Sound symbolism studies words that convey meaning through mimicry, found in many languages and cultures. They are formed through primitive sounds, clusters of letters, and onomatopoeia. Phonesthetic constructions convey meaning through their position in a word. Iconism places a certain sound within words to guide action. Onomatopoeia is widespread in comics and literature.
The linguistic study of words that attempt to convey meaning through mimicry is called sound symbolism. Also known as iconism or phonosemantics, these word types are spread across many languages and cultures, often carrying many of the same characteristics. They’re generally formed in a handful of distinct ways: through connection to primitive sounds like grunts and coughs, like clusters of letters that appear when certain types of words are used, and through onomatopoeia — an imitation of sound used extensively by illustrators.
A common type of sound symbolism involves sounds or short groupings of sounds that appear when certain types of words are used. Also known as phonesthetic or conventional sound symbolism, these are sections of root words that can convey meaning only by their position in a word. According to some scholars, such as the famous linguist Margaret Magnus in A Dictionary of English Sound, more than 900 types of phonesthetic constructions are evident in English alone.
An exaggerated example of phoneme, or clustering, is the use of the grouping of letters “gl”, particularly at the beginning of a word, to show that a word has to do with an element of lighting. Examples of this include glow, glow, shimmer, shine, shimmer, and even some inverse terms like dark and gloom. Another example is the wide range of words starting with “b” which all deal with difficult obstacles, from barrier and beatings to bruises and abuse.
When analyzing a group of words with the same meaning, an element called iconism can be observed. This other form of sound symbolism, the inverse of the belief that words are arbitrary historical constructs, involves placing a certain sound within words to guide action. In general, they won’t have much in common like words that start or end with the same letters. This driving action occurs much more predominantly in other languages, but many examples can still be found in English. Insert an “m” before a “p” in many words related to forward movement and more urgency can be indicated: A word like step or stumble becomes louder like stomp or stomp.
One of the most widespread appearances of sound symbolism in the 20th and 21st centuries is in the comic genre, through what is called onomatopoeia. It consists of non-verbal sounds transmitted in verbal ways. Oomph, thwack, crash, pow, and swoosh are part of the vernacular in the 20’s, because comic artists wrote those sounds to convey the full nature of the various scenes. These words have been used to closely mimic the sound symbolized, in comics or even literature, for centuries.
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