sound symbolism and features

[John Kyle]

        An interesting example of sound symbolism occurs in many of the
Siouan languages.  Boas and Deloria's Dakota Grammar (1941) has several
pages of examples (pp16-18) where the 'degrees' of a verb are
differentiated with the use of different fricatives.  They note that this
is not an active process and the meanings are not always predictable.  In
my notation below; [s^] is a vless palatal fric, [z^] is the voiced pal
fric, [x] is vless velar fric, [g^] is voiced velar fric, also, nasal
vowels are shown with an [n] following ([in] = nasal [i]).  I've only
listed a few here, they list many more.

sapa   black
s^apa  soiled
xapa   grey

winz^a   bent w/out breaking (i.e. twig)
wing^a   bent at a sharp angle

ptuza    it is bent forward
ptuz^a   small pieces cracked off w/out falling off
ptug^a     "     "      "      "   but fall off
woptux'a  crumbs

izuza   whetstone
ig^ug^a  rough sandstone

nuza   soft and movable (a swollen gland)
nuz^a   same but harder (cartilage)
nug^a   hard like a callus on bone, gnarl on a tree


I hope these help.  At least they're interesting.  Bob Rankin also informs
me that many of the Muskogee languages do this also.


John Kyle



On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Johanna Rubba wrote:

> Hi, everybody. I've been following the computation/storage discussion with
> interest. I have a question in a different area.
>
> I'm teaching a grad intro ling course for people interested mainly in
> literature, and I do a lot of ling. analysis of lit. in this class (which
> is loads of fun, by the way!) We're just finishing our unit on phonology
> and I've been cruising around the web for stuff on sound symbolism. Maybe
> some of you know of some sources on a very specific area I am interested
> in: the correlation of particular _distinctive features_ with properties
> in other sensory domains (e.g. of +continuant with 'smooth' or 'velarized'
> with 'dark'). I know that _segments_ have received lots of attention, and
> I've seen some initial signs of work with features on commercial websites
> (creators of corporate names and brand names). Does anyone know of work
> that seeks empirical confirmation of cross-modal associations for
> particular _features_ rather than segments (by, for example, manipulating
> feature makeup of sounds/words and surveying scientifically-sound subject
> pools for consistency of association)? Work being done across cultures
> would, of course, be really interesting.
>
> Thanks for any leads you can offer!
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
> English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
> San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
> Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374                   ~
> E-mail: jrubba at polymail.calpoly.edu                           ~
> Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba                     ~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>