It would be easily noticed that words belonging to onomatopoea and sound symbol have something different from other words. Here I reckon onomatopoea as a snecial case of sound symbolism. The study of them is not only very interesting for us, but may be believed to contribute to the enlightenment of general linguistic problems. I have studied experimentally to see how sound symbols were spoken and understood or not understood by various subjects.
The Japanese language is well known for its abundance in onomatopoeia and sound symbols. But laying aside whether a language have plenty of them or not, we often experience that we can not thoroughly describe the situation in other conventional words but sound symbols. The results of my experiment have shown first in what case we have such experiences.
Experiment: One of a couple of subjects (S. 1) tries verbal description to the other (S. 2) about a model picture laid to S. 1 alone by the experimenter. S. 2 tries to draw the picture relying upon the description of S. 1. Free talking between them is ndmitted. hut is forbidden any manner of description but verbal one. S. 2 can correct his drawing, or try another one. The experimenter records the whole conversation, and controls the experiment with a series of various pictures.
In this
task and conversation experiment, when the model picture is something familiar to us, S. 1 often names it in some conventional word, for example, a sweet-flag or a snake. And when it is a geometrical figure, S. l's statement such as “4-cm square” makes S. 2 understand about this figure with ease. But when it is an unfamiliar or grotesque picture, the manner of statement becomes particular and thus sound symbols begins to appear frequently.
These facts, however, do not necessarily include that curious and grotesque picture itself has caused the appearance of sound symbols. In my experiment several subjects who have never learned geometry, described a simplest geometrical figure by way of sound symbolism. And highly educated college-student after failing to make his hearer understand in geometrical terms, tried to do so successfully in a different way, with the use of sound symbols. These facts sh w to us that the mental attitude of the subjects is the controlling factor for the description in these cases. And now I must make clear that such attitude is conditioned by the speech field. The speech field has forced both of the above subjects to prefer the fittest one among various probable manners of their communication.
It is pointed out that the speech sound of onomatopoea and sound symbols has a close connection with the objects of such terminology . In treating this problem, to abstract the connection only of sounds and objects will not lead us to a true solution of this problem. The considerations of the speech field cannot absolutely be neglected here. As we have seen, sound symbols are not bound mechanically to the described. It is quite evident that the speech sound of symbols does never refer to such and such part of the object , but to the situation in the whole. The sound of words is
tonende Sinn and nothing but
Bewegtheit , as HORNBOSTELs aid. From these facts it may be concluded that the characteristics of sound symbolism consist in the
Ganzfeldbewegtheit by conversation. In my ex periment the subjects got to a perfect uniformity, when they were claimed to make distinction of the touch of two different sort of powder, in sound symbols such as follow.
The matter will be quite different in case of the experiment with inborn deaf subjects. We find that there occurs the utter confusion of understanding among them, and sound symbols are quite meaningless for them. In the background of these phenomena lies the fact of correspondence of various modalities of sensation in our experience.
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