Re: Phonetic iconicity

Thanks a lot, Piotr! I'll check these out. Plato's always readable, but I'll start with the modern stuff.

Hakan
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Piotr wrote -

Here's some introductory reading for people interested in "sound symbolism". Of course the debate really began with Plato's "Cratylus", which can still be regarded as a stimulating contribution (and is also highly readable). The debate is between Hermogenes, who represents the opinion that the relation between linguistic form and meaning is purely symbolic (arbitrary, "conventional"), and Cratylus, whose view is that language is iconic (non-arbitrary, "natural").