Meaning of sound-symbolic | Babel Free

Definitions

1. characterized by sound symbolism
   not-comparable
2. (of a unit of sound or meaning such as a word, morpheme, phoneme, syllable, etc.) composed of speech sounds that are not arbitrary but also not overtly onomatopoeic
   not-comparable

Examples

“Wagner proposes a sound-symbolic origin, after the sounds these insects [grasshoppers] make⟳. Although this cannot be fully excluded, this word exhibits suspiciously little formal variation for a sound-symbolic formation.”

“"Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound⟳ but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.”

CEFR level