The Phonaestheme /gl/: To what extent are English speakers aware of a meaning connection with ‘light’? Michael Willett Cardiff University, UK [email protected]

The Phonaestheme /gl/:To what extent are English speakers awareof a meaning connection with ‘light’?

Michael Willett

Cardiff University, UK

[email protected]

Research supported by

The Context of Phonaesthemes

• Begins with J. R. Firth’s idea of prosodies

• Prosodies are any functional units of sound that are not abstracted to the problematic level of discrete, individual sounds – i.e. the phoneme. Prosodies include intonation system, the syllable, etc.

• Firth more convinced by idea of words as [groups of] syllables, themselves products of of phonetically-allowable ‘beginnings’(onsets), middles (nuclei) and endings (codas) in the language than as a sumof individual, discrete phonemes

Word analysed as series of Prosodies

Gleam

/gl/ = onset prosody /i:/ =

vowel nucleus

/m/ = coda prosody

Defining Phonaesthemes

• Firth (1930; 1957):

A phonaestheme is what is formed when a prosody takes on ‘a cumulative suggestive value’– a connotation – for speakers, as a result of recurring in a range of English words that denote a broadly similar meaning

• That is, speakers ‘hear and learn to make these sounds… [in similar] contexts of experience’

(1930:184-185).

Onset /gl/

• Most widely-cited English phonaestheme

• In English, the most common meaning denoted by words beginning /gl/ is ‘light’, or semantically-related ideas, including ‘sight’

(Sturtevant, 1947; Marchand, 1966; Bowles, 1995; Sadowski, 2001)

How frequently recurring?

• 19 of the 59 (32%) head lexemes beginning /gl/ listed in the Compact OED denote a meaning related to ‘light’:

• Glade, glamour, glance, glare, glass, glaucoma, glaze, gleam, glimmer, glimpse, glint, glisten,

glister, glitter, glitz, gloaming, gloom, gloss, glow

Defining Phonaesthemes• Phonaesthemes are not:

Onomatopoeic (they do not mime in sound their denotations) - /gl/ cannot mime ‘light’!

Iconic(there appears no conceived similarity between/gl/ and the real-world idea of ‘light’ that wouldmake it more suitable than any other prosody)

Universal(every language will have its ownphonaesthemes, because theyarise from forms’ denotations)

Phonaesthemes and Arbitrariness

• The existence of phonaesthemes does not pose a challenge to Saussure’s idea of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs

• There is nothing initially about /gl/ to have made it any more suitable for denoting ‘light’ than any other prosody – e.g. /sp/ or /tr/ or /kw/ etc.

• Phonaesthemes are diachronically non-arbitrary (over time they become non arbitrary and “more suitable” for use in/gl/ words by analogy to the existing,arbitrary forms)

Existing Studies into /gl/ phonaestheme

• All existing studies into /gl/ phonaestheme are “theoretical”; they look at the existing vocabulary of a language (usually English), and calculate how many of the /gl/-onset words denote a meaning of ‘light’

• However, this is not sufficient grounds to conclude that a /gl/ phonaestheme actually exists in that language…

• …because phonaesthemes, as defined by Firth, involve speakers ascribing connotations to prosodies as a result of the contexts in which those prosodies frequently recur

• Thus, in the words of Jespersen (1922a: 408), ‘the suggestiveness of [these sounds] as felt by present-day speakers…must be taken into account’

• No study to date addresses the /gl/-phonaestheme from speakers’perspectives

Existing Studies into /gl/ phonaestheme

Research Question

• Do native English speakers connote the meaning ‘light’ more frequently than any other meaning, from words beginning with /gl/?

Overview of Methodology

• Three experiments given to 30 native English speakers, in the form of an online survey

• Experimental cues taken from Abelin’s (1999) investigation into Swedish phonaesthemes – the only researchto date that studies phonaesthemesproductively

• Two experiments are closed-ended multiple choice questions; one is fullyopen-ended.

Experiment 1

• Respondents provided with audio recordings of three coined (‘nonsense’) words, and one image

• The image depicts glittering, reflected sparkles of light

• Only one of the ‘nonsense’ words features onset /gl/. The other two feature different onsets. All three feature identical nuclei and codas, tocontrol for any extraneous phonaesthetic effects these prosodies may have.

Experiment 1 (cont’d)

• Respondents asked to listen to the audio recordings of ‘nonsense’ words, and choose whichever word they feel is most appropriate to name a specified part of the content in the image (the ‘light’ part)

• If /gl/ phonaestheme is recognised by speakers, respondents should show a degree of preferencefor the /gl/-onset word to name the content inthe image;the onsets are the only dimension on which each word varies from the others

gless /ɡlɛs/

pless /plɛs/

fless /flɛs/

Experiment 2• Designed to provide a re-test and add reinforcing

evidence to that collected in Experiment 1

• Reverses the process of Experiment 1: Now, respondents provided with three images and single audio recording of a coined (‘nonsense’) word

• Coined word features the /gl/ onset plus randomly-chosen nucleus and coda

• Only one of the images depicts a meaning associated with ‘light’. The other images depict unrelated meanings

gliss /glıs/

In theory, respondents should attribute coined word to this image (B), as it depicts glowing, shining stars

Experiment 3

• Fully open-ended

• Respondents provided with a definition relating to the emission of light, and asked to coin (‘invent’) any word of their choosing to name this definition

• If /gl/ phonaestheme recognised by speakers,respondents should prefer coining words with/gl/- to any other onset

Experiment 1: Results

• 25/30 respondents (83%) preferred using the coined word featuring /gl/- to describe the glittering eye-shadow


• 27/30 respondents (90%) preferred attributing the glittering stars image to the /gl/- word


• 12/30 (40%) respondents coined a word beginning /gl/ in response to definition

• Given that there are at least 81 possible word onsets in English (Kreidler, 2004; Cruttenden, 2008); the fact that 40% of respondents all selected the same consonant cluster seems particularly high in a 30-strong respondent cohort…

Experiment 3: Results (cont’d)

• Chart showing the frequency with which onsets were used by speakers in response to open-ended question:

Is the phonaesthetic effect of /gl/ affected by the vowel(s) with which

it is paired?

• Experiment 2 sees a slight increase over Experiment 1 in the number of speakers associating /gl/ to the meaning of ‘light’ (compare 83% to 90%).

• Experiments 1 and 2 use coined /gl/- words which are phonetically identical aside from their vowel nuclei:/glɛs/ in Experiment 1 (mid-front vowel)/glıs/ in Experiment 2 (high-front vowel)


it is paired?

• Further evidence that respondents prefer /gl/+high-front vowel from the words coined in Experiment 3 (insofar as the vowel graphemes can be interpreted)…


it is paired?• Examining the /gl/ words coined by speakers in

Experiment 3, and their inferred pronunciation:

gloosie gliss /ɡlıs/gleety /ɡliːtiː/glite glinkel /ɡlınkəl/glissipel /ɡlısıpɛl/ or /ɡliːsıpɛl/ if second <s> in second syllableglizon glizzen /ɡlızən/ or /ɡliːzən/ (as above)glind glisty /ɡlıstiː/glissiant /ɡlısıənt/ or /ɡliːsıənt/ (as above) glastifer

*at least 7 of the 12 words coined feature a high, front vowel – either /ı/ or /iː/

Concluding Remarks

• /gl/ is consistently and strongly associated with ‘light’ by speakers across all experiments, showing evidence that English native speakers recognise its phonaesthetic function

• However, it appears it has an even stronger association with ‘light’ for speakers if combined with a high-front vowel Experiment 2, with high front vowel nucleus, yields 7% more responses associating the phonaestheme to a meaning of ‘light’ than experiment 1, with mid-front vowel At least 7 of the 12 respondents who coin a /gl/ word in Experiment 3 use a high-front vowel

• This finding seems to support Jespersen’s (1922b)claim that in many languages, high-front vowelstend to be associated with ‘lightness’and low back vowels ‘darkness’

References• Abelin, A (1999) Studies in Sound Symbolism. PhD thesis: Göteborg University.

• Bowles, H (1995) “The Semantic Properties of the Phonaestheme”. Studi italiani di linguistica teorica ed applicata, 1: 91-106.

• Cruttenden, A (2008) Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. London: Hodder Education.

• Firth, J R (1930) Speech. In Firth, J R, The Tongues of Men and Speech. London: Oxford University Press.

• Firth, J R (1957) Papers in Linguistics 1934-1951. London: Oxford University Press.

• Hayes, B (2009) Introductory Phonology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

• Jespersen, O (1922a) Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

• Jespersen, O (1922b) “Symbolic Value of the Vowel I”. In Jespersen, O, Selected Writings of Otto Jespersen. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Kreidler, C W (2004) The Pronunciation of English. Oxford: Blackwell.

• Marchand, H (1966) The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word- Formation. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.

• Sadowski, P (2001) “The sound as an echo to the sense: The iconicity of English gl- words”. In Fischer, O and Nanny, M (eds.) The Motivated Sign. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

• Sturtevant, E H (1947) An Introduction to Linguistic Science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Documents

The Phonaestheme /gl/: To what extent are English speakers aware of a meaning connection with ‘light’? Michael Willett Cardiff University, UK [email protected]