Contiguity-based sound iconicity: The meaning of words resonates with phonetic properties of their immediate verbal contexts.

ABSTRACT: We tested the hypothesis that phonosemantic iconicity--i.e., a motivated resonance of sound and meaning--might not only be found on the level of individual words or entire texts, but also in word combinations such that the meaning of a target word is iconically expressed, or highlighted, in the phonetic properties of its immediate verbal context. To this end, we extracted single lines from German poems that all include a word designating high or low dominance, such as large or small, strong or weak, etc. Based on insights from previous studies, we expected to find more vowels with a relatively short distance between the first two formants (low formant dispersion) in the immediate context of words expressing high physical or social dominance than in the context of words expressing low domin

SUBMITTER: Auracher J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6522027 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature