Sound Symbolism

Sound symbolism is the term for a hypothesized systematic relationship between sound and meaning (Hinton, Nichols, & Ohala 1994). The idea that there might be a non-arbitrary relationship between the physical aspect of a speech signal and its meaning is quite an old idea, dating back at least to the time of Plato who, in his work Cratylus, had Socrates debating with two pupils the issue of whether the names for things are arbitrary or whether instead they are a natural reflection of the things named. There has been considerable speculation and anecdotal evidence on this point from then up to the present time (de Brosses 1765; Jespersen 1933). I believe that phonetic studies -combined with principles emerging from ethology, the science of comparative behavior -can provide a novel basis for further informed speculation on this issue. Moreover, the principles applied to this topic can also elucidate several other controversial topics including the cause of universal patterns in intonation, the origin of certain facial expressions involving the mouth, the reason for sexual dimorphism of the vocal anatomy in humans (and other species), and whether the human vocal anatomy shows any adaptation special to speech.