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. This coincides with the conceptual characterisation of their iconicity levels in Chapter One, i.e., that phonaesthemes, which have opaque iconicity, exhibit a lower level of natural iconicity than MEI’s. Chapters Four through Six examine cross-linguistic interpretations of Korean ideophones and English phonaesthemic words from an empirical perspective. These include two perception experiments, where native speakers of both Korean and English speakers guess the meanings of nonsense words, created based on existing (a) Korean and (b) English sound-symbolic words. To empirically investigate the natural iconicity in Korean MEI’s, two different language groups (i.e., Korean and English) listened to nonsense Korean ideophonic pairs and chose their meanings in binary-choice meaning matching tasks. Taking into account the Korean sound discrimination levels of the English-speaking participants, Chapter Four reveals that vocalic MEI’s are based on convention, since an above-chance level of correct meaning-matching rates was not achieved across the language groups. In contrast, Chapter Five argues that consonantal MEI’s are based on natural motivation, supporting the ESH. To empirically investigate natural iconicity in phonaesthemes, the Korean- and English-speaking participants guessed meanings of iii phonaesthemes in sets of aurally presented nonsense core English phonaesthemic words in free- choice and multiple-choice tasks. The results differed depending on testing methods. In the free- choice task, interpretations of phonaesthemes did not converge across the language groups. However, in the multiple-choice task, some phonaesthemes received above-chance level of correct- guessing rates. From this, it is speculated that the natural iconicity of phonaesthemes is recognised only when available contexts have been sufficiently constrained. The findings show that the translucent iconicity of MEI’s gains empirical support only in the case of consonantal MEI’s. Contrary to predictions made on a conceptual basis in Chapter One, the vocalic MEI’s display opaque iconicity. With respect to phonaesthemes, some exhibit translucent iconicity when available contexts have been constrained, as in the multiple-choice task. Altogether, the dissertation reveals that sound-symbolic phenomena have varying degrees of motivatedness as linguistic signs, and that some instances of sound symbolism are based on arbitrary convention, contrary to the central claim of the ESH. To some extent, this counters the proposition that sound- symbolic phenomena represent a challenge to the near-axiomatic expectation in modern linguistics, that pairings of sounds with simple meanings are arbitrary, and it encourages us to recognise the role of iconicity in language with a caveat. iv Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. v Publications during candidature Journal articles • Kwon, N., & Round, E. R. (2015). Phonaesthemes in morphological theory. Morphology, 25(1), 1-27. Conference proceedings • Kwon, N. (2014). Iconicity in Korean consonantal symbolism. In J Hay and E Parnell (Eds.) Proceedings of the 15th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, Christchurch, New Zealand, December 2-5 2014. • Kwon, N. (2014). Acoustic observation for English speakers’ perception of a three-way laryngeal contrast of Korean stops. In L Gawne and J Vaughan (Eds.) Selected papers from the 44th conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, 2013, Melbourne: University of Melbourne. pp. 59-76. Publications included in this thesis Publication citation – incorporated within Chapter 3. Contributor Statement of contribution to the published paper (Chapter 3 contains additional materials as well) Nahyun Kwon (Candidate) Designed experiments (80%) Wrote the paper (45%) Erich Round Designed experiments (20%) Wrote and edited paper (55%) vi Contributions by others to the thesis None Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None vii Acknowledgements The completion of this PhD dissertation would not have been possible without academic, financial, and emotional support from the people listed in the following: First of all, I express my deepest gratitude to the supervisory team members, Dr Erich Round, Dr Michael Harrington, and Assoc. Prof. Kimi Akita. I do not know how to say thank you enough to Erich, my principal supervisor. He was always supportive from the time when I was preparing for admission to the PhD program to the time when I was writing the very last word of this thesis. For 3.5 years, I had countless meetings with him and they were always academically stimulating. His expertise in morphology and phonology was absolutely crucial in enabling me to approach my research question in depth and from various angles. Michael provided helpful suggestions on developing experimental methods and applying appropriate statistical analyses in Chapters 4 to 6. I also appreciate Dr Kari Sullivan’s help in giving me critical comments by filling in the role of a reader. Thank you, Michael and Kari! And, Kimi. I met Kimi when I was visiting the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen in 2014, and he left an extremely strong impression on me. His curiosity and passion about the topic of sound symbolism seemed to have no boundary and I still remember how he kept asking questions about Korean ideophones until I was almost faint from finding answers for him. After that, I really wanted to have him as my third supervisor and he kindly accepted my offer. Kimi, I appreciate your thorough comments, which were essential to improving the quality of the entire thesis, and your ideas for future research, which made me broaden my academic horizons. I know that you would not want to be called Dr Akita. Nevertheless, I will stubbornly say, 秋田先生、ありがとうござい ます。 I benefited from discussions with professors at other universities too. I would like to thank Dr Mark Dingemanse for hosting me at MPI, which was a dream place in terms of my professional aspiration. His sharp and straightforward, yet still kind, comments on the definitions of sound-symbolic