"Sounds feminine": Phonetic symbolism, gender branding, and interdisciplinarity

Ellen Chrystine Osterhaus, Purdue University

Abstract

Phonetic symbolism manifests in various ways. Hinton, Nichols, and Ohala (1994) define "conventional" phonetic symbolism as "the analogical association of certain phonemes and clusters with certain meanings," while the less arbitrary phenomenon of "synesthetic" symbolism is "the acoustic symbolization of non-acoustic phenomena." Experimental marketing studies have consistently found that respondents associate articulatory contrasts with semantic contrasts; e.g., "Which brand of ketchup seems thicker? Nidax or Nodax?" (Klink, 2001). This phenomenon has been misconstrued as synesthetic symbolism, and has been extended to a range of semantic contrasts, including size, shape, texture, speed, and gender. Can individual phones truly be iconic representations of semantic contrast? This topic was evaluated through a descriptive corpus analysis and an experimental study. The results suggest that apparent symbolic patterning may due to experimental design. A corpus of existing product names was transcribed phonemically. The distribution of phonemes in the corpus was compared against the distribution of phonemes in the language in general. The significant distributional differences could be accounted for without recourse to phonetic symbolism. To determine whether semantic connotations independently correlated with proposed symbolic phones, a two-part survey was distributed to sixty participants. The first survey contained nonce words in minimally contrastive triplets, presented non- consecutively. The second survey contained names using existing words, comprised of allegedly symbolic phones. To index the concept of gender without explicitly mentioning it, the names were presented with gendered (or gender-neutral) images. Participants selected their preferred image for the proposed name. For nonce words, there was no significant correlation between proposed symbolic phones and participant preference. Participants were significantly more successful at categorizing names on the basis of their semantic connotations than their phonetic structure. This supports the hypothesis that apparent symbolic patterning in existing studies may simply be the result of experimental design, rather than a feature of the language.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Niepokuj, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Womens studies|Gender studies

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