SOUND SYMBOLISM OF FRONT VOWELS IN ENGLISH ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS
English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Gunadarma University
Indonesia
Abstract
This is a qualitative research that focuses on the meaning represented in the phoneme contained in English onomatopoeic words. Onomatopoeia is word that imitates the sounds of human, animal, things, actions, and nature in the world. Onomatopoeia exists in many reading materials such as comics, fables, tales and poetry. This research focuses on the onomatopoeic words which are contained in Oxford English Dictionary for the dictionary is regularly updated. Out of two kinds of phoneme, which are consonants and vowels, this research limits the investigation for only English front vowels. Based on the manner of articulation, English front vowels are divided into front high tense unrounded vowel /i/, front high lax unrounded vowel /ɪ/, front mid tense unrounded vowel /e/, front mid lax unrounded vowel /ɛ/, and front low lax unrounded vowel /ӕ/. This approach used in this research is called sound symbolism which is a study of relation between sound and meaning. This research applies low-level properties, a mechanism in sound symbolism that is associating the sound to the meaning based on the shared perceptual feature in both phoneme and associated stimuli. The mechanism is used as the method of the research for the researcher explores the characteristics of front vowels contained in English onomatopoeic words that are used to represent the sounds produced by human, animals, natures, machines, and other things. Based on the investigation, the result indicates that the higher vowels the more diminutive meaning it indicates, while the lower vowels the more augmentative meaning it indicates.
Keywords
References
Anderson, S. R & Lightfoot, D. W. (2004). The Language Organ, Linguistics as Cognitive Physiology. New York: Cambridge University Press
Armstrong, N. (2005). Translation, Linguistics, Culture. Canada: Multilingual matters Ltd.
Armstrong, D. F., Karchmer, M. A, and Cleve John V.V. (2002). The Study of Signed Languages: Essays in Honor of William C. Stokoe. Washington, D.C: Gallauedet University Press
Bally, C & Sechehaye, A. (1915). Course in General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company
Bergman, M. (2009). Peirce’s Philosophy of Communication. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group
Berger, P. L and Luckmann, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. England: Penguin Group
Bray, M., Adamson, B., Mason, M. (2007). Comparative Education Research. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre
Brown, In K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Cruse, A. (2000) Meaning in Language, An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press
Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th Edition. Australia: Blackwell Publishing
Deely, J. (1990). Basics of Semiotics Advances in Semiotics. English: Indiana University Press
Ember, C.R, and Ember, M. (2009). Cross Cultural Research Methods (2nd ed.). New York: AltaMira Press
Fromkin,V., Rodman, R. and Hyams, N. (2003). An Introduction to Language. (7thed.). Boston, Mass,:Heinle
Farell, P. (2005). Grammatical Relations. New York: Oxford University Press
Godwin, J. (1991). The Mystery of the seven vowels in Theory and Practice. USA: Phanes Press
Genosko, G. (1994). Baudrillard and Signs, Signification Ablaze. New York: Routledge
Griffiths, P. (2006). An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics. Great Britain: Edinburgh University Press Ltd
Gauker, C. (2008). Words without meaning. London: The MIT Press
Jacobson. R. (1978). Six Lectures on Sound and Meaning. Cambridge: First MT Press
Kates, J. (2005) Essential History. USA: Northwestern University Press
Kramer, M (2003). Vowel harmony and Correspondence Theory. New York: Foris Publication Hollands
Malmkjaer. K. (2002) The Linguistucs Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge
Mey. J.L & Brown, K. (2009) Conncise Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2nd Edition. UK: Elseivier Ltd
Meyer, C.F. (2009). Introducing English Linguistic. New York: Cambridge University Press
Nuckolls, J.B. (1996). Sound-symbolic Grammar, Performance, and Cognition. New York: Oxford University Press
Stephens, A. M. (2010). A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary. Ohio: Ohio University Pres
Short.T.L. (2007). Peirce’s Theory of Signs. New York: Cambridge University Press
Sekerina, A. I., Fernandez, E. M and Clahsen, H. (2008). Developmental Psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company
