
Contents
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15.1 Introduction 15.1 Introduction
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15.2 Sound symbolism defined 15.2 Sound symbolism defined
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15.2.1 Studies of Sound Symbolism 15.2.1 Studies of Sound Symbolism
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15.3 Sound symbolism cross-linguistically 15.3 Sound symbolism cross-linguistically
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15.3.1 English 15.3.1 English
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15.3.2 Asia 15.3.2 Asia
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15.3.3 Australia and the Pacific 15.3.3 Australia and the Pacific
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15.3.4 Africa 15.3.4 Africa
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15.3.5 The Americas 15.3.5 The Americas
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15.3.6 Summary 15.3.6 Summary
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15.4 Outstanding issues 15.4 Outstanding issues
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15 Sound Symbolism
Get accessG. Tucker Childs, Portland State University, OR, USA
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Published:03 March 2014
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Abstract
This chapter treats sound symbolism, the non-arbitrary mapping between sound and meaning. Most of the mapping in human language is entirely arbitrary: there is no reason why a ‘grown human female’ should be woman in English, femme in French, and wanalanɔ in Kisi (spoken in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia). In all languages to varying degrees, however, the associations are not entirely arbitrary: established and predictable associations will obtain over significant portions of the lexicon in units smaller than the morpheme or word, the traditional units of meaning. This chapter presents an overview of such phenomena and the range of variation within the general category of sound symbolism, with examples from English and other languages of the world.
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