Imitative Sound Symbolism Sound Symbolism Found in Play Songs
48 imitative sound symbolic words. The example of this topic was the word quack
representing a characteristic sound of a duck which appeared nine play songs see Appendix G. Then, it was followed by the topic representing sounds or noises
made by a train, which stood at 9 or five words out of 55 imitative sound symbolic words. The word clickety clack appearing in a play song entitled Freight
Train was one of the five words. Specifically, it functioned to represent a
rhythmic swiftly paced succession of alternating clicks and clacks, as the sound produced by the wheels of a train moving over tracks see Appendix G. In
addition, there were three words related to eating activity, three words in connection with feet movements, and two words dealing with hitting movement.
The examples of those topics were respectively the word chomp, clippety clop, and tap. The function of each word is presented in Appendix G.
Figure 4.4 Topics Represented by Sound Symbolic Words of Combined Categories
5 10
15 20
25 30
IMI COR IMI SYN
IMI CON
Total Words Sou
nd Symbol
ism C
at egor
y
Topics of Sound Symbolic Words
animals back and forth
dull impact feet movement
hitting movement movement in the air
other
49 There are three bars reflecting three sound symbolism combined categories
in Figure 4.4. The first bar, the uppermost one, covered a number of sound symbolic words representing imitative and conventional categories at once. This
bar possessed the most sound symbolic words, which means there were more various topics appearing in its words than other bars. This included 24 words,
which did not only cover the sounds or noises made by animals, feet movements, and hitting movements, but also back and forth movements, movements in the air,
and movements causing dull impact. Its exact total words of each topic are presented in Figure 4.4. In addition, the word appeared the most frequently among
the 24 words was clap, which could be found in six songs. It represented both the short, loud noise made by striking palms of hands together repeatedly, as well as
the act of making such noise see Appendix G. The other two bars show only one topic of each of them. The second bar,
covering only one imitative-synesthetic sound symbolic word, also showed merely single topic, i.e. feet movement in the word stomp see Appendix G.
Similarly, the third bar contained only one imitative-corporeal sound symbolic word whose topic was related to a sound made by a dog, as represented in the
word boo.