation of Basic Issues.......................................................................................34 3.2 Classification Systems.................................................................................................36 3.3 A Small Scale Example of the Phonosemantic Experiment........................................ 40 3.4 Overview of the Experiments to Be Conducted........................................................... 46 4. Phonosemantic Experiments.................................................................................................54 4.1 Experiment 1 -- Classification First by Phoneme Sequence and then by Semantic Domain ......................................................................................................................................54 4.1.1 Methodology.......................................................................................................54 4.1.2 Example.............................................................................................................. 55 i 4.1.3 Discussion of Findings.........................................................................................57 4.1.3.1 Overview.................................................................................................... 57 4.1.3.2 Semantic Domains of the Consonants.........................................................59 4.1.3.3 ‘Exceptional’ Words and Concrete Noun Classes:.....................................66 4.1.3.4 The Senses of a Word.................................................................................72 4.1.3.5 The Positional Effect................................................................................. 73 4.1.3.6 Summary of Results of Experiment 1 and Outline of Resultant Theories about Language.................................................................................................................75 4.2 Experiment 2 -- Classification First by Phoneme Sequence, Subclassification by Semantic Domain and then Regrouping of Different Phonemes by Semantic Domain......................77 4.2.1 Methodology.......................................................................................................77 4.2.2 Example.............................................................................................................. 78 4.2.3 Discussion of Findings.........................................................................................80 4.2.3.1 Evidence this Experiment Provides for the Major Theses in this Dissertation ................................................................................................................................80 4.2.3.2 Common Semantic Domains for /r/ in Second Position...........................81 4.2.3.3 Characterizations of the Phonetic Features................................................. 82 4.2.3.4 Characterizations of the Phonetic Features Sorted by Semantic Class.......83 4.3 Experiment 3 -- Natural Classes for Arbitrary Sets of Words.................................... 85 4.3.1 Methodology.......................................................................................................85 4.3.2 Example.............................................................................................................. 85 4.3.3 Discussion of Findings.........................................................................................86 4.4 Experiment 4 -- Classify Words Containing a Phoneme Sequence X into a Classification Designed for Words Containing
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Contribution of John Rupert Firth to the History of Linguistics and the Rejection of the Phoneme Theory Angela Senis
    The contribution of John Rupert Firth to the history of linguistics and the rejection of the phoneme theory Angela Senis To cite this version: Angela Senis. The contribution of John Rupert Firth to the history of linguistics and the rejection of the phoneme theory. ConSOLE XXIII (23rd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe), SOLE, Jan 2015, Paris, France. pp.273-293. hal-01515010 HAL Id: hal-01515010 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01515010 Submitted on 30 Apr 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The contribution of John Rupert Firth to the history of linguistics and the rejection of the phoneme theory. Angela Senis This article is meant to show how central Firth’s particular position towards the phoneme is, in terms of constitution of the concept of phonaesthesia as a direct answer to the flaws he denounced in the phoneme. The rejection of the phoneme theory then led to the constitution of a whole and coherent theory of language now known under the name Contextual theory of meaning or even Firthian linguistics. It has eventually resulted in the creation of an independent school of thinking, the London School of Linguistics that has influenced many generations of British linguists.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ICONICITY of CONSONANTS in ACTION WORDS by XINJIA PENG
    THE ICONICITY OF CONSONANTS IN ACTION WORDS by XINJIA PENG A THESIS Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2013 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Xinjia Peng Title: The Iconicity of Consonants in Action Words This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Zhuo Jing-Schmidt Chairperson Kaori Idemaru Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2013 ii © 2013 Xinjia Peng iii THESIS ABSTRACT Xinjia Peng Master of Arts The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures June 2013 Title: The Iconicity of Consonants in Action Words Saurssure argues that the relationship between form and meaning in language is arbitrary, but sound symbolism theory argues that there are forms in language that can develop non-arbitrary association with meanings. This thesis proposes that there is a sound symbolic association between consonants and action words. To be more specific, a stop sound is likely to be associated with the action of percussion and a continuant sound with continuing movements. Evidence for such an association was found through three empirical studies. The findings of two experiments revealed that such an association is motivated by the gestures when pronouncing the consonants and by their phonetic features.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: an EXAMINATION of the INFLUENCE of AGE on L2 ACQUISITION of ENGLISH SOUND-SYMBOLIC P
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: AN EXAMINATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF AGE ON L2 ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH SOUND-SYMBOLIC PATTERNS Written by: Jeansue Mueller, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 Directed by: Professor Nan Jiang Department of Second Language Acquisition A number of researchers (DeKeyser, 2012; J. S. Johnson & Newport, 1989; Long, 1990) have argued that age is a critical factor in second language acquisition. This conclusion is based on extensive research over the last two decades that has demonstrated age-related effects in learners’ nonnativelike acquisition of phonology, morphosyntax, pragmatics, and discourse-level features of language. In the wake of such findings, there has recently been an increased interest in determining the precise linguistic areas that are difficult for adult learners and the cognitive mechanisms implicated in age-related effects. Because implicit learning plays a key role in first-language (L1) acquisition, particularly in the acquisition of statistical patterns in language, it has been proposed that age effects may be the result of attenuated implicit learning capabilities in late-teen and adult learners (DeKeyser, 2000; Janacsek, Fiser, & Nemeth, 2012). If this is true, age-related effects should be significant in linguistic areas that are not readily amenable to conscious learning processes and explicit instruction. To determine whether this is in fact the case, this study examined the linguistic knowledge of native speakers (NSs), early L2 learners, and learners who acquired English as adults. In particular, it examined these groups’ knowledge related to an area of English that is hypothesized to be difficult to learn explicitly, namely, English sound-symbolic (SS) patterns. Participants were composed of English NSs (n = 20) and three NNS groups with L1 Korean and L2 of English.
    [Show full text]
  • Jens Allwood-Pragmatics Final April, 2017 Copy
    Jens Allwood Pragmatics: From language as a sign system to language use 1. Introduction In classical Greece and Rome, rhetoric and dialectics, the most popular studies of language, were concerned with persuasive speech making and argumentation. Besides this, and less popular, there was also a study of language concerned with the preservation of the Homeric epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad. In the Alexandria grammar, (cf. Robins, 1997) this study developed into a full fledged morphologically based grammar, containing more or less the parts of speech and subcategories we still use in most of modern language descriptions. Two characteristics of this classical description were that (i) it was normative – the correct forms of the Homeric epics were to be preserved against the changes taking place in Alexandrian Koiné Greek and (ii) it was concerned with written language. Over time, up until today, this type of grammar – a normative description of primarily the morphological characteristics of the written representations of a language, especially when complemented with a lexicon, has been seen as a way of capturing the essential features of a language. It was, and still is, the basis of both linguistic theorizing and language teaching in many countries of the world. Grammar (from the Greek techné grammatiké, the art of letters, i.e. writing), was seen as the core of a language and as an indispensible help to write, but also, somewhat surprisingly, to speak a language. If the use of language was studied at all, it was studied in the literary works of great writers and to some extent in rhetoric and dialectics.
    [Show full text]
  • Automatic Labeling of Phonesthemic Senses Ekaterina Abramova ([email protected]) Department of Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen
    Automatic Labeling of Phonesthemic Senses Ekaterina Abramova ([email protected]) Department of Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen Raquel Fernandez´ ([email protected]) Institute for Logic, Language & Computation, University of Amsterdam Federico Sangati ([email protected]) Institute for Logic, Language & Computation, University of Amsterdam Abstract nations for the phenomenon would rest on the intuited as- sociation between sound production and meaning. For ex- This study attempts to advance corpus-based exploration of sound iconicity, i.e. the existence of a non-arbitrary relation- ample, Reid (1967) states that “The explosive nature of the ship between forms and meanings in language. We examine a letter b is intensified when it is combined with l before the number of phonesthemes, phonetic groupings proposed to be breath is released. Consequently words beginning with bl are meaningful in the literature, with the aim of developing ways to validate their existence and their semantic content. Our found generally to indicate a ’bursting-out’ or the resultant first experiment is a replication of Otis and Sagi (2008), who swelling or expansion” (p. 10). More recent accounts view showed that sets of words containing phonesthemes are more them rather as a matter of statistical clustering. According to semantically related to each other than sets of random words. We augment their results using the British National Corpus and such “snowballing effect” theory, a group of phonemes in re- the Semantic Vectors package for building a distributional se- lated words (for example, by common etymology) becomes mantic model. Our second experiment shows how the semantic over time associated with the meaning of these words and content of at least some phonesthemes can be identified auto- matically using WordNet, thereby further reducing the room given the right conditions starts to attract other words with for intuitive judgments in this controversial field.
    [Show full text]
  • The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics
    THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO SEMIOTICS AND LINGUISTICS This Routledge Companion is the first reference resource to combine the complex and closely related fields of semiotics and linguistics. Edited by communications specialist Paul Cobley, it has ten introductory essays written by pace-setting figures in the field. These are followed by over 200 A–Z entries which cover: • key concepts such as abduction, code, grapheme, modelling, philology and syntax • key individuals: Bakhtin, Chomsky, Peirce, Saussure, Sebeok and others • key theories and schools, including American structuralism, pragmatism and the Prague School. The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics opens up the world of semiotics and linguistics for newcomers to the discipline, and provides a useful ready-reference for the more advanced student. Paul Cobley is the author of Introducing Semiotics (with Litza Jansz), The American Thriller and the forthcoming New Critical Idiom title, Narrative. He is the editor of Routledge’s Communication Theory Reader. Paul Cobley is Reader in Communications at London Guildhall University. Routledge Companions Routledge Companions are the perfect reference guides, providing everything the student or general reader needs to know. Authoritative and accessible, they combine the in-depth expertise of leading specialists with straightforward, jargon-free writing. In each book you’ll find what you’re looking for, clearly presented – whether through an extended article or an A–Z entry – in ways which the beginner can understand and even the expert
    [Show full text]
  • The Natural Motivation of Sound Symbolism
    The Natural Motivation of Sound Symbolism Nahyun Kwon MA (Advanced) in Linguistics A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2015 School of Languages and Cultures ii Abstract This dissertation examines systematic sound-meaning correspondences in sound-symbolic words from a cross-linguistic perspective, investigating whether and to what degree they are naturally motivated. Its aims are to assess empirical evidence for the Explanatory Sound-symbolism Hypothesis (ESH): that sound symbolism is primarily governed by natural motivation, in particular, by a connection between human perceptual and language systems. The languages examined are Korean and English, which are genealogically unrelated. Chapter One surveys the literature and discusses the iconicity of meaning-bearing elements of Korean ideophones (MEI’s) and English phonaesthemes. On a conceptual level, one can argue that Korean MEI’s exhibit translucent iconicity, in which natural motivation prevails over arbitrariness, while English phonaesthemes exhibit opaque iconicity (or secondary iconicity). This suggests that the former would be consistent with the ESH and that the latter, in which the naturalness is blocked by arbitrary conventionalisation, would support the alternative, the Conventional Sound-symbolism Hypothesis. Chapter Two reviews previous experimental studies of the iconicity of language, covering not only the traditional explicit paradigms this thesis adopts, but also the recent advancements of implicit methods in sound-symbolic literature. Chapter Three examines methods for calibrating and comparing Korean MEI’s and English phonaesthemes to other morphological entities, by applying the methods of Canonical Typology. On a theoretical level, it is proposed that English phonaesthemes sit closer to classic arbitrary morphemes than do MEI’s within morphological theory.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Sensory Structure of the English Lexicon Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/885849k9 Author Winter, Bodo Publication Date 2016 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED The Sensory Structure of the English Lexicon by Bodo Winter A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Science Committee in charge: Professor Teenie Matlock, Chair Professor Michael Spivey Professor Rick Dale © 2016 Bodo Winter All rights reserved The dissertation of Bodo Winter is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Professor Teenie Matlock Professor Michal Spivey Professor Rick Dale University of California, Merced 2016 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature page iii Table of contents iv List of figures vi List of tables vii Acknowledgments viii Abstract x 1. Introduction 1 1.1. A note on the five-senses folk model 10 1.2. Overview of the dissertation 13 2. Methods 17 2.1. Using modality norms to characterize the senses 17 2.2. Statistical analysis 27 3. Visual dominance in the English lexicon 31 3.1. Visual dominance 31 3.2. Differential lexicalization 34 3.3. Differences in semantic complexity 37 3.4. Word frequency asymmetries 39 3.5. Word processing 44 3.6. Discussion 47 4. Taste and smell words are more affectively loaded 53 4.1. Olfaction, gustation and human emotions 53 4.2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contribution of John Rupert Firth to the History of Linguistics and the Rejection of the Phoneme Theory. Angela Senis This A
    The contribution of John Rupert Firth to the history of linguistics and the rejection of the phoneme theory. Angela Senis This article is meant to show how central Firth’s particular position towards the phoneme is, in terms of constitution of the concept of phonaesthesia as a direct answer to the flaws he denounced in the phoneme. The rejection of the phoneme theory then led to the constitution of a whole and coherent theory of language now known under the name Contextual theory of meaning or even Firthian linguistics. It has eventually resulted in the creation of an independent school of thinking, the London School of Linguistics that has influenced many generations of British linguists. 1. Introduction If we regard Robins as the ‘father of the History of Linguistics in Britain’today, we should perhaps call Firth the grandfather of this field of human curiosity about language and the manner in which it has been treated and used in the past 2,500 years. (Koerner 2004:202) If John Rupert Firth (1890–1960) may be considered the ‘grandfather of the History of Lin- guistics’, it is all the more interesting to resort to a mise en abyme and apply such an approach to shed light on the idiosyncratic role he played in the acknowledgement and development of linguistics as an academic discipline. In such a respect, the phoneme theory has been a stepping stone crystalizing many of the topics Firth was concerned with. His treatment of the subject is quite emblematic of his general way of handling language and its study.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in Phonosemantics Submitted to NTNU for Evaluation for the Degree
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Margaret Magnus What’s in a Word? Studies in Phonosemantics Submitted to NTNU for evaluation for the degree 'Doctor Philosophiae' 4/20/01 Acknowledgements To Catherine Chvany and Lars Hellan especially -- two of the finest linguists I have ever had the pleasure to know. My gratitude goes out not only for these last months, but in general for years and years of support, through thick and through thin. When I suggested the possibility to Lars of submitting a dissertation to the University of Trondheim, he didn’t hesitate, but took me on immediately. Catherine has read through this dissertation twice in such minute detail, that I’m almost left with the impression that she knows it better than I do. I’m no less indebted to my beautiful mother, who literally made this work possible by supporting me materially as I was writing it. Her generosity throughout has been unconditional, unsolicited and disarmingly cheerful. She has followed me through this process with great interest as a good friend, advisor and confidante. Thank you also, Greg Carlson, who agreed to fly all the way from Rochester to Norway on behalf of someone he has never met. Thanks to my children, Rachel and Arne, who keep me young and on my toes. Thanks to my baby brother, John, and to his wife, Terri, for providing an alternative place to hang out, shoot the breeze and play Mah Jongg in the evenings.
    [Show full text]
  • The Submorphemic Structure of Amharic: Toward a Phonosemantic Analysis
    THE SUBMORPHEMIC STRUCTURE OF AMHARIC: TOWARD A PHONOSEMANTIC ANALYSIS BY BEZZA TESFAW AYALEW DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Eyamba G. Bokamba, Chair Professor Elabbas Benmamoun Professor José I. Hualde Assistant Professor Ryan Shosted Associate Professor Peter Unseth, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Dallas, TX ABSTRACT Since the emergence of structural linguistics most of the linguistic studies have been conducted with the declared assumption that there is no systematic relationship between sound and meaning until a certain number of sounds are combined and arbitrarily associated with certain meanings to form the basic meaningful units known as morphemes. The pervasiveness and success of this paradigm over the decades has apparently discouraged the search for potential sound-meaning relation below the morpheme presumably because such an association is difficult to establish empirically. This study represents an attempt to explore and address this nexus based on one African language: Amharic. It addresses the systematic correspondence between sound and meaning that is observable in the Amharic language’s lexicon across varieties of roots, which are generally believed to be the basic meaningful units. Contrary to the fundamental assumption that restricts sound-meaning association to the morphemic level, the study shows that roots in the Amharic language exhibit phonetic and semantic relationship with one another. This fact suggests the existence of lower level phonetic and semantic structure that has not been recognized as meaningful, and thus substantiates similar sub-morphemic sound meaning correspondences that have been observed in various languages of the world, including the phonaesthemic analyses of English and other Indo-European languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Explorations of Sound Symbolism and Iconicity
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2019-09-17 Explorations of Sound Symbolism and Iconicity Sidhu, David Michael Sidhu, D. M. (2019). Explorations of Sound Symbolism and Iconicity (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111016 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Explorations of Sound Symbolism and Iconicity by David Michael Sidhu A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2019 © David Michael Sidhu 2019 i Abstract Sound symbolism refers to the finding that individuals have biases to associate certain language sounds (i.e., phonemes) with certain perceptual and/or semantic features (see Lockwood & Dingemanse, 2015; Sidhu & Pexman, 2018a). An example of this is the association between the phoneme /i/ (as in heed) and smallness. This is of special interest to language because it can enable iconic relationships between form and meaning: instances in which a word’s form maps onto its meaning via resemblance. For instance, the word teeny contains a vowel associated with smallness, and refers to something small.
    [Show full text]