Fitting Sense to Sound: Linguistic Aesthetics and Phonosemantics in the Work of J.R.R. Tolkien

Smith, Ross

doi:10.1353/tks.2006.0032

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The most obvious instance of this would be when an author chooses a name for a character. They may—consciously or unconsciously—select a name that is congruent with the character’s personality, in order to highlight that personality for the audience (see Elsen, 2017; Kawahara, Noto, & Kumagai, 2018; Smith, 2006). Future research might examine the extent to which the associations observed here are present in works of fiction, as well as the impact of congruent/incongruent names on the reader’s experience of that fiction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the name say it all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names.

Sidhu

Deschamps

Bourdage

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sound symbolism has typically been demonstrated as an association between certain phonemes and perceptual dimensions (e.g., size or shape). For instance, the maluma-takete effect is the sound symbolic association between sonorant and voiceless stop phonemes and round and sharp visual shapes, respectively. Here we explored a novel association between phonemes and a more abstract dimension: personality. Further, although sound symbolism has often been examined using nonwords, here we studied it in the context of existing first names. In Experiments 1 and 2, we presented first names containing sonorant versus voiceless stop consonants and found that participants associated these with different personality factors from the HEXACO model of personality. In general, names with sonorant phonemes (e.g., Mona, Owen) were associated with high Emotionality, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, whereas names with voiceless stop phonemes (e.g., Katie, Curtis) were associated with high Extraversion. In Experiment 3, we examined whether the associations of a person's name predict their personality. A sample of 1,071 individuals provided their names and completed a HEXACO personality inventory. We found no real-world evidence of the associations we observed in the lab. In Experiment 4, we used invented names and tested participants in the lab once again, finding evidence of the same associations as in Experiment 1 and 2. This suggests that phonemes, and not just existing knowledge of individuals with particular names, are key to the associations observed. Finally, in Experiment 5, we found that these effects are not mediated by likability. We discuss potential mechanisms for the observed associations.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the name say it all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names.

Sidhu

Deschamps

Bourdage

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other researchers have discussed instances of sound symbolism in the naming of characters in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. For instance, Smith (2006) notes how well the sound of the name Tom Bombadil fits its “jolly, rumbustious owner” (p. 5). Given associations between round-sounding names and traits such as easygoing and friendly (Sidhu & Pexman, 2015), one might speculate that this appropriateness stems from the sonorants and voiced stops in the name.…”

Section: Sound Symbolism In Naming Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sound Symbolism of Names

Sidhu

Pexman

2019

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A wealth of research demonstrates that certain language sounds seem to go better with certain kinds of targets (i.e., sound-symbolic associations). The most well-known example is the maluma-takete effect, in which nonwords such as maluma are judged as good matches for round shapes, whereas nonwords such as takete are judged as good matches for sharp shapes. Most of this research involves nonwords, but recent work has shown that sound symbolism has implications for real first names. On the basis of a name’s sound, individuals tend to pair the name with particular shapes and indicate that they prefer people with congruent pairings of name sound and face shape. Individuals also associate different kinds of personalities with given names on the basis of the sounds the names contain. Thus, sound symbolism is not limited to nonwords and can emerge even with words that have existing associations. Sound-symbolic associations may also occur with more abstract properties (e.g., personality traits). Thus, this work provides insight about mechanisms underlying sound-symbolic association.

show abstract

“…The association of endling with J. R. R. Tolkien, whose Lord of the Rings trilogy features halflings (the other name for hobbits) and who was a member of a discussion group with C. S. Lewis known as the Inklings, is telling. As a scholar of the English language, Tolkien was particularly interested in linguistic aesthetics, especially phonosemantics, which is the relationship between sound and meaning (Smith 2006). Tolkien believed that how we use words and we react to them is partially dependent upon their sound.…”

Section: Making Endling Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endling, the Power of the Last in an Extinction-Prone World

Jørgensen¹

2017

Environmental Philosophy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In April 1996, two men working at a convalescent center wrote a letter to the journal Nature proposing that a new word be adopted to designate a person who is the last in the lineage: endling. This had come up because of patients who were dying and thought of themselves as the last of their family line. The word was not picked up in medical circles. But, in 2001, when the National Museum of Australia (NMA) opened its doors, it featured a gallery called Tangled Destinies and endling reappeared. On the wall above a case with a thylacine specimen was written: Endling (n.) The last surviving individual of a species of animal or plant. Since that appearance, the word endling has slowly seeped into popular culture, appearing in symphonic music, performance art, science fiction stories, comics, and other art works. This paper examines the cultural power of the concept of endling as the last of a species and the history of its mobilization in a world facing extinction around every corner.

show abstract

Fitting Sense to Sound: Linguistic Aesthetics and Phonosemantics in the Work of J.R.R. Tolkien

Cited by 16 publications

References 3 publications

Does the name say it all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names.

Does the name say it all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names.

The Sound Symbolism of Names

Endling, the Power of the Last in an Extinction-Prone World

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About