Iconic prosody and its connection to iconic gesture

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Abstract

This chapter examines iconic prosody—how speakers modify their voice in ways that are motivated by their meaning. It argues that iconic prosody is deeply connected to iconic gesture and may occur just as frequently. Section 13.1 presents four detailed examples illustrating the formal and semantic breadth of iconic prosody. Section 13.2 defines iconic prosody against the backdrop of traditional studies of prosody. Section 13.3 discusses pioneering research in the study of iconic prosody, especially Bolinger’s work on emotional expression and Ohala’s work on the size-frequency code. Section 13.4 reviews recent experiments showing that iconic prosody can be investigated in the psycholinguistics laboratory, including studies demonstrating people’s ability to create iconic vocalizations to communicate various meanings. Section 13.5 examines iconic prosody in the wild, where it features in the multimodal context of quotation and ideophones. Finally, Section 13.6 concludes with some key questions for future research on iconic prosody.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language
EditorsOlga Fischer, Kimi Akita, Pamela Perniss
PublisherOxford University Press
Chapter13
Pages167–182
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9780191944604
ISBN (Print)9780192849489
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 27 Jan 2026

Publication series

NameOxford Handbooks
PublisherOxford University Press

Keywords

  • expressive voice
  • frequency code
  • intonation
  • pitch
  • sound symbolism
  • vocalization
  • vocal iconicity

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