sound-symbolic
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Adjective
[edit]sound-symbolic (not comparable)
- (linguistics, phonology) characterized by sound symbolism
- (more specifically) (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
- "Bouba" and "Kiki" are sound-symbolic labels, not directly imitating any actual sound but nonetheless carrying strong intrinsic associations with roundness and pointiness, respectively.
- Synonyms: (sometimes) expressive, imitative, mimological, phonaesthetic, phonosemantic
- (more specifically) (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
Hyponyms
[edit]- expressive
- ideophonic
- (non-arbitrary): onomatopoeic (see there for its synonyms)
- phonesthemic