Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

An Experiment in Size-Sound Symbolism: /i/ versus /a/ in Polish Diminutive Suffixes

100%

Stolarski Ł.

Anglica Wratislaviensia

2015

issue 53

105 - 117

The theory of size-sound symbolism holds that certain phonetic and/or acoustic features of linguistic sounds are able to symbolise the smallness or largeness of different objects. For instance, it has been established that palatal consonants tend to be perceived as “smaller” than non-palatal ones. Similarly, a number of experiments have demonstrated that high front vowels tend to be associated with the notion “small in size,” and open back vowels are more suitable for representing objects which are big. This tendency is supposed to be universal across languages, but some exceptions to the rule have also been noted (cf. Ultan 1978; Diffloth 1994). This article is a continuation of the research described in Stolarski (2011), which showed that palatality is a very important factor in size-sound symbolism in Polish. The palatal /ɲ/ was perceived as “smaller” than the non-palatal /n/ in over 95% of cases. The present paper deals with a similar tendency among vowels. Pairs of artificial words containing natural Polish diminutive suffixes were presented to a representative group of respondents whose task was to choose the “smaller” forms. The obtained results clearly indicate that the high front /i/ is interpreted as much more likely to indicate a diminutive than the open back /a/. The conclusion which emerges from this research is that size-sound symbolism plays a significant role within the Polish diminutive system.

Pitch Patterns in Vocal Expression of 'Happiness' and 'Sadness' in the Reading Aloud of Prose on the Basis of Selected Audiobooks

100%

Stolarski Ł.

Research in Language

2015

vol. 13

issue 2

140-161

The primary focus of this paper is to examine the way the emotional categories of “happiness” and “sadness” are expressed vocally in the reading aloud of prose. In particular, the two semantic categories were analysed in terms of the pitch level and the pitch variability on a corpus based on 28 works written by Charles Dickens. passages with the intended emotional colouring were selected and the fragments found in the corresponding audiobooks. They were then analysed acoustically in terms of the mean F0 and the standard deviation of F0. The results for individual emotional passages were compared with a particular reader’s mean pitch and standard deviation of pitch. The differences obtained in this way supported the initial assumptions that the pitch level and its standard deviation would raise in “happy” extracts but lower in “sad” ones. Nevertheless, not all of these tendencies could be statistically validated and additional examples taken from a selection of random novels by other nineteenth century writers were added. The statistical analysis of the larger samples confirmed the assumed tendencies but also indicated that the two semantic domains may utilise the acoustic parameters under discussion to varying degrees. While “happiness” tends to be signalled primarily by raising F0, “sadness” is communicated mostly by lowering the variability of F0. Changes in the variability of F0 seem to be of less importance in the former case, and shifts in the F0 level less significant in the latter.

Refine search results

1 Anglica Wratislaviensia

1 Research in Language

2 Stolarski Ł.

2 2015

Search results

An Experiment in Size-Sound Symbolism: /i/ versus /a/ in Polish Diminutive Suffixes

Pitch Patterns in Vocal Expression of 'Happiness' and 'Sadness' in the Reading Aloud of Prose on the Basis of Selected Audiobooks