What’s in a Word?

The “Universal” Rebus Principle and Phonosemantic Compounding

“…The scientific status of phonosemantic theories of language is outside the scope of this paper. However, recently, a number of researchers from disciplines outside of linguistics, notably Margaret Magnus in computer science have attempted to develop rigorous methodologies for the study of phonosemantic phenomena in language, methodologies which are not too dissimilar from accepted analyses from phonology (Magnus 2001). In addition, recently Altmann (2023) has done work on obstruents and perceived sound-symbolic harshness in branding, while Pericliev (2022) has looked at lexical iconicity.…”