The Sound of Meaning, and the Meaning of Sound. Phonetic Iconicity in Literature

van Peer, Willie and Chesnokova, Anna (2025) The Sound of Meaning, and the Meaning of Sound. Phonetic Iconicity in Literature Колективна (три і більше авторів). Routledge, New York.

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Abstract

The chapter consists of three interrelated parts. The first part reviews and discusses the limitations of the cognitive line of research and argues for an approach to the study of literature as experience, rather than as a cognitive analysis. This is elucidated with reference to the sound form in literary texts, especially in poetry. The second part takes stock of the sound-meaning relationship, contra the received Saussurian view that it be of an arbitrary nature. We summarize the state of the art, concluding that there is convincing evidence of an expressive sound-meaning relationship. The final part of the chapter supplements the above with a call for a more accountable approach: cognitive poetics usually launches interpretations by academics, without verifying whether these reconstructions correspond to reality. To illustrate our view, we report on two experiments in which readers confronted poetic texts (one in a language they are not familiar with, and the other one in English). We investigated the effects of parallelism in those texts with respect to the sound-meaning relationship. In doing so, we also explain the methodology needed to arrive at evidence-based findings. The results indicate indeed that the phonetic make-up of a poem has an effect on readers.

Item Type:	Monograph (Колективна (три і більше авторів))
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Phonetic iconicity; parallelism; poetry reading; reader's response
Subjects:	Монографії > Видані в іноземному видавництві мовами ОЕСР/ЄС Монографії > Індексовані НМБД Scopus
Divisions:	Факультет романо-германської філології > Кафедра лінгвістики та перекладу
Depositing User:	Анна Вадимовна Чеснокова
Date Deposited:	01 Aug 2025 10:43
Last Modified:	22 Sep 2025 12:22
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/52790

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