Phonaesthetics (Word Sounds)

Phonaesthetics (Word Sounds) In language examines, phonaesthetics is the investigation of the positive (musical) and negative (uproarious) hints of letters, words, and blends of letters and words. Likewise spelled phonesthetics.â â Language specialist David Crystal definesâ phonaestheticsâ as the investigation of the tasteful properties of sound, particularly the sound imagery owing to singular sounds, sound bunches or sound sorts. Models remember the ramifications of littleness for the nearby vowels of such words as teenyâ weeny, and the disagreeable relationship of the consonant group/sl-/in such words as sludge, slug and slush (A Dictionary of Language, 2001).â Historical underpinnings From the Greekâ phÃ¥ näaisthätikä,â voice-sound  feel Models and Observations Sound Quality (Timbre) We discuss words as delicate, smooth,  rough, resonant, unforgiving, throaty, explosive. About singular words very little can be saideven about basement entryway, which is rumored to be one of the most lovely sounding words in our language. With a grouping of words, particularly one that shapes itself into a significant sentence or line of section, the sound turns out to be progressively determinate and controlled. The still, tragic music of humanity(Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey) normally requires a grave and calm perusing.  The sound-nature of a talk is, at that point, a territorial quality that depends to some extent upon the characteristics of its words and furthermore upon [sound-likeness and sound-pattern].(Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism, second ed. Hackett, 1981) Phonaesthetics and the Adopted Names of Actors Many on-screen characters have changed their names just on the grounds that they didnt like the one they as of now had...There is a propensity for men to stay away from delicate continuant sounds, for example, m and l, when searching for new names, and to go in for the hard-sounding plosive consonants, for example, k and g. Maurice Micklewhite became Michael Caine, Marion Michael Morrison became John Wayne, Alexander Archibald Leach became Cary Grant, Julius Ullman became Douglas Fairbanks.Women will in general go the other way. Dorothy Kaumeyer became Dorothy Lamour. Hedwig Kiesler became Hedy Lamarr. Norma Jean Baker became Marilyn Monroe.Actually, Roy Rogers is somewhat feeble, contrasted and most cowpoke names. Cattle rustlers will in general be loaded with plosives and short vowelsBill, Bob, Buck, Chuck, Clint, Jack, Jim, Like, Tex, Tom, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Kit Carson. Roy doesnt very detonate from the lips similarly. His pony, Trigger, really does rat her better.These are just inclinations, obviously. There are a lot of exceptions.(David Crystal, By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English. Ignore Press, 2008) Phonaesthetics and Nicknames [N]icknames consolidate more charming and delicate sounds than complete names for the two people. One explanation behind this is the [i:] finishing normal for such a significant number of epithets (Nicky, Billy, Jenny, Peggy). Gem (1993) noticed the particularly manly attributes of the epithet Bob. Sway is simple for kids to articulate on the grounds that its rehashed , [b], is aced early (Whissell 2003b). Phonaesthetically, [b] is a horrendous sound and the focal vowel of the name is dynamic and bright. Weave is, in this manner, a prototypical manly moniker, both as far as the phonaesthetic framework utilized here and as far as Crystals models. DeKlerk and Bosch (1997) contend for the importanceâ of phonaesthetics in the task of monikers, and point to the positive social plan of name-suppliers as a principle attending of this assignment.​ (Cynthia Whissell, Choosing a Name: How Name-Givers Feelings Influence Their Selections. The Oxford Handbook of the Word, ed. John R. Taylor. Oxford University Press, 2015) Phonesthesia and Brand Names The free affiliation ofâ phonesthesia, applied to greater lumps of sound, are ... the wellspring of a unignorable pattern in brand names ...​Previously, organizations named their brands after their authors (Ford, Edison, Westinghouse), or with a descriptor that passed on their giganticness (General Motors, United Airlines, U.S. Steel), or by a portmanteau that recognized another innovation (Microsoft, Instamatic, Polavision), or with a representation or metonym suggesting a quality they wished to credit (Impala, Newport, Princess, Trailblazer, Rebel). But today they look to pass on a je ne sais quoi utilizing false Greek and Latinate neologisms worked out ofâ word sections that should imply certainâ qualities without permitting individuals to place what they are. . . . Acuraaccurate? intense? What does that have to do with a vehicle? Verizona authentic skyline? Does it imply that great telephone administration will subside into the separation until the end of time? Vi agravirility? force? feasible? Is it true that we should figure it will make a man discharge like Niagara Falls? The most unfortunate model is the renaming of the Philip Morris parent organization as Altria, apparently to change its picture from awful individuals who offer addictive cancer-causing agents to a spot or state set apart by benevolence and other grandiose values. (Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature. Viking, 2007) Absolutely, melodiousness ought to be a thought in picking a brand name. Lamolay sounds better than Tarytak for a tissue despite the fact that it has a similar number of letters. (John OShaughnessy, Consumer Behavior: Perspectives, Findings and Explanations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) Sound and Sense [T]he artist ... knows when the sound is conveying his sense, regardless of whether he doesnt know why. In making his names and his section, [J. R. R.] Tolkien was practicing the two abilities, in quest for what he called phonaesthetic joy (Letters 176).To show, lets turn backâ to our deserted palato-velars. The phonaesthetics of the post-fluid palato-velar is a wondrous thing. It caught the core of a youthful Texas poetâ with the improbable name of Tom Jones when he was in school, and he ï ¬ lled an entire melody with them, which turned into the initial tune of The Fantasticks, the longest running melodic throughout the entire existence of the New York stage. The tune was called Try to Remember. The hold back was the single word we have taken a gander at in its change from Old to Modern English: follow, follow, follow. In eachâ stanza Jones crammedâ as a considerable lot of the transformed fluid words he could: first smooth, yellow, individual, at that point willow, pad, s urge, and afterward follow and empty, at last completion where the melody started with smooth. . . .Tolkien doesn't consolidate quiteâ so a significant number of these changed palatovelar words in any one spot, yet the notice of the word willow should flag toâ any Tolkien peruser where I am going straightaway: to the old Willowman of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and The Old Forest part of The Lord of the Rings ...(John R. Holmes, Inside a Song: Tolkiens Phonaesthetics. Middle-Earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, ed. by Bradford Lee Eden. McFarland, 2010)â An Alternative View: Noisiness A large number of the individuals who have expounded on the subjects of iconicity, sound imagery, phonaestheticsâ and phonosemantics compose as if to unfurl the inert excess of significance contained in specific sounds, letters or gatherings of letters. Be that as it may, notorious language is in the exacting sense numbskull, talking the colloquialism of the indiscriminately particular, of simply inadvertent and informal clamor. It likely could be that sure groups of sounds appear to be accused of specific sorts of meaningfulnessi appears to indicate humbleness, gl-is by all accounts related with light, and gr-with irascibilitybut the manner in which these sounds work is by first implying, not specific sound-characteristics, however a theoretical nature of clamor as suchthe sound of just sounding.(Steven Connor, Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations. Reaktion Books, 2014)â  Monty Python and the Lighter Side of Phonaesthetics At the point when the Pythons are not making words and names take on new implications, they are likely remarking upon the intrinsic characteristics of words themselves. One fine model shows up in the Woody and Tinny Words sketch (ep. 42), in which an upper-working class family voice their conclusions with respect to the joy (or disappointment) got essentially from saying and hearing different words. For no particular reason, attempt to see which of the accompanying words sound woody (certainty building!) and which sound tinny (unpleasant): SET ONE: gorn, wiener, caribou, intercourse, saucy, thighs, botty, erogenous, zone, courtesan, free ladies, ocelot, wasp, yowlingSET TWO: paper, litterbin, tin, gazelle, appropriate, goading, vacuum, jump, bound, vole, recidivist, tit, Simkins* The melodiousness or clamor of words (what the Oxbridge researchers in Pythonand most likely Gilliam why not?would have known as phonaesthetics, the investigation of positive and negative sounds in human discourse) may lead clients to extend certain implications upon singular words (Crystal, 1995, 8-12). Such phonaesthetic demonstrative projection declines, in this production, into a for all intents and purposes obvious type of mental masturbation, wherein the dad (Chapman) must be soaked with a can of water to be quieted down in the wake of contemplating upon an excessive number of woody sounding words. As he wisely notes, ... its an interesting thing ... all the underhanded words sound woody. Its a hypothesis not so much without legitimization (the comprehension of how semantic implications are regularly gotten from sounds, not the masturbatory forces of individual words! Ridiculous pervert.)* Answer key: set one woody: set two tinny(Brian Cogan and Jeff Massey, Everything I Ever Needed to Know About _____ I Learned From Monty Python. Thomas Dunne Books, 2014)