Sound symbolism flouts the core assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign in human language. The cross-linguistic prevalence of sound symbolism raises key questions about the universality versus language-specificity of sound symbolic correspondences. One challenge to studying cross-linguistic sound symbolic patterns is the difficulty of holding constant real-world referents across cultures. In this study, we address the challenge of cross-linguistic comparison by utilising a rich, cross-linguistic dataset drawn from the Pokémon game franchise. Within this controlled universe, we compare the sound symbolisms of Japanese and English Pokémon names (pokemonikers). Our results show a tendency in both languages to encode the same attributes with sound symbolism, but also reveal key differences rooted in language-specific structural and lexical constraints.
<p>Contour tones, like contour segments, exhibit dualist syntagmatic behavior: as whole units, <span style="font-size: 10px;">they can participate in harmony (spreading) and disharmony (OCP-type restriction) processes </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">or their internal, subsegmental components may act independently. Formally, such schizoid </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">behavior from both contour tones and segments in (dis)harmony patterns has challenged </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">previous phonological theory. As a solution, this paper presents a novel, quantized phonological </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">representation for subsegmental units couched in existing surface correspondence theory </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">(Agreement by Correspondence (ABC); Hansson 2001; Rose & Walker 2004; et seq.). The </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">resulting approach, termed ABC+Q, treats tonally contoured segments as strings of tonally </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">simplex subsegments and is thus capable of modeling both whole contour (segment-level) </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">and partial contour (subsegment-level) effects as consequences of (dis)agreement triggered by </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">phonological similarity and proximity. Such an approach makes it possible for the first time </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">to offer a united treatment for the behavior of both contour tones and contour segments across </span><span style="font-size: 10px;">observed patterns of (dis)harmony.</span></p>
We develop a novel optimization approach to tone. Its grammatical component consists of the similarity- and proximity-based correspondence constraint framework of Agreement by Correspondence theory (ABC). Its representational component, Q Theory, decomposes segments ( Q) into temporally ordered, quantized subsegments ( q), which comprise unitary sets of distinctive features, including tone. ABC+Q unites phonological alternations and static lexical patterns, as we illustrate with a programmatic survey of core tonal phenomena: assimilation, dissimilation, lexical tone melodies, and consonant-tone interaction. ABC+Q surmounts long-standing problems for autosegmental-era, multitiered representational approaches to tone, and unites tonal and segmental phonology under the modern umbrella of correspondence theory.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.