What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive?

Tsur, Reuven

doi:10.2307/j.ctv1131366

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Second, the repetition of the same syllables may be perceived as phonetically unpleasant or cacophonic. While cognitive poetics (Aryani et al, 2016;Jacobs, 2015;Tsur, 1992Tsur, , 2012 has extensively studied phonosymbolism and literary devices that create repetitive auditory effects (e.g., alliteration, assonance, cacophony, etc.) and how they affect the reader's response, no study has specifically investigated the effect of these phenomena on the evaluation and processing of oxymoronic expressions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes an awfully good oxymoron?

Bolognesi,

Combei,

La Pietra

et al. 2024

Lang. cogn.

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Oxymorons combine two opposite terms in a paradoxical manner. They are closely intertwined with antonymy, since the union of antonymous items creates the paradoxical effect of the oxymoron and generates a new meaning. Compared to other forms of figurative language, oxymorons are largely underinvestigated. We explored what makes good oxymorons through a crowdsourcing task in which we asked participants to judge the acceptability, comprehensibility, effectiveness/aptness, commonness, pleasantness, and humoristic connotation of Italian adjective–noun oxymorons. We hypothesized that oxymorons featuring morphologically related antonyms (felice infelicità ‘happy unhappiness’) may be perceived to be better than oxymorons featuring morphologically unrelated antonyms (felice tristezza ‘happy sadness’) and that oxymorons constructed by complementaries (esatta inesattezza ‘exact inexactness’) may be perceived to be better than oxymorons constructed by contraries (bella bruttezza ‘beautiful ugliness’). The results confirmed only partially our hypotheses: oxymorons with complementaries were perceived as more acceptable, comprehensible, effective/apt, common, whereas no strong trend was found for the other two dimensions. Surprisingly, our analyses revealed that oxymoronic constructions containing morphologically unrelated words were perceived as more acceptable, comprehensible, effective/apt, common, pleasant, contradicting our initial expectations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes an awfully good oxymoron?

Bolognesi,

Combei,

La Pietra

et al. 2024

Lang. cogn.

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“…Based on the findings of speech research, I have assumed the "poetic mode of speech perception" (Tsur 1992), where some of the rich precategorical auditory information that transmitted speech (usually excluded from awareness) does reach consciousness. With reference to Excerpts 1-2 I have pointed out that in some contexts, owing to interaction with meaning, sound patterns are perceived as more than usually resonant.…”

Section: To Sum Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article summarizes what I have expounded at length in my earlier publications in a specific area of my research: the role of resonance in the sound patterns of poetry. The comprehensive theory underlying it has been propounded at book length in Tsur (1992;Tsur and Gafni forthcoming). In addition, this article integrates much of my other publications, repurposing them for the present argument.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Acoustics and Resonance in Poetry: The Psychological Reality of Rhyme in Baudelaire’s “Les Chats”

Tsur

2021

SMP

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This article uses the term “psychological reality” in this sense: the extent to which the constructs of linguistic theory can be taken to have a basis in the human mind, i.e., to somehow be reflected in human cognitive structures. This article explores the human cognitive structures in which the constructs of phonetic theory may be reflected. The last section is a critique of the psychological reality of sound patterns in Baudelaire’s “Les Chats”, as discussed in three earlier articles. In physical terms, it defines “resonant” as “tending to reinforce or prolong sounds, especially by synchronous vibration”. In phonetic terms it defines “resonant” as “where intense precategorical auditory information lingers in short-term memory”. The effect of rhyme in poetry is carried by similar overtones vibrating in the rhyme fellows, resonating like similar overtones on the piano. In either case, we do not compare overtones item by item, just hear their synchronous vibration. I contrast this conception to three approaches: one that points out similar sounds of “internal rhymes”, irrespective of whether they may be contained within the span of short-term memory (i.e., whether they may have psychological relit); one that claims that syntactic complexity may cancel the psychological reality of “internal rhymes” (whereas I claim that it merely backgrounds rhyme); and one that found through an eye-tracking experiment that readers fixate longer on verse-final rhymes than on other words, assuming regressive eye-movement (I claim that rhyme is an acoustic not visual phenomenon; and that there is a tendency to indicate discontinuation by prolonging the last sounds in ordinary speech and blank verse too, as well as in music — where no rhyme is involved).

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“…According to de Saussure (1959) the arbitrary relation between the signifier and the signified is a fundamental feature of language. Nevertheless, there is also a long tradition stating that some semantic residue echoes in the mere sound of words (Bühler, 1934;Jakobson & Waugh, 1979;Jespersen, 1922;Tsur, 1992). Potential form-meaning mappings through structural resemblance, i.e., iconicity (Peirce, 1931), have strong implications for the evolution, development, and processing of language linking linguistic form to human experience (see Lockwood & Dingemanse, 2015;Perniss & Vigliocco, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%