1999
DOI: 10.2466/pms.1999.89.1.19
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Abstract: This article addresses the emotional meaning (phonosymbolism) of the most basic unit of language--the phoneme. Language excerpts from many sources were transcribed phonetically with the help of a computer program. The distributions of phonemes in different sources (song lyrics, poetry, word lists, advertisements) were correlated with the emotionality of the language along two dimensions (activation, evaluation) which had been rated by the Dictionary of Affect using another computer program. Significant results… Show more

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Cited by 60 publications
(29 citation statements)
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“…As a result, it is not clear whether these relational frequencies can actually predict the emotional classification of all poems in the corpus—and consequently, whether they can in fact be understood as group-differentiating variables. Furthermore, the results of the three studies differ from those of previous research: Fónagy (1961) found /t/ to be more frequent in aggressive and hence negatively valenced poems, and Whissell (1999) reported that the plosives /d/, /b/, and /t/ tend to be more dominant in unpleasant words and to correlate negatively with pleasantness. Additionally, Miall (2001) found higher frequencies of occurrence of plosives in poetic verses that were interpreted as expressing negative experiences 4 .…”
Section: Introductioncontrasting
confidence: 77%
“…As a result, it is not clear whether these relational frequencies can actually predict the emotional classification of all poems in the corpus—and consequently, whether they can in fact be understood as group-differentiating variables. Furthermore, the results of the three studies differ from those of previous research: Fónagy (1961) found /t/ to be more frequent in aggressive and hence negatively valenced poems, and Whissell (1999) reported that the plosives /d/, /b/, and /t/ tend to be more dominant in unpleasant words and to correlate negatively with pleasantness. Additionally, Miall (2001) found higher frequencies of occurrence of plosives in poetic verses that were interpreted as expressing negative experiences 4 .…”
Section: Introductioncontrasting
confidence: 77%
“…In several experiments she showed that certain (classes) of phonemes are related to emotions. E.g., velars correlated with aggression and anger, whereas the lateral was found to be pleasant and gentle (Whissell 1999(Whissell , 2000. The threatening effect of velars and uvulars is based on acoustic similarities.…”
Section: Some Sound Symbolic Phenomenamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…According to Fónagy, the glottal stop is especially aggressive and related to vomiting and indisposition. Whissell (1999) characterized /g/ and (the English) /r/ as aggressive consonants. "Sounds that are produced towards the back of the throat (including /k/ and /g/) share some of the muscular responses characteristic of the negative and active emotions of disgust and anger.…”
Section: Some Sound Symbolic Phenomenamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In her research on affective sound symbolism, Whissell (1999Whissell ( , 2000 examined English word sounds inductively and reached the conclusion that most of them were emotionally meaningful. She analyzed the sounds in several thousand words whose emotional meaning had been rated, and noted that different sounds appeared at inordinately high rates in different types of rated words.…”
Section: Quantifying the Employment Of Emotionally Loaded Sounds In Smentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The emotional meanings of sounds were originally assigned on the basis of word meanings (Whissell, 1999(Whissell, , 2000. Differences among sonnet lines with respect to sounds might therefore be dependent entirely on Shakespeare's word choices.…”
Section: Two Measurement Issues and Their Resolutionmentioning
confidence: 99%