Phonetic Metaphor and the Limits of Sound Symbolism

Abstract

Evocative as it is elusive, the sound-symbolism of names tends to be a highly subjective affair, more the stuff of poetic fancy than objective critical analysis. Literary criticism, however, demands a rigorous and more objective approach, which is precisely what the ideas of Gérard Genette and Ivan Fónagy can provide. Where the former explores the limits of sound symbolism, the latter gives a cogent explanation for how, within those limits, this linguistic phenomenon actually works thanks to what he calls phonetic metaphor. In addition to elaborating a concrete framework in which to study the relations between sound and sense in literary onomastics, Fónagy’s ideas open up new vistas for exploring the relationships between names, gender, affect and the body. Names in the fantasy novels of Ursula K. Le Guin illustrate the explanatory power of phonetic metaphor as a critical concept in onomastics.

Keywords:

• Fónagy
• Ivan: La Métaphore en phonétique and La Vive voix
• Genette
• Gérard: Mimologiques: Voyage en Cratylie
• gender in names and acts of nomination
• literary onomastics
• Le Guin
• Ursula K.: A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan
• phonetic metaphor
• names in fantasy literature
• sound symbolism

Notes

1 All translations are my own.

2 Le Guin majored in French as a graduate student and later taught French at the university level. That she drew upon the language in her onomastic inventions is made clear in a letter she addressed to James W. Bittner concerning the name Davenant. This, the name given by terrians to the world of Hain, the cradle of the League of All Worlds in her Hainish cycle of science fiction novels, was created from the French words d’avènement and d’avenir to signify ‘from the beginning’ and ‘of the future’ (Bittner, 1984: 96).

3 Routledge’s Linguistics Encyclopedia defines phonaesthemes as ‘[P]honetic-semantic resemblances between recurrent parts of words which occur in very limited sets and yet do not seem to have any meaning at all beyond the limited set, for example: /ð/ in this, that, then, there; /n/ in not, neither, no, never; /fl/ in flash, flicker, flame, flare; /sn/ in sniff, snort, snore, snot’ (1991: 315).

4 For a detailed discussion of this passage and Ged’s ‘paternal’ name, see Robinson, 2008: 393–403.

5 In ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ Freud recounts how his grandson represents and consequently overcomes his mother’s absence by way of a binary opposition between the /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ of the German words fort (gone) and da (there) (1955: 14–15). It is interesting to note that what the child actually articulates is ‘o-o-o-o’ and ‘da,’ thereby privileging the vowels over the consonants of the words and intensifying the opposition between the two vowel sounds.

6 See Lakoff and Johnson for more on conduit metaphors (1980: 10–13) and orientational metaphors (14–21, 25–32).

7 Lecercle specifically criticizes Julia Kristeva’s claim that open posterior vowels represent the anal drive.

8 The phonetic metaphor in the two names of the heroine must be read within the framework of the archetypal Great Mother. Because of the obvious homophony between tomb and womb, the reader identifies the underground passages of the religious complex of Atuan with the female reproductive anatomy. The image of an underground cavern or tunnel representing the Great Mother archetype reappears in three of the more recently published texts in the Earthsea cycle: the short stories ‘The Finder’ and ‘The Bones of the Earth’ in Tales from Earthsea, and also the latest novel, The Other Wind.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher L Robinson

Christopher L. Robinson teaches and directs English studies at HEC-Paris. His research focuses on how writers experiment with and experience language. Onomastic invention in fantasy literature is particularly conducive to this kind of experimentation, as it combines wordplay with experiences related to gender, childhood, affect, and the body. His studies of names in the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, and J. R. R. Tolkien have appeared in the journals Extrapolation, Children’s Literature, and Names.

Correspondence to: Christopher L. Robinson, CREA/Department of Languages and Cultures, HEC-Paris, 1 rue de la Libération, 78351 Jouy en Josas CEDEX, France. Email: [email protected]