The sound symbolism of food: the frequency of initial /PA-/ in words for (staple) food

Joo, Ian

doi:10.1515/ling-2021-0127

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The association between the CONSUMABLE category and nasal consonants and front vowels is supported by previous evidence suggesting that words for gaping, yawning, and tasting contain /a/-like vowels across languages (Erben Johansson et al, 2020), and words for staple food, as well as baby talk words for food or eating contain /a/-like vowels, as well as (nasal) labial consonants, such as Vietnamese [viet1252] măm (Joo, 2022).…”

Section: Grounding Of Vocal Iconicity In Nominal Classification Systemssupporting

confidence: 67%

Vocal iconicity in nominal classification

Johansson

Cronhamn

2022

Lang. cogn.

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While recent years have seen a substantial increase of studies investigating vocal iconicity in the lexicon of spoken languages, its presence in grammatical structures is poorly understood. This study investigates the presence of vocal iconicity in nominal classification systems by collecting nominal classification devices from the two main system types: 210 non-agreeing languages (126 families) and 151 agreeing languages (123 families). To detect overrepresentations of sound types in class meanings, the nominal classification devices were grouped according to comparable semantic categories, transcribed using comparable phonetic system, and analyzed through Bayesian mixed models. The strongest results were found for associations between nominal classification devices denoting flat and low, front, unrounded vowels, along with several weak associations relating to shape/size/quantity, function, humanness/animacy, and sex. These associations mostly correlate with previous vocal iconicity findings, but crucially, the involved nominal classification devices are mostly semantically typical for non-agreeing, for example, classifier, systems. These findings were attributed to structural differences between nominal classification system types, which result from grammaticalization processes, for example, phonetic erosion and semantic bleaching. Thus, increased formal predictability through grammatical agreement comes at a cost of semantic transparency which, in turn, dismantles the semantic prerequisites needed for vocal iconic associations to be operational.

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Section: Grounding Of Vocal Iconicity In Nominal Classification Systemssupporting

confidence: 67%

Vocal iconicity in nominal classification

Johansson

Cronhamn

2022

Lang. cogn.

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“…As it turns out, this is indeed the case; compared to other basic sounds, the world's languages show a non‐random allocation of /p/ and bilabials as the onset sound of words that signify the major staple food within the society where each language is spoken. [ 22 ] The evolutionary age of /p/ means that the sound has been available for longer periods of time than most other speech sounds. This has resulted in a convergence in sound use and meaning across (ancestral) communities motivated in similar ways to communicate about some of life's essentials, such as the foods that meet individuals’ most nutritional and caloric needs.…”

Section: /P/ For ‘Primal’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life of p: A consonant older than speech

Lameira

Moran

2023

BioEssays

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Which sounds composed the first spoken languages? Archetypal sounds are not phylogenetically or archeologically recoverable, but comparative linguistics and primatology provide an alternative approach. Labial articulations are the most common speech sound, being virtually universal across the world's languages. Of all labials, the plosive 'p' sound, as in 'Pablo Picasso' , transcribed /p/, is the most predominant voiceless sound globally and one of the first sounds to emerge in human infant canonical babbling. Global omnipresence and ontogenetic precocity imply that /p/-like sounds could predate the first major linguistic diversification event(s) in humans. Indeed, great ape vocal data support this view, namely, the only cultural sound shared across all great ape genera is articulatorily homologous to a rolling or trilled /p/, the 'raspberry' . /p/-like labial sounds represent an 'articulatory attractor' among living hominids and are likely among the oldest phonological features to have ever emerged in linguistic systems.

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“…The extension of one's pinky finger while speaking in Mongolian Sign Language, for example, serves as a visual phonestheme adding a negative connotation to the expression in question (Healy, 2011), partially due to relative size. Words for “food” in many languages around the world feature a labial consonant initial followed by a low vowel (Joo, 2023). Notably, this pattern shares experiential iconicity with opening one's mouth to take a bite of food.…”

Section: Schemas and Iconicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodiment and language

Pelkey

2023

WIRES Cognitive Science

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The findings of cognitive linguistics demonstrate the thoroughly embodied grounding of linguistic constructions and linguistic meaning ranging from abstract thought to interactive communication. A historical survey and updated summary of work in this area illustrates the many layers of bodily meaning that we rely on when thinking and communicating as human beings. Key distinctions, definitions, and clarifications, plus an overview of key works on embodied cognition in cognitive linguistics provide necessary context for understanding specific aspects of linguistic embodiment, including schemas and iconicity, mapping and metaphor, categories and projections, embodied grammar and abstract thought, intersubjectivity, and textual meaning. Realigning philosophical presuppositions with the findings of cognitive linguistics has important consequences: Body and mind can be reunited in lived experience. Both imaginative thought and rational thought can be understood as reliant on the same movement and memory structures. Even the most habituated form‐content relationships in language can be understood as growing out of vital networks of real‐world experiential relations, from the personal to the interpersonal. And instead of being understood as the narrow purview of semantics and pragmatics, the study of meaning can be embraced as the purpose and function of linguistics. These consequences have potential for revolutionizing scientific inquiry and theory building across a wide array of disciplines.This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Cognitive Linguistics Psychology > Language Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science

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The sound symbolism of food: the frequency of initial /PA-/ in words for (staple) food

Cited by 3 publications

References 34 publications

Vocal iconicity in nominal classification

Vocal iconicity in nominal classification

Life of p: A consonant older than speech

Embodiment and language

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