sound symbolism

English

Noun

sound symbolism (uncountable)(linguistics, phonology)

1. phonetic symbolism

   Synonyms: mimologics, phonosemantics

2. (of a unit of sound or meaning in a language) composed of one or more speech sounds that are associated with the meanings they convey, either intrinsically or by a recurring phono-semantic association
   1. (more specifically) speech sound that is neither arbitrary with respect to meaning nor an onomatopoeia that imitates a real sound
   2. the property of such a sound or sequence of sounds

Usage notes

Linguists use the concept of sound symbolism as a counterexample to the basic principle that the set of sounds constituting a given word are generally arbitrary (and by implication effectively random) with respect to meaning (as opposed to etymology). Thus, the sound itself can be a nonrandom symbol of meaning. It is often an explanation for the origin of groups of similar words and roots that share similarities which are otherwise difficult to explain by random chance. This can be specific to a language—as in English sneeze, snort, snore, sniff, snuff, snout, snot—or more general, as a linguistic quasi-universal such as the Bouba–Kiki effect. Often the distinction between onomatopoeia and (non-onomatopoeic) sound symbolism is not clear.

Synonyms

• phonaesthesia

Hypernyms

• iconicity

Hyponyms

• expression, expressivity
• ideophone
• (any non-arbitrary sound): onomatopoeia
• phonestheme

Coordinate terms

• expressive
• imitative
• onomatopoeia

Derived terms

• sound-symbolic

See also

• sound symbolism in the Wiktionary glossary