Phonaesthesia

Quick meaning: Phonaesthesia is a noun meaning (linguistics) Any correspondence between the sound of a word and its meaning; examples include onomatopoeia and the use of phonesthemes.

Meaning

(linguistics) Any correspondence between the sound of a word and its meaning; examples include onomatopoeia and the use of phonesthemes.

Example Sentences

For this latter term, phonaesthesia is doubtless at work, since kring is also ‘the sound of a small bell’.

Phonaesthesia refers to the vaguer phenomenon whereby families of words with shared phonemes sometimes evoke related meanings in a not-quite-echoic manner.

Those in (1.15) illustrate a weaker type of iconicity, generally known as phonaesthesia: the consonant cluster ‘fl’ seems to suggest quick movement, but it is not a direct representation of movement, or speed.

In contrast, writers of bucolic dialogues, like George Meriton, for instance, and lively song-writers like Robert Anderson in Cumberland, seem drawn to expressive lexis, marked by sound patterns of reduplication, alliteration and phonaesthesia.

Word Forms

• phonesthesia

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include phonesthesia, phonaesthetics, phonaestheme, phonesthetics, phonoaesthetics, ideophonetics.

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