Sound Symbolism and an Attempt on A Different Classification of Sound-Meaning Relationship
Didem Akyıldız AySound symbolism describes the discipline of a hypothesized systematic correspondence between sound and meaning. At the core of the subject, the relationship between linguistic and nonlinguistic sound or phenomena is discussed, and whether the connection is conventional among word-meaning-nonlinguistic sound/phenomenon is scrutinized. Sound symbolism is a comprehensive subject which many disciplines are interested in and contribute to, and it is also complex, because its researchers have not been able to reach consensus on the subject. There are several subtitles about sound symbolism, which sometimes engage with one another, on which linguistics studies and various psychology subdisciplines, such as cognitive or behavioral, concentrate. In this study, information will be provided about the subtitles that have no terminological equivalent in Turkish, such as onomatopoeia, phonesthemes, size symbolism and shape symbolism, based on the data obtained from the studies of sound symbolism in other languages. Later, we will mention three different categories where the effects of phonemes in language are grounded in the mind’s meaning.
Ses Sembolizmi ve Ses-Anlam Uyumunun Farklı Bir Sınıflandırma Denemesi
Didem Akyıldız AySes sembolizmi, ses ve anlam arasında sistematik bir ilişkinin olduğu varsayıldığı bir disiplindir. Konunun çekirdeğinde dil ile dil dışı ses veya görüngü arasındaki ilişkiler üzerinde durulur ve sözcük-anlam-dil dışı ses/görüngü arasındaki bağın uzlaşımsal olup olmadığı irdelenir. Ses sembolizmi konusu, birçok bilim dalının ilgilendiği ve katkıda bulunduğu kapsamlı bir konu olmakla birlikte konuyla ilgilenen araştırmacıların konuya bakış açılarında tam bir birlik sağlanamamasından dolayı aynı zamanda karmaşık bir konudur denilebilir. Dil araştırmalarında ve psikolojinin bilişsel, davranışsal gibi çeşitli alt bilim dallarında araştırmaların daha da yoğunlaştığı ses sembolizmiyle ilgili, birbirleriyle zaman zaman iç içe geçen birtakım alt konu başlıkları yer almaktadır. Bu çalışmada, ses sembolizmi konusunun diğer diller üzerinde yapılmış çalışmalardaki verilerden yola çıkılarak, onomatopeia, phonesthemes, size symbolism ve shape symbolism gibi Türkçede henüz terimsel tam karşılıklarını bulamadığımız alt konu başlıkları hakkında bilgi verilecektir. Daha sonra ise dildeki sesbirimlerin zihinde beliren anlam üzerindeki etkilerinin esas alındığı üç ayrı kategoriden bahsedilecektir.
In almost all languages, there are words with phonemes that evoke the meaning they denote. The reason for this is that the same phonemes evoke similar concepts across many languages. Sound symbolism is a discipline that studies the relationship between sound and meaning. The similarity between the phonemes forming the words and the extra-linguistic sounds are significant in the types of sound symbolism, especially onomatopoetic words. Sound symbolism also deals with the relationship of the phonemes with senses other than audition. Here, the similarity between the phenomes’ articulation features and the extra-linguistic phenomenon with which they associate are significant. Sound symbolism is a field of language studies, and various disciplines research the associations created in the human mind by the sound-semantic harmony. For example, there is a considerable amount of research on this subject in the sub-branches of psychology, such as cognitive and behavioral psychology. In addition, studies on sound symbolism become especially important in the creation of brand names in the field of advertising. Although we know that Turkey has richer examples than many other languages in terms of sound and meaning harmony, these topics have not been addressed in all aspects of sound symbolism. This study provides information on the basic subjects and commonly used terms of voice symbolism with a view to pioneering new studies on sound symbolism in Turkish. Finally, in order to show that the layers of meaning associated with the phonemes have different levels in the mind, their relationship to extra-linguistic sound or phenomena are evaluated under three separate categories:
• Natural harmony: Onomatopoeic words fall into this category as the basic element of the sound symbolism because the extra-linguistic sounds that are heard are represented by the closest phoneme in the language. The relation between phoneme » sound is taken into consideration. These are the linguistic signs that are farthest away from the conventional or arbitrary linguistic signs in a language.
• Associative harmony: Here it is essential that the phonemes have a similarity between the form and place characteristics of articulation; that is to say, there is a similarity between the extra-linguistic sound/phenomenon and whether the phonemic is in the back, frontal, and whether it is glide, flapped, plosive, fricative. Although this similarity is established for all components of sound symbolism, sound symbolic items outside the onomatopoeic words should be included in this harmony because the relationship between signifier and signified is more indirect.
• Melodic harmony is a type of harmony that is considered quite different from the other two types of harmony; it expresses a suprasegmental harmony created by using more than one word together. This harmony is widely used in tongue twisters, riddles, and especially in poetic language. In the language of poetry, the writer or poet conveys the emotion to the reader by using the phonetic properties of the phonemes and especially sound harmony (alliteration/assonance).
