46 whee
, yay, and yea. Three out of the eight words expressed negative emotions, such as sadness, disgust, or dislike. The word sigh, waa, and yuckyucky were the
examples of words containing negative emotions. Then, the last word was boo, which has three different functions. It was to express the positive emotion as well
as negative emotions, and to represent the sound made by a dog.
Table 4.7 Functions of the Word boo in Play Songs Function 1
Song No. 3 Function 2
Song No. 19 Function 3
Song No. 30
I bought me a dog the dog pleased me
I fed my dog under yonder tree
The dog went boo Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock The clock struck two, the
mouse said “boo” Hickory dickory dock
Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey When along came a spider
Who sat down beside her And frightened Miss
Muffet away Boo
to represent the sound made by a dog
an expression used to surprise
an expression used to frighten
According to the comparison of boo ‟s functions depicted in Table 4.7, the
first function located in the leftmost column was to imitate a sound of a dog. The second function was that boo represented an expression to surprise, which was
considered as positive emotion. Then, the last function was as an expression to frighten, which constituted one of negative emotions.
2. Imitative Sound Symbolism
The principle goal of play songs as mentioned by Suliteanu 1979, as cited in Trehub Trainor, 1998, p. 53
is „to amuse the child when he is awake‟. This
47 goal was confirmed by the sound symbolic words, which can also be called
onomatopoeic words, found in imitative category whose topics were related to children‟s fun and interests. In total, there were 81 words indicating imitative
sound symbolism. Yet, that number of words consisted of 55 sound symbolic words indicating imitative category only, and 26 sound symbolic words indicating
combined categories – 1 imitative-corporeal sound symbolic word, 1 imitative-
synethetic sounds symbolic word, and 24 imitative-conventional sound symbolic words.
Figure 4.3 Topics Represented by Imitative Sound Symbolic Words
The topics represented by imitative sound symbolic words as showed in Figure 4.3 varied a lot. The most prominent topic found in play songs was sounds
or noises made by animals or humans. It reached 62 or 34 words out of 55
animals humans
62 eating
5 feet
movement 5
hitting movement
4 train
9 other
15
Topics of Imitative Sound Symbolic Words
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
