Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Natural language is a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that goes beyond the limits of an exclusively mental phenomenon. As a real object of research, it appears in two forms: in live speech and in written texts, which open up space for analysis of both psycholinguistic and sociocultural nature. The phonosemantic interpretation of linguistic nomination makes it possible to capture universal semantic patterns that describe both general ways of human cognition and specific features of the linguistic and cultural thinking of a particular people or ethnic group. There are two approaches to the study of phonosymbolism. The first is that the symbolism of sound is primary and arises under the influence of the sound nature of language. Experimental research confirms the existence of primary or elementary phonosymbolism, demonstrating that the symbolic meaning of sounds is related to their acoustic and articulatory characteristics. The second approach is that phonosymbolism is secondary and arises as a result of the speaker’s desire to establish a connection between the sound of a word, which develops in accordance with the phonetic laws of a particular language, and its meaning. This type of phonosymbolism, known as secondary or contextual, is derived from phonetic regularities. Both approaches should be considered in conjunction, since secondary phonosymbolism is possible only due to the existence of primary or elementary phonosymbolism. Depending on their artistic tasks, poets skillfully used combinations of vowels and consonants, giving the texts the effect of transparency or, conversely, darkness and mystery. And although phonetic symbolism is not limited to poetry, it is in this sphere that the relationship between sound and meaning is most clearly and intensely manifested. The object of our study was the vocabulary of the modern German language, which conveys the emotions of “joy” (major motif) and “sadness” (minor motif). The material for the analysis was poetry by Austrian authors such as Rose Ausländer, Ingeborg Bachmann, Christine Lavant, Max Mehl, Erich Fried, and Ernst Jandl. The selection includes poems that somehow reflect the ideas of major or minor. All the words were divided into two groups and transcribed according to the standards of the Aussprachewörterbuch (6th edition, Duden) edited by M. Meinhold. The results allowed us to compare the phonetic composition of poems with different emotional motifs. In our study, we applied the psycholinguistic method of C. Osgood, which is the measurement of meanings using a semantic differential. The quantitative analysis showed that certain phonemes contribute to the formation of a positive or negative motif in poetry. Significant connections between the sound form and the content of poetic works to convey a positive motive are achieved by the more frequent use of vowel phonemes [а:], [у:], [i:], [e:] and consonants [l], [ŋ], [n], [v], [ç], [j], [s], [z]; respectively, the negative motive is conveyed by phonemes [ʊ], [ɪ], [øː], [oː], [ɛ], [uː] and consonants [r], [t], [k], [g], [p], [b]. The obtained results demonstrated, on the example of the German-language vocabulary, the tendency to evoke certain emotional associations in a native speaker. The prospect of the present study is a comparative phonosemantic analysis of literary texts with other types of texts of different genres in order to form a more objective and complete picture of the functioning of phonosemantism in the modern linguistic space. The phonosymbolic properties of multilingual phonemes with regard to the feminist factor seem to be worthy of analysis.
Author: S. S. Andriiva
Institution: Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409295121