Meaning of phonaesthesia | Babel Free

Definitions

Any correspondence between the sound of a word and its meaning; examples include onomatopoeia and the use of phonesthemes.

uncountable

Examples

“For this latter term, phonaesthesia is doubtless at work⟳, since kring is also ‘the sound⟳ of a small bell’.”

“In contrast, writers of bucolic dialogues, like⟳ George Meriton, for instance, and lively song-writers like⟳ Robert Anderson in Cumberland, seem drawn to expressive lexis, marked by sound⟳ patterns of reduplication, alliteration and phonaesthesia.”

“Phonaesthesia refers to the vaguer phenomenon whereby families of words with shared phonemes sometimes evoke related meanings in a not-quite-echoic manner.”

“Those in (1.15) illustrate⟳ a weaker type⟳ of iconicity, generally known as phonaesthesia: the consonant cluster ‘fl’ seems to suggest⟳ quick movement, but it is not a direct⟳ representation of movement, or speed⟳.”

CEFR level