hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-12-25

■ #5721. 音象徴は語の適者生存を助長する [evolution][sound_symbolism][phonaesthesia][phonetics][vowel]

　昨日の記事「#5720. little の i は音象徴か？」 ([2024-12-24-1]) に引き続き，Jespersen による「[i] = 小さい」の音象徴 (sound_symbolism) に関する論考より．
　Jespersen は同論文で当該の音象徴を体現する多くの例を挙げているが，冒頭に近い部分で，音象徴の議論にありがちな誤解2点について，注意深く解説している．

   In giving lists of words in which the [i] sound has the indicated symbolic value, I must at once ask the reader to beware of two possible misconceptions: first, I do not mean to say that the vowel [i] always implies smallness, or that smallness is everywhere indicated by means of that vowel; no language is consistent in that way, and it suffices to mention the words big and small, or the fact that thick and thin have the same vowel, to show how absurd such an idea would be.
   Next, I am not speaking of the origin or etymology of the words enumerated: I do not say that they have from the very first taken their origin from a desire to express small things symbolically. It is true that I believe that some of the words mentioned have arisen in that way,---many of our i-words are astonishingly recent---but for many others it is well-known that the vowel i is only a recent development, the words having had some other vowel in former times. What I maintain, then, is simply that there is some association between sound and sense in these cases, however it may have taken its origin, and however late this connexion may be (exactly as I think that we must recognize secondary echoisms). But I am firmly convinced that the fact that a word meaning little or little thing contains the sound [i], has in many, or in most, cases been strongly influential in gaining popular favour for it; the sound has been an inducement to choose and to prefer that particular word, and to drop out of use other words for the same notion, which were not so favoured. In other words, sound-symbolism makes some words more fit to survive and gives them a considerable strength in their struggle for existence. If you want to use some name of an animal for a small child, you will preferably take one with sound symbolism, like kid or chick . . . , rather than bat or pug or slug, though these may in themselves be smaller than the animal chosen. (285--86)

　1つめは「[i] = 小さい」の音象徴は絶対的・必然的なものではなく，あくまで蓋然的なものにすぎない点の確認である．2つめは，当該の音象徴を体現している語について，その音形と意味の関係が語源の当初からあったのか，後に形成されたのかは問わないということだ．合わせて，共時的にも通時的にも，音象徴の示す関係は緩い傾向にとどまり，何かを決定する強い力をもっているわけではない点が重要である．
　それでも Jespersen は，引用の最後でその用語を使わずに力説している通り，音象徴には語の「適者生存」 (survival of the fittest) を助長する効果があると確信している．音象徴は，言語において微弱ながらも常に作用している力とみなすことができるだろうと．

　・ Jespersen, O. "Symbolic Value of the Vowel I." Philologica 1 (1922). Reprinted in Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French and German. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard, 1933. 283--303.

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