Relative Use of Phonaesthemes in the Constitution and Development of Genres
type: CreativeWork
description: My research question is Does the presence of phonaesthemes in words play a role in the constitution and evolution of genres? A phonaestheme is a phonemic grouping that correlates well above chance with a particular semantic quality in etymologically unrelated words; phonaesthematic words are generally seen as vivid, expressive, and involved. I explore the nature of phonaesthemes and genres and the role of features such as phonaesthemes in the constitution of genres. I select a set of phonaesthemes to evaluate and choose a representative set of lemmas and matching non-phonaesthematic lemmas. I survey these in six genres over three time periods in the US and the UK. I analyze the results and their implications for phonaesthemes and for genre constitution, finding, among other things, that phonaesthemes are important in the social positioning of genres. The summary answer to my research question is thus found to be Yes, it does.
abstract: My research question is Does the presence of phonaesthemes in words play a role in the constitution and evolution of genres? A phonaestheme is a phonemic grouping that correlates well above chance with a particular semantic quality in etymologically unrelated words; phonaesthematic words are generally seen as vivid, expressive, and involved. I explore the nature of phonaesthemes and genres and the role of features such as phonaesthemes in the constitution of genres. I select a set of phonaesthemes to evaluate and choose a representative set of lemmas and matching non-phonaesthematic lemmas. I survey these in six genres over three time periods in the US and the UK. I analyze the results and their implications for phonaesthemes and for genre constitution, finding, among other things, that phonaesthemes are important in the social positioning of genres. The summary answer to my research question is thus found to be Yes, it does.
author: Harbeck, James Christopher
language: en
keywords: Language
date published: 2016-09-20
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:33:34Z
provider: York University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: York University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10315/32268