<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The article below sets out to demonstrate that a long-time underestimated concept in linguistics, the phonaestheme, may find its rightful place in morphological theory alongside the morpheme, traditionally defined as the smallest linguistic unit carrying meaning. The analysis includes a critical survey of literature in the field intended to offer a more comprehensive and integrated theoretical perspective on the nature of the phonaestheme and reject the idea that the sign is exclusively arbitrary. Once this objective has been achieved, the focus of the article will switch to determining how phonaesthemic meaning occurs cross-linguistically and to what extent. In order to achieve this, Margaret Magnus’s phonosemantic classification will be discussed and applied in the case of Romanian phonaesthemes.</p>
</abstract>

The article below sets out to demonstrate that a long-time underestimated concept in linguistics, the phonaestheme, may find its rightful place in morphological theory alongside the morpheme, traditionally defined as the smallest linguistic unit carrying meaning. The analysis includes a critical survey of literature in the field intended to offer a more comprehensive and integrated theoretical perspective on the nature of the phonaestheme and reject the idea that the sign is exclusively arbitrary. Once this objective has been achieved, the focus of the article will switch to determining how phonaesthemic meaning occurs cross-linguistically and to what extent. In order to achieve this, Margaret Magnus’s phonosemantic classification will be discussed and applied in the case of Romanian phonaesthemes.

Challenging the Morpheme: Cross-Linguistic Occurrences of Phonaesthemic Structures

East-West Cultural Passage

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The article below sets out to demonstrate that a long-time underestimated concept in linguistics, the phonaestheme, may find its rightful place in...

Challenging the Morpheme: Cross-Linguistic Occurrences of Phonaesthemic Structures

Publié en ligne: 13 mars 2024

Pages: 92 - 107

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2023-0008

Mots clés
arbitrariness of the sign, phonosemantics, phonaesthesia, phonaesthemes, iconism

© 2023 Maria-Teodora Creangă, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Challenging the Morpheme: Cross-Linguistic Occurrences of Phonaesthemic Structures

Publié en ligne: 13 mars 2024

Pages: 92 - 107

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2023-0008

Mots clésarbitrariness of the sign, phonosemantics, phonaesthesia, phonaesthemes, iconism

© 2023 Maria-Teodora Creangă, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
arbitrariness of the sign, phonosemantics, phonaesthesia, phonaesthemes, iconism