COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Phonemes to Sound Patterning

I. Learning objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• examine how writers manipulate speech sounds for aesthetic and meaningful effects;
and
• evaluate the use of different phonological and sound patterns in text construction

II. Content Focus

A. Phonology and Stylistics

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, what their physical properties are, and
how they are produced.

• Example: The words cat and phone consist of three sounds (sounds do not have to have a one-to-one
correspondence with orthographic letters)
Three Main Branches of Phonetics

• Articulatory phonetics - studies the way sounds are made with the articulators
• Acoustic phonetics - studies the acoustic results of different articulations
• Auditory phonetics - studies the way listeners perceive and understand linguistic signals
Phonology is a major branch of linguistics which deals with sound of a language. It is the study of the
patterns of sound in a language. It deals with how speech sounds are organized and used in a language;
especially how the sounds are organized in the mind and how they are used to convey meaning.
Each individual unit of sound is known as phoneme. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is
used to describe sounds, with each character representing a different phoneme.
International Phonetic Alphabet

• a tool used for representing human sounds in a regular way when studying phonology.
• In it, each written symbol represents one, and only one, speech sound, while each speech sound is
represented by one, and only one, written symbol.
• was invented in 1888 (and revised in 1989).
• It is based on the Roman alphabet primarily, with some symbols from English Consonants and
Vowels 19 other writing systems, as well as some invented symbols and diacritics (marks added
to symbols).
• Transcription- the recording of the sounds of a language in the IPA.
• Three categories of sounds must be recognized at the outset:
- phones (human sounds)
- phonemes (units which distinguish meaning in a language), and;
- allophones (non-distinctive units) • Sounds can be divided into
consonants and vowels.
Consonant Sounds

• Consonants are defined as a speech sound which is articulated with some kind of stricture, or
closure, of the air stream.
• Consonants are classified according to four features:
1. the state of the glottis: in vibration (voiced) or open (voiceless);
2. the state of the velum: lowered (nasal) or raised (oral);
3. the place of articulation: where the stricture occurs (place of maximum interference) and what
articulators are involved; and
4. the manner of articulation: the amount of stricture, whether it is complete, partial (called close
approximation), or relatively open (open approximation). Consonants of English
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Vowel Sounds

• In articulatory terms, vowels are sounds articulated with no obstruction of the air stream, that is,
with open articulation.
• In acoustic terms, vowels are sounds that vary in pitch, which is determined by the quality of the
sound wave. Pitch is modified by changing the shape of the resonating chamber (the oral and,
sometimes, the nasal tracts) by changing the position and shape of tongue and lips and by
lowering or raising the velum.
• In functional terms, vowels constitute the nucleus, or necessary, part of the syllable.

Phonological analysis in stylistics means investigating the ways in which the sonic properties of a
text contribute to the literary experience. The auditory quality of language is precisely the point of some
poems.
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

In 1979, Steve McCaffery performed acts of phonetic translation – what he calls “allusive referential” –
in which he rewrites a source text through ‘an associative-semantic method’, choosing words for his
revised poem through forms of linguistic relation and connotation. In the case of poem “Sixteen” such a
method results in a new text that foregrounds the sounds of language:
Sixteen
1 the scene seen.
2 heards men of the night 3
almost wherever you collect 4 the
sounds.
5 i heard sheep you herd sheep. 6 i see
scenes you see seas. 7 you wave a
hand i hand 8 a wave to you.
9 your sea seen
10 i see seas
11 icy seas

Analysis:
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

McCaffery plays with three homophonic pairings – homophones being words which sound the
same: ‘scene’/ ‘seen’, ‘heard’/ ‘herd’, and ‘see’/ ‘sea’. One of the words within the pairs is
consistently a perception word (auditory perception in ‘heard’, and visual perception in ‘seen’ and
‘see’). Such a choice is interesting since, given that sound poems are designed to be read aloud, the
homophones work to generate misperceptions for listeners. This is particularly evident in McCaffery’s
use of ‘heards’ in L2: it is most likely to be initially understood as ‘herds’ because ‘heards’ is not a
grammatically standard form. Moreover, by using homophones, McCaffery not only creates a degree
of confusion for readers/listeners, he also creates the impression of semantic similarities between
words that sound the same, as is the case in the opening line ‘the scene seen’: a ‘scene’ is a visage that
is looked at, in other words it is a panorama that is ‘seen’. In L5–8, McCaffery uses three syntactic
parallelisms, with the final parallelism ‘you wave a hand i hand/ a wave
to you’ playing with grammar and word class with both ‘hand’ and ‘wave’ acting as noun and verb in
the parallel structures. The final three lines of the poem feature a tonguetwisting cluster of sibilants [s]
and close with two homophonic phrases: ‘i see seas / icy
seas’. While being composed of different words, these two phrases toy with word boundary
misperception. The auditory difficulty of isolating the boundaries between these words mean that ‘i see
seas’ and ‘icy seas’ sound like identical phrases. The sonic repetition of the two phrases caused by
word boundary misperception thus makes it difficult to discern the syntactic roles and structural
relationships of words in such instances.
McCaffery’s poem uses sound effects to enact a game of sound and sense. This poem is less
about generating a specific overall meaning, and more about the play of sound itself. Even so, this brief
stylistic analysis of ‘Sixteen’ begins to show the way in which sound can be an important feature of
style.

B. Onomatopoeia, Consonance, and Assonance

1. Onomatopoeia
• a lexical item which portrays correspondence between speech sounds and sounds in the world
Examples: woof, moon, oink (animal noises) whisper, murmur, grow (voices) hiss, swish,
whoosh (air) drip, drizzle (water) smash, bang, clap (water)
• defined as a word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing: It creates a sound effect that
mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting. For
instance, saying, "The gushing steam flows in the forest " is a more meaningful description
that just saying "The stream flows in the forest”. The reader is drawn to hear the sound of a
gushing stream which makes the expression more effective.
• In addition to the sound they represent, many onomatopoeia words have developed meaning
of their own. For example, the word “whisper” does not only represent the sound of people
talking quietly but also describes the action of people talking quietly.
• Two types of Onomatopoeia (Simpso)
1. Lexical Onomatopoeia – takes the form of a recognized word or verbal structure.
Examples: thud, crack, buzz, squawking
2. Non-lexical Onomatopoeia – refers to cluster of sounds which echo the world in a more
unmediated way, without the intercession of linguistic structure.
Examples: vrmmmmm, tatatatatata, shhhhhh
• Onomatopoeia is a form of iconicity, that is a seemingly natural resemblance between the
linguistic form of a communicative sign and its meaningful content. Iconicity is a perceived
impression of relation between form and meaning and can occur across linguistic levels.

2. Consonance
• a stylistic literary device identified by the repetition of identical or similar consonants in
neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different.
Example: “cable crunch creak crr” - repetition of the velar plosive [k] which in the latter
three iterations is paired with the alveolar central approximant [ɹ]

3. Assonance
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

• the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences. The
word is derived from the Latin phrase assonare, meaning to answer with the same sound.
Example:
“Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and round
the field, winding hither and thither through the weds.” - A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

C. Phonaesthesia and the Phonaesthetic Fallacy

Phonaesthesia is the study of sound symbolism, that is the way in which the sounds of words
may be linked to their meanings. The term ‘phonaestheme’ was coined by Firth (1930) to describe the
way in which particular sounds or sound clusters appear to be linked with certain meanings.

• English words beginning with sl- (the alveolar fricative [s] paired with alveolar lateral
approximant [l]) such as ‘slack’, ‘sloppy’, ‘slither’, and ‘slay’, to name a few. For Firth, the
sl- words all carry negative connotations, thus the consistency of related meaning allows the
inference that the sl- sound has an inherently pejorative meaning.
• Allan (1986) discusses the consistency of fl- to signify sudden movement (as in ‘flail’ and
‘flap’) and of -ash to suggest violent impact (as in ‘crash’ and ‘smash’)
A syllable is a phonological unit that is comprised of one or more phonemes. Structurally, it can
be divided into three parts: onset (O), nucleus (N), and coda (C). Syllables do not necessary contain all
parts (ONC) but they must have a nucleus, which is typically a vowel.

• Onset (O) - the starting sounds of a syllable and is usually a consonant sound
• Nucleus (N) - is the central sound of a syllable and can be preceded by an onset and/or
succeeded by a coda.
• Coda (C) - comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus.
Thus, sl- and fl- (discussed above) are therefore onset phonaesthemes, whereas the -ash sound is an NC
phonaestheme.
In stylistic analysis, is accepted that there is no direct or exact connection between the sounds of a
word and its meaning. This is known as the phonaesthetic fallacy: the relationship between lexical
sounds and meaning is arbitrary. As an example, look at the following sentences:
(a) She whispered sweet caresses.
(b) The wasps swarmed crazily.
Both sentences, which describe different narrative events, use similar sound patterning. Both are
dominated by sibilance but also include the voiced labial-velar approximant [w] and velar plosive [k].
Nevertheless, despite the likeness of sounds, the meaning of the sound patterning differs for each
sentence. In (a), sibilance is used for iconic effect, to give the text the acoustic sound of the whispering
that is being described; in (b), iconicity is still at work but this time it imitates the sound of the swarming
wasps. We might also note that while (a) has positive connotations, the iconic representation of wasps in
(b) is likely to be interpreted with negative connotations. Thus, the idea of sounds having inherent
emotional value is problematized by our example. This comparison makes clear that when considering the
phonaesthetic quality of a literary text, stylisticians must always rely on narrative context in order to link
linguistic form to literary meanings and interpretations.

D. Rhyme and Meter

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds. For hundreds of years, poets have used different kinds
of rhymes to enhance the reader’s enjoyment and to generate emotional responses.
Types of Rhymes

• End Rhymes - Rhyming of the final words of lines in a poem.

Example: from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging”
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

• Internal Rhymes - Rhyming of two words within the same line of poetry.
Example: from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint
and curious volume of forgotten lore,

• Slant Rhymes - sometimes called imperfect, partial, near, oblique, off etc. Rhyme in which two
words share just a vowel sound (assonance – e.g., “heart” and “star”) or in which they share just a
consonant sound (consonance – e.g., “milk” and “walk”).
Example: from "Hope Is a Thing With Feathers" by Emily Dickinson
Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words And never
stops at all….

• Rich Rhymes - Rhyme using two different words that happen to sound the same (i.e. homonyms)
– for example “raise” and “raze”.
Example: from Thomas Hood’s” A First Attempt in Rhyme”
Partake the fire divine that burns, In
Milton, Pope, and Scottish Burns,
Who sang his native braes and burns.

• Eye Rhymes - Rhyme on words that look the same but which are actually pronounced differently
– for example “bough” and “rough”.
Example: from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
"The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies."
• Identical Rhymes - Simply using the same word twice.
Example: from Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could not Stop for Death”
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground— The
Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—
Meter
When stylisticians speak of metrical patterning they are referring to the way in which poetic
lines are organized into weak or unstressed (-) and strong or stressed (/) syllables. When a pattern is
repeated across a line, it therefore creates poetic rhythm.
The basic unit of rhythm is known as a foot. The number of times the foot is repeated gives the
meter its name. Thus, iambic pentameter (which you’re probably most familiar with since Shakespeare
tended to use it in verse) is five repetitions of a weak strong two syllable foot. A line with only one foot is
called monometer; two feet is dimeter; three is trimeter; four is tetrameter; five is pentameter; six is
hexameter; seven is heptameter; eight is octameter; and so on.
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Iamb Meter Examples

Iamb meter has the first syllable unaccented and the second accented so it sounds like duh DUH.
Here are examples of iamb meter:

• That time / of year / thou mayst / in me / be hold - William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73"
• Shall I /com pare /thee to / a sum / mer's day? - William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18"
• Come live / with me / and be / my love
And we / will all / the plea / sures prove - Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love"
• All I / could see / from where / I stood / Was three / long moun / tains and / a wood; - Edna St.
Vincent Millay's "Renascence"
• To swell / the gourd, / and plump / the ha / zel shells - John Keats' "To Autumn"
Trochee Meter Examples
Trochee meter has the first syllable accented and the second unaccented so it sounds like DUH
duh. Here are examples of trochee meter:

• Tell me / not in / mournful / numbers By the / shores

of / Gitche / Gumee,
By the / shining / Big-Sea- / Water
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha"

• Why so / pale and / wan, fond / Lover? Prithee / why

so / pale?
Will, when / looking / well can't / move her, Looking / ill
pre / vail?
Prithee / why so / pale?
- Sir John Suckling's "Song: Why so pale and wan fond lover?"
• The Grizz / ly Bear / is huge / and wild; He has /
devoured / an in / fant child.
The in / fant child / is not / aware
It has / been eat / en by / the bear.
- A. E. Housman's "Infant Innocence"
• Earth, re / ceive / an hon / oured guest; William /
Yeats is / laid to / rest:
Let this / Irish / vessel / lie
Emptied / of its / poet / ry.
- W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
 COGNATE ELECTIVE 2 – Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

Spondee Meter Examples

Spondee meter follows the two-syllable rhyming pattern, but both are stressed to sound like DUH
DUH. Here are examples of spondee meter:

• With / swift, slow; / sweet, sour; / adazzle, dim; - Gerald Manley Hopkins "Pied Beauty"
• Break, break, / break
On thy cold gray / stones, / O Sea! - Alfred, Lord Tennyson "Break, Break, Break"
• Slow, slow, / fresh fount, / keep time / with my / salt tears; - Ben Johnson "Slow, Slow, Fresh
Fount"
• As yet but knock, / breathe, shine, / and seek to mend; - John Donne "Holy Sonnet XIV"