PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Segmental Aspects

Positive effects in sound symbolism can be reached by the usage of the so-called euphonic sounds. Combinations of sounds perceived as negative form cacophony. Euphony is the effect of sounds perceived as pleasing and lyrical conveying rhythm and harmony to the human ear/ brain. Cacophony, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. The words originally come from Greek, meaning tender sound (i.e. euphony) and bad sound (i.e. cacophony). In poetry, cacophony suggests the use of words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodic sounds. In linguistics, cacophony is described as a senseless combination of phonemes. It is also commonly referred to as discordance or discomfort, disorder, or pain.

1650s, “harsh or unpleasant sound”, probably via French cacophonie (16c.), from a Latinized form of Greek kakophonia, from kakophonos “harsh sounding”, from kakos “bad, evil” (from PIE root kakka- “to defecate”) + phoné “voice, sound”, from PIE root bha- (2) “to speak, tell, say”. The meaning “discordant sounds in music” is from 1789 (etymonline.com)

Crystal explains the term sound symbolism as “some kind of meaningful connection between a sound, or a cluster of sounds, and properties of the outside world” (Crystal, 2011, p. 250). He recognizes two basic ways how sound symbolism is manifested in words. One of them is “phonaesthesia, i.e. the focus is put on the aesthetic values of sounds, and onomatopoeia, when focusing on the use of sound in poetry” (ibid.). For the sounds associated with unpleasant feelings, the term cacophony is used, harmonic or pleasant sounds which evoke positive associations are recognized as euphonic. The associations evoked by different sounds in people are often highly subjectively-biased and culture specific (ibid.).

Many types of phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices are based on sound combinations. According to Znamenskaya, the term onomatopoeia is closely related to the whole concept of sound symbolism. The principle is to imitate the sound as a property of the outside world, e.g. ding-dong, tinkle, tinkle (Znamenskaya, 2004). Another phonetic device that reflects play on words, is alliteration (initial rhyme) which makes use of repeating the same consonant sounds at the beginning of neighbouring words, e.g. to rob Peter to pay Paul. Playing with sounds is often a feature performed in similes, e.g. as good as gold.

“Alliteration is a frequent feature also of English phrasal idioms”, as exemplified by e.g. from head to heels or to make a mountain out of a molehill (cf. e.g. Böhmerová, in Böhmerová, Trebatická, 2018, p. 13). In the publication Making Friends with Idioms, Böhmerová confirms that phonetic devices are frequently used in English phrasemes. While this phenomenon is commonly found in English, “in Slovak it is not frequent and sometimes probably only incidental, e.g. behá ako besná/ý” (Böhmerová, in Böhmerová, Trebatická, 2018, p. 13).

Assonance is defined as the recurrence of stressed vowels, e.g. Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden… (Znamenskaya, 2004, p. 8). Bázlik and Miškovičová give many examples of alliteration and assonance used in the English idiomatic expressions, which are for example similes, proverbs, sayings, e.g. A barking dog doesn´t bite (Bázlik, Miškovičová, 2012, p. 158). Crystal also confirms that sound symbolism plays an important role in idiomatic expressions, as for example in similes or collocations, and presents lists of words “illustrating a range of instances where a plausible case for sound symbolism can be made”, like comic onomatopoeia, lone words or the sound of swearing (Crystal, 2011, p. 250).

Another phonetic device is paronomasia (using words similar in sound, but different in the meaning, with euphonic effect), e.g. And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting, or chiasmus (reversed order of two parallel syntactic constructions), e.g. In the days of old men made manners Manners now make men (Znamenskaya, 2004, p. 8). Another example of phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices is for example rhyme. Kvetko presents examples of proverbs, popular quotations, similes, binomials and trinomials, phrasal verbs, or even social formulae in which sounds play an important role, hence these are not only melodic, rhythmical, but also easier to remember, e.g. all that glitters is not gold, as cool as a cucumber, bag and baggage, now, now, how do you do? (Kvetko, 2001, p. 102). Some other examples of both phrasal and sentential phraseological units manifesting not only alliteration, but also rhyming are presented by Böhmerová, e.g. with might and mane, or to take the cake, or East, west, home´s best, or similes, e.g. as fit as a fiddle, as hungry as a hunter. Playing with sounds is present in binomials, e.g. safe and sound, or pros and cons, or wear and tear, as well as in trinomials, e.g. cool, calm, and collected (Böhmerová, in Böhmerová, Trebatická, 2018, p. 13).

Reduplication is another sound device when a word or a sound is doubled to make one word that contains two identical or very similar parts, e.g. mama, chit-chat (Hinton, Nichols, Ohala, 2006). Böhmerová recognises the two basic types of reduplication: pure total reduplication and superadded total reduplication. While the former one is “reduplication of two semantically and phonologically identical constituents within derivation or compounding”, the latter is “reduplication of two semantically and phonologically identical constituents with the morphological extension or morphological modification of one constituent or both constituents” (Böhmerová, 2014, p. 215). The author further points out that free repetition could also be used in a language for emphasising or for expressing the increased intensity of a quality, e.g. very, very…. Another subtype of reduplication is partial reduplication with “bases differing in consonants (in rhyming reduplicatives) or in vowels, e.g. helter-shelter, phrasal reduplicatives, e.g. day by day, or reduplication is found in “diminutives derived by partial reduplication”, e.g. Andy-Wandy, lovey-dovey. Other expressions, e.g. interjections are “onomatopoeically motivated, e.g. hush-hush” (Böhmerová, 2014, p. 215).

The term homophone is used when two differently spelt words with a distinctive meaning share the same pronunciation pattern. Homophones can also be used as a tool with a certain artistic value in literature, or for achieving a comic effect in jokes or other funny texts. An example of a homophone is e.g. piece, peace /pi:s/.

The distinguished Slovak linguist Pavol Kvetko authored many publications on various aspects of English lexicology, phraseology and translation studies. He devoted all his professional career to English linguistics and to contrasting Slovak and English with regard to language similarities and differences between the two languages. The publications written by professor Kvetko, particularly Essentials of Modern English Lexicology (2001), An Outline of English Phraseology (2003), English Lexicology in Theory and Practice (2015), English Idioms. Theory and Applications (2015), or his extraordinary unique phrasal dictionaries Anglicko-slovenský frazeologický slovník (1984) and Prekladový anglicko-slovenský frazeologický slovník (2014) include many examples of English phraseological units in which playing with sounds is recorded.

Phonetic iconicity is also reflected in the process of onomasiology. Some names of literary characters or places may have a sub-textual meaning out of its lexical significance. Their sound pattern and phonetic features often match the characteristics of a person named by the author. Creative authors often make use of phonetic iconicity based on phonesthetics and thus evoke positive or negative feelings in the reader (Petrášová, Križová, 2022).

The process of onomastics reflects a fixed and highly repeating phonetic pattern related to each category (positive versus negative, cute versus unpleasant, etc.). Names of literary heroes or places can be determined through a variety of aspects that take into consideration not only phonetic-phonological properties of sounds owing to their basic characteristics, e.g. voicing, clustering, position in the word, etc., but also the acoustic parameters of the sounds, i.e. frequency, intensity, duration, or wave structure determined by formants in vowels (Petrášová, Križová, 2022).