Smelly Sounds: Phonetic Symbolism in Scent L A C HL A N P HA M
Stinky. Musty. Stench. Dusty. Stale. All these words describe a scent and contain a /st/ consonant cluster. One might also astutely discern the distinctively negative connotation shared amongst these words, perhaps going so far as to associate a sense of subtle yet inescapable displeasure that accompanies exposure to these scents. This correlation between the sounds of a word and its connotation may initially seem purely coincidental. However, it would be unjust and wholly unscientific to dismiss such a relationship based on an intuition. After all, the concept of phonetic symbolism, which refers to the nonarbitrary connection between semantics and speech sounds, is a well-demonstrated phenomenon in several languages including English. Granted, its occurrence is most prominent in – and mainly limited to – lexical fields relating to hearing itself such as onomatopoeia, but the reach of phonetic symbolism has been found to extend into the sense of sight. The same may potentially apply to olfaction until proven otherwise which naturally leads us to the hypothesis: Individual phonemes of scent words contribute meaningfully to their connotation. From the outset, the hypothesis for this investigation is perfectly set up for disproof. In applying the oft-inapplicable phenomenon of phonetic symbolism and examining an already tenuous relationship between scent and sound, I was fully prepared to find nothing of statistical significance and, in many regards, this study finds that there is indeed insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis. Nevertheless, any socio-linguistic paper would be incomplete with a merely cursory foray into the immensely multifaceted realm of connotation. Ultimately, connotation relies on a complex amalgamation of context and lived experience and whilst the sounds of scent words may not necessarily share a direct causative link with connotation,
PHONETIC SYMBOLISM IN SCENT
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