The sound of taboo: Exploring a sound-meaning ...
Type de document :
Compte-rendu et recension critique d'ouvrage
DOI :
URL permanente :
Titre :
The sound of taboo: Exploring a sound-meaning association in swear words of English and French
Auteur(s) :
Vallery, Robin [Auteur]
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Université de Lille
Lemmens, Maarten [Auteur]
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Université de Lille
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Université de Lille
Lemmens, Maarten [Auteur]
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Université de Lille
Titre de la revue :
Pragmatics and Cognition
Pagination :
87-137
Éditeur :
John Benjamins Publishing
Date de publication :
2021
ISSN :
0929-0907
Discipline(s) HAL :
Sciences cognitives/Linguistique
Résumé en anglais : [en]
Swear words of English and French, both real and fictional ones, significantly tend to contain the least sonorous consonants, compared to the rest of the lexicon. What can explain the overrepresentation of such sounds among ...
Lire la suite >Swear words of English and French, both real and fictional ones, significantly tend to contain the least sonorous consonants, compared to the rest of the lexicon. What can explain the overrepresentation of such sounds among swear words? This might be a case of sound symbolism, when sounds are unconsciously associated with a meaning. We examine the pragmatic vs. semantic nature of the meaning involved, as well as two explanations in terms of iconicity (plosives may be associated with “violation of hearer’s space”, or unsonorous consonants may be associated with “aggression”). This unusual sound-meaning pairing would involve an emotional-contextual, non-truth-conditional meaning, and be powerful enough that it influences a strong sociolinguistic convention – which words are swear words and which ones are not – suggesting that sounds convey meaning in yet unsuspected ways.Lire moins >
Lire la suite >Swear words of English and French, both real and fictional ones, significantly tend to contain the least sonorous consonants, compared to the rest of the lexicon. What can explain the overrepresentation of such sounds among swear words? This might be a case of sound symbolism, when sounds are unconsciously associated with a meaning. We examine the pragmatic vs. semantic nature of the meaning involved, as well as two explanations in terms of iconicity (plosives may be associated with “violation of hearer’s space”, or unsonorous consonants may be associated with “aggression”). This unusual sound-meaning pairing would involve an emotional-contextual, non-truth-conditional meaning, and be powerful enough that it influences a strong sociolinguistic convention – which words are swear words and which ones are not – suggesting that sounds convey meaning in yet unsuspected ways.Lire moins >
Langue :
Anglais
Vulgarisation :
Non
Collections :
Source :
Date de dépôt :
2024-04-16T06:46:51Z