Tracking linguistic primitives : The phonosemantic realization of fundamental oppositional pairs
(2017) In Iconicity in Language and Literature 15. p.39-62- Abstract
- This paper investigates how cross-linguistic phoneme distributions of 56 fundamental oppositional concepts can reveal semantic relationships by looking into the linguistic forms of 75 genetically and areally distributed languages. Based on proposals of semantic primes (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002), reduced Swadesh lists (Holman et al. 2008), presumed ultraconservative words (Pagel et al. 2013), attested basic antonyms (Paradis, Willners & Jones 2009) and sense perception words, semantic oppositional pairs were selected. Phonemes were divided according to: the frequency of vowels’ second formant and consonants’ energy accumulation, sonority, a combination of the aforementioned two, and general phonetic traits, e.g. voicing. Using a... (More)
- This paper investigates how cross-linguistic phoneme distributions of 56 fundamental oppositional concepts can reveal semantic relationships by looking into the linguistic forms of 75 genetically and areally distributed languages. Based on proposals of semantic primes (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002), reduced Swadesh lists (Holman et al. 2008), presumed ultraconservative words (Pagel et al. 2013), attested basic antonyms (Paradis, Willners & Jones 2009) and sense perception words, semantic oppositional pairs were selected. Phonemes were divided according to: the frequency of vowels’ second formant and consonants’ energy accumulation, sonority, a combination of the aforementioned two, and general phonetic traits, e.g. voicing. Using a biplot, the phonological relatedness between the investigated concepts was illustrated graphically, and the phoneme distributions’ over- and underrepresentation from the average was calculated for each concept. Salient semantic groupings and relations based solely on phonological contrasts were found for most investigated concepts, including the semantic domains: Small, Intense Vision-Touch, Large, Organic, Horizontal-Vertical Distance, Deictic, Containment, Gender, Parent and Diurnal, and the sole concept old. The most notable relations found were: mother/i vs. father, a three-way deictic distinction and a dimensional tripartite oppositional relationship. Embodiment, oppositional thinking and evidence for more general concepts to precede complex concepts were proposed as explanations for the results. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/fc439df8-70da-4e64-9e13-ae2685598542
- author
- Johansson, Niklas LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- Dimensions of Iconicity
- series title
- Iconicity in Language and Literature
- editor
- Bauer, Matthias ; Zirker, Angelika ; Fischer, Olga and Ljungberg, Christina
- volume
- 15
- pages
- 39 - 62
- publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85111963762
- ISSN
- 1873-5037
- ISBN
- 9789027265180
- DOI
- 10.1075/ill.15
- project
- BA and MA projects
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- fc439df8-70da-4e64-9e13-ae2685598542
- date added to LUP
- 2019-10-04 11:03:59
- date last changed
- 2024-01-21 04:15:36
@inbook{fc439df8-70da-4e64-9e13-ae2685598542,
abstract = {{This paper investigates how cross-linguistic phoneme distributions of 56 fundamental oppositional concepts can reveal semantic relationships by looking into the linguistic forms of 75 genetically and areally distributed languages. Based on proposals of semantic primes (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002), reduced Swadesh lists (Holman et al. 2008), presumed ultraconservative words (Pagel et al. 2013), attested basic antonyms (Paradis, Willners & Jones 2009) and sense perception words, semantic oppositional pairs were selected. Phonemes were divided according to: the frequency of vowels’ second formant and consonants’ energy accumulation, sonority, a combination of the aforementioned two, and general phonetic traits, e.g. voicing. Using a biplot, the phonological relatedness between the investigated concepts was illustrated graphically, and the phoneme distributions’ over- and underrepresentation from the average was calculated for each concept. Salient semantic groupings and relations based solely on phonological contrasts were found for most investigated concepts, including the semantic domains: Small, Intense Vision-Touch, Large, Organic, Horizontal-Vertical Distance, Deictic, Containment, Gender, Parent and Diurnal, and the sole concept old. The most notable relations found were: mother/i vs. father, a three-way deictic distinction and a dimensional tripartite oppositional relationship. Embodiment, oppositional thinking and evidence for more general concepts to precede complex concepts were proposed as explanations for the results.}},
author = {{Johansson, Niklas}},
booktitle = {{Dimensions of Iconicity}},
editor = {{Bauer, Matthias and Zirker, Angelika and Fischer, Olga and Ljungberg, Christina}},
isbn = {{9789027265180}},
issn = {{1873-5037}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{39--62}},
publisher = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
series = {{Iconicity in Language and Literature}},
title = {{Tracking linguistic primitives : The phonosemantic realization of fundamental oppositional pairs}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ill.15}},
doi = {{10.1075/ill.15}},
volume = {{15}},
year = {{2017}},
}