18
Table 2.1 Initial Phonesthemic Sounds No.
Sound Content
1. b-
dull impact “anchored” path abrupt, loud onset path 2.
bl- loud, air-induced sound path
3. d
ʒ - up-and-down-movement
4. dr-
liquid classifier, path simple path 5.
ɛ r intense
6. fl-
phenomena of movement in air or moving light 2 dimensional classifier liquid path
7. gl-
phenomena of light unmoving light 8.
i diminutive
9. itr
intermittent 10.
j-t ʃ -
short path 11.
kl- abrupt onset path
12. kr-
bent noisy impactpath abrupt onset 13.
m- liquid path
14. n-
3 dimensional classifier 15.
ow steady
16. p-
“anchored” path abrupt onset path 17.
pl- abrupt onset path
18. r-
irregular onset 19.
ʃ sk- 2 dimensional, flexible classifier
20. sk-
swift movement 21.
skr- grating impact or sound
22. sl-
smoothly wet liquid path 23.
sn- breath-noise quick separation or movement creep
24. sp-
cylindrical classifier 25.
sp-t rush of liquid
26. st-
arrest 1 dimensional classifier 27.
st-nt piece of performance
28. str-
1 dimensional, flexible classifier 29.
str-p line having breadth
30. θ-
low pitch, slow onset 31.
t ʃ -
irregular onset 32.
tr- liquid classifier simple path
33. tw-
twisting motion 34.
w- back and forth path poorly resolvable onset path
35. y
loud, vocal tract noise path 36.
z- poorly resolvable onset path
Taken from Bolinger’s, Bloomfield’s, and Rhodes’ theories
19 Table 2.2 depicts the phonesthemes which are located in the middle of
words. There were only three sounds based on the three theories‟ synthesis. Each
sound has only one content.
Table 2.2 Middle Phonesthemic Sounds
No. Sound
Content
1. -
ɛ tə particled movement
2. i
diminutive 3.
-im ə
small light or noise
Taken from Bolinger’s and Bloomfield’s theories
Table 2.3 shows a number of phonesthemic sounds which are located at the end of words. Each sound of 13 phonesthemes refers to one content only,
based on the synthesized theories of phonesthemes.
Table 2.3 Final Phonesthemic Sounds No.
Sound Content
1. -
ʌ m clumsy
2. -amble
locomotion 3.
-ash hit, fragments
4. -awns
quick movement 5.
- ɛ
violent movement 6.
- ɛ ə
big light or noise 7.
i diminutive
8. -im
ə small light or noise
9. -lessness indifference
10. -ump
awkward, heavy 11.
-ust surface formation
12. -usty
old 13.
-utter discontinuity
Taken from Bolinger’s and Bloomfield’s theories
20
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter exposes the method applied in this research to analyze research data and obtain the answers of research problems. The content of this
chapter is put into six sections. Those are the research method, the research setting, the research subjects, the research instrument and data gathering
technique, the data analysis technique, and the research procedure. The research method pertains to the appointed research type. The research setting explains the
place and time taken during conducting the research. The research subjects describe the subject
’s nature along with the method of sampling. The research instrument and data gathering technique discusses the apt instrument for
collecting the data. The data analysis technique expounds the manner of analyzing the data result. The last section, the research procedure, is about the stages in this
research.
A. Research Method
This research aimed to classify sound symbolic words found in lullabies and play songs. The method employed in this research was content analysis. As
Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2007 convey that “content analysis can be
undertaken with any written material, from documents to interview transcriptions, from media products to personal interviews
” p. 475. Therefore, content analysis
21 was chosen as a method to analyze the data in the form of songs, particularly song
lyrics, which are considered as written material. Furthermore, this research concerns phenomena closely connected with
humans in recorded sources, namely the existence of sound symbolism in lullabies and play songs. This statement is in-
line with Patton’s notion 1985 as cited in Merriam, 2009 related to the purpose of qualitative research, which one of its
types is content analysis; it is to: understand situations in their uniqueness as a part of a particular context
and the interactions there. This understanding is an end in itself, so that it is not attempting to predict what may happen in the future necessarily, but
to understand the nature of that setting p. 14. It means that this research investigates lullabies and play songs as the linguistic
phenomena which are familiar in the society, in order to have an intact comprehension. Hence, it was proportional to the purpose of conducting this
research, in short, to analyze sound symbolic words in lullabies and play songs by examining each verse of song lyrics and interpreting the data result.
B. Research Setting
The researcher started conducting the research from 2014 to 2015. Since it was content analysis research, the researcher did not deal with human participants,
but documents, namely a number of song lyrics along with their audio version or MP3. The research was started by collecting all of the data, then writing the
research report in detail.
22
C. Research Subjects
The subjects of this research were English children songs containing sound symbolism both in 15 lullabies and 45 play songs. The difference quantity
between lullabies and play songs is by virtue of their cultural background. The two types of songs which are in English were evidently influenced by the culture
existing in English-speaking countries, specifically American in this case. To illustrate, American parents coming from middle class tend to educate their
children to be independent and self-reliant Rogoff, 2003, p. 195. One of the ways to educate them is by providing them their own room to sleep even since
they were still babies, based on Morelli, Rogoff, Oppenheim, and Goldsmith 1992, as cited in Rogoff, 2003, p. 196. It means parents and their children have
no much interaction during the night time, specifically before going to sleep because they sleep apart. That is the reason why the quantity of lullabies found is
not as many as play songs. Further, the researcher took into account any topic as the research subjects
as long as the songs contained sound symbolism. All of the data were taken from various children-content websites on the internet, such as www.dreamenglish.com
and www.singwithourkids.com and a video-specialized website named www.youtube.com
, whose song lyrics were already provided in all of those data sources. In this case, the data taken from www.youtube.com were converted into
MP3 versions. The reason of providing songs in audio versions MP3 only and excluding audio-visual versions video was to stimulate the readers to predict
what sound symbolic words found in lullabies and play songs referred to or
