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.

3. Synesthetic Sound Symbolism

The purpose of this category is to create an “acoustic symbolization of non- acoustic phenomena” Hinton et al. 1994, p. 4. A word has to have several features of synesthetic sound symbolism such as the existence of visual, tactile, or 50 proprioceptive object as depicted by particular vowels, consonants, or suprasegementals consistently Hinton et al., 1994, p. 4. Based on the findings, there were only four synesthetic sound symbolic words found in play songs, though actually it was more than sound symbolic words of synesthetic category found in lullabies. They comprised two sound symbolic words of synesthetic category only, one synesthetic-imitative sound symbolic word, and one synesthetic-conventional sound symbolic word. However, the four words represented two different things. Two words represented diminutives such as birdie and itsy bitsy, whereas the other two words represented augmentation such as hog and stomp. The detailed explanation of each function can be seen in Appendix G.

4. Conventional Sound Symbolism

A word can be classified into conventional sound symbolism category if there are particular phonemes or clusters sharing similar features representing certain ideas within their structure Hinton et al., 1994, p. 5. According to the findings on play songs, this category was the second most frequently found in play songs lyrics. In total, there were 47 conventional sound symbolic words; 22 words of them belonged to sound symbolic words of conventional category only, 24 words of them were of conventional-imitative sound symbolic words, and one word was of conventional-synesthetic sound symbolic word. 51 Table 4.8 Phonesthemic Sounds and Their Meaning of Conventional Sound Symbolic Words in Play Songs No. Sound Symbolism Category Phonesthemic Sound Meaning Frequency Example 1. Conventional b- dull impact 2 belly kr- slow movement 2 creep noisy impact 2 crow fl- phenomena of movement 2 flick movement in air 1 fly 2 dimensional 1 flat gr- sudden, rough seize 1 grab n- 3 dimensional 1 knot sn- creep 1 snail breath-noise 1 snuff sp- cylindrical 1 spin sp-t rush of liquid 1 spout st- 1 dimensional 1 stick tr- liquid 1 trickle tw- twisting motion 2 twirl - ɪŋk eye movement 1 wink ŋkəl small lines or folds 1 wrinkle Table 4.8 contains thirteen phonesthemic sounds which appeared in 22 sound symbolic words of conventional category only. The phonestemic sound fl- owned the most meanings, namely to refer to the phenomena of movement such as flick Bolinger, 1950, as cited in Abelin , 1999, p. 32, movement in the air such as fly Bloomfield, 1933, as cited in Abelin, 1999, p. 32, and two- dimensional level such as flat Rhodes, 1994, as cited in Abelin, 1999, p. 32. The function of each conventional sound symbolic word in Table 4.8 is presented in Appendix G.