Phonetic bases of sound symbolism: A review

Abstract

While the relationships between sounds and meanings are generally arbitrary in human languages, we do observe cases in which systematic correspondences hold between sounds and meanings, at least as stochastic tendencies. When such systematic sound-meaning relationships appear to be modulated by iconicity, we refer to these relationships as ``sound symbolism,'' although defining precisely what it means for a sound to be iconic of its meaning can be difficult. Nevertheless, in many cases, systematic associations between particular meanings and particular sounds seem to make phonetic sense, i.e., sound symbolic meanings appear to have their roots in the articulatory and/or acoustic properties of sounds under question. This paper reviews these sound symbolic patterns together with their phonetic underpinnings, both in terms of their articulatory and acoustic characteristics. While the aim of this review is not to establish a new theory of sound symbolism, two conclusions nevertheless emerge from the survey: (1) phonetic and phonological considerations do seem to offer insights into the patterning of systematic sound-meaning correspondences that are recurrently found in natural languages and (2) we need to take both articulatory and acoustics factors into account when we consider the phonetic bases of sound symbolism. It is hoped that this review can serve as a useful guide for all researchers who work on sound symbolism.

The bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems

“…By contrast, continuous fundamental frequency, as is present in words such as bouba and maluma , goes together with lower frequency bands and less abrupt amplitude envelope modulations, which may evoke a sense of smoothness in perception, relating this to visually smoother, or rounder objects. There are, therefore, clear ways in which phonetic/phonological characteristics of bouba and kiki may be associated with round and angular shapes, respectively [ 64 ].…”

Phonetic Symbolism in First Names

“…Male names are more associated with angular phonemes, whereas female names are related to round ones. Articulatorily speaking, in the articulation of voiceless obstruents there is nothing that is angular; similarly, neither can the articulation of voiced consonants be associated with round things [18], though there might be an acoustic explanation for this association between angular shapes and voiceless obstruents, arising from 'abrupt amplitude modulations during the burst and frication of these sounds', which is a typical acoustic feature of voiceless obstruents. 'Aperiodic noise resulting from the rise of intraoral air pressure-defining features of obstruent'-even in the waveforms it literally looks spiky and angular [19: 570].…”

The coinages in Seuss

“…Phonesthemes, or at least many of them, are often said to have a NATURAL PHONETIC BASIS, as in the affiliation of [i] (a low-sonority vowel with high F2) with smallness (Jespersen 1933). For a careful overview of this topic see Kawahara (2021b). For present purposes I believe it will be safe to ignore whether a phonestheme is natural or arbitrary.…”