User:Anthony.Sebastian/Sbox04-sndsym

Foreword
The linguistic term, sound symbolism, refers to meaning inherent in the sound of speech, a direct linkage between sound and meaning, the sound a symbol for a meaning, exemplified trivially by the speech sound, “ow”, meaning something like, “that hurts”.

Sound symbolism is the term for a hypothesized systematic relationship between sound and meaning. The idea that there might be a non-arbitrary relationship between the physical aspect of a speech signal and its meaning is quite an old idea, dating back at least to the time of Plato who, in his work Cratylus, had Socrates debating with two pupils the issue of whether the names for things are arbitrary or whether instead they are a natural reflection of the things named…I believe that phonetic studies -- combined with principles emerging from ethology, the science of comparative behavior -- can provide a novel basis for further informed speculation on this issue. Moreover, the principles applied to this topic can also elucidate several other controversial topics including the cause of universal patterns in intonation, the origin of certain facial expressions involving the mouth, the reason for sexual dimorphism of the vocal anatomy in humans (and other species), and whether the human vocal anatomy shows any adaptation special to speech.