Three Principles Underlying Iconicity in

Literature:
The Poetics of Nonsense in Children's and
General Literature
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A paper prepared for the Seventeenth International Systemic Congress,

July 3-7, 1990, at the University of Stirling, Scotland

Abstract

By examining phonetic and syntactic iconicity (onomatopoeia) and by studying the underlying principles
governing iconicity, one can see a direct relationship between the linguistic/semiotic codes in language
and the readers' responses to both children's and general literature. The paper identifies and exemplifies
three principles — kinaesthesia, phonaesthesia, and synaesthesia — governing onomatopoeia in English
literature. Those principles are then examined in a number of selections of both children's and general
literature. The paper concludes by illustrating how the semiotics of onomatopoeia in literature intended
for children evokes literary responses in the same manner as it does for literature in general since the
semiotics of iconicity depends, after all, on the linguistic codes common to all literature in English.

Introductory

The nature of the relationship between the signified and the signifier has always been pivotal in any
discussion of any semiotic system. For instance, in language, many semioticians have argued for the
essentially conventional, arbitrary, relationship between the signified and the signifier (or between the
symbol and its referent). Still several literary and language scholars have studied (phonetic and syntactic)
iconicity (sometimes known as onomatopoeia, mimesis, echoism, or sound symbolism) as one of the
formal properties of literature (particularly poetry), language, and semiotic systems generally; consider,
for example, the works of Leech, Nowottny, or Ullmann. Yet iconicity is quite often ignored or
downplayed as an interesting but minor feature of the overall structure (and value) of any piece of
literature. The study of iconicity in both children's and general literature, however, can provide significant
insight into the nature of literary language and into the nature of our responses to literary language; i.e.,
how our literary responses depend upon the linguistic and semiotic codes in our language. Here I will
examine three specific sources of onomatopoeia — phonaesthemes, kinaesthemes, and synaesthemes —
to discover how the language of literature evokes responses through a merger of form with content,
iconicity. Onomatopoeia is used here to refer to the purely mimetic power of language.

Phonaesthemes

In the English lexicon, phonaesthemes (from phone "sound" and aistheta "things perceptible by the
senses") and kinaesthemes (kinema "motion" and aistheta) represent a fairly large group of words, many
of which have to do with movement or sound of some kind. Although phonaesthemes defy easy analysis
into components, typically they share a consonant (or consonant cluster) or a vowel to produce a group of
words that have a (more or less) discernible meaning. Firth (45-54) gave the name phonaestheme to
words with elements like those. Below in Table 1 are some examples of phonaesthemes in English. (The
sounds are represented in slant brackets using the Trager-Smith (Americanist) phonetic alphabet.)
 Table 1

SOUND SUGGESTED MEANING EXAMPLES

initial /sw/ curvilinear motion swab, swagger, swarm, swash, swat, sway, sweep,
swell, swerve, swing, swipe, swirl, swivel, sworn,
swoop
initial /str/ deforming action strafe, straggle, strain, strangle, stray, stress, stretch,
strew, stricken, strike, strip, strop, struggle
final /æš/ violent collision bash, gash, lash, splash, clash, slash, mash, gnash,
crash, thrash
initial /sl/ smooth movement slacken, slant, slide, slice, sling, slink, slip, slit,
(often negative or oblique) slither, slobber, slop, slope, slosh, slouch, slump,
slur
initial /tw/ twisting action twist, twirl, tweak, twiddle, twine, twinge, twitch
initial /kl/ prolonged contact clamp, claw, cleave, clench, climb, clinch, cling,
clog, close, clot, clump, cluster, clutch
initial /kr/ unnatural position, attitude, or cram, cramp, crawl, crave, craze, creak, crease,
feeling creep, crick, crimp, cringe, crinkle, cripple, crisp,
croak, croon, crop, cross, crouch, crumble, crumple,
crunch, crush, cry
initial /fl/ uncontrolled (usually outward) flap, flare, flash, flaunt, flay, flee, flex, fling, flip,
movement flog, flood, flourish, flout, flow, flush, flutter, fly
initial /gl/ vision glance, glare, gleam, glimmer, glimpse, glint,
glisten, glitter, gloaming, gloom, gloss, glow,
glower, glaze, glory, glamor
initial /Nʌ/ negative, depressed action or state muddle, muffle, mug, mulch, mull, mumble,
mummify, munch, mush, mutter, muzzle, nudge,
nullify, numb, nuzzle
initial /sk/ quick movement scamper, scan, scatter, scoot, scour, scribble, scram,
scramble, scrawl, scrunch, scrub, scuffle, skate,
skedaddle, sketch, skid, skim, skip, skirmish, skirt
/ʌ/ indistinct sound hum, drum, thrum, thump, bubble, grunt, grumble,
mumble, gulp, gurgle, gush
/g/ guttural sounds gurgle, gulp, guzzle, giggle, gob, guffaw
initial /sn/ movement of mouth, nose, or face snigger, snicker, snarl, sneer, snuff, snot, snort,
sniff, snout, sneeze
final /ʌmp/ roundness or dull impact dump, lump, stump, plump, clump, rump, hump,
mumps
initial /v/ ill-temper violent, vicious, vitriolic, vituperative, venomous

Shapiro and Beum in A Prosody Handbook perhaps provided the best perspective on phonaesthesia when
they wrote:

In the first place, certain sounds — the voiceless s, for example — possess a range of potential
suggestibility, rather than a fixed or single capability. Thus a prominence of s-es is capable of suggesting
certain classes of sounds (rustling, hissing, sighing, whispering) but not other classes (booing, humming,
hammering, or groaning). In the second place, this power of suggesting natural sounds or other qualities is
relatively weak — too weak to operate unsupported by meaning — all because of its range, is only latent.
(14-15)

Kinaesthemes
 Kinaesthemes, on the other hand, do not rely on some abstract psychological suggestion for the origins
of their meaningful properties. Instead, as Nowottny (116) explained, the sound "enacts the sense," or, as
Ullmann (84) put it, "The referent itself is an acoustic experience which is more or less closely imitated
by the phonetic structure of the word." As examples of kinaesthesia consider the sounds below in Table 2,
where the physical action of articulating the consonant or vowel suggests the meaning of the words
containing those sounds.

Table 2

SOUND SUGGESTED MEANING EXAMPLES

/ǰ/ sudden movement jab, jam, jangle, jar, jeer, jerk, jettison, jibe, jilt, jog,
jolt, jot, joust, jumble, jump, jut
/p, t, k/ abrupt movement point action, knock, crack, flick, hack, kick, peck, smack, rap, tap,
(preceded by single vowel in whop, pop, , sharp slip, slap, tap, clip, chip, nip, pat,
monosyllabic words) hit, flit, plop, quip, click, tick, pick
/n, m, ŋ/ prolonged or continuous thunder, whine, groan, grunt, hum, rumble, bumble,
vibration or movement (when clink, tinkle, tingle, chime, boom, twang, bang,
sound occurs at or near the end of clang, chink, ding, whimper, drum, thump, grumble,
words) ping
final /z/ low toned, high frequency buzz, wheeze, fizz, whiz, drizzle, sizzle
vibration
/š/ voluminous sound mash, dash, crash, flash, gush, flush, blush, whoosh,
crush, rush, splash, gnash, slash, clash, smash,
squash, squish, slosh
/?/ high-toned sound hiss, swish, whimper, whinny, click, clip, clink, tick,
ting, titter
/ow/, /ɔ/, /uw/, /aw/ low-toned sound (and back knock, pop, plop, flop, plod, bawl, roar, snore, snort,
vowels generally) caw, moan, groan, hoot, toot, boom, coo, whoosh,
swoop, croon, howl
/i/ smallness itty-bitty, teenie-weenie, petite, (and all diminutive
endings with the /i/ sound, e.g., baby, Danny, Annie,
Granny)
initial /w/ action produced by a breathy whack, wheedle, wheeze, whelp, whiffle, whimper,
sound or the sound itself whine, whinny, whip, whir, whirl, whisk, whisper,
whistle

Consider the use of the /ǰ-/ kinaestheme in a traditional nursery rhyme (Opie and Opie 12):
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig;

To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

The /ǰ/ sounds evoke the sense of sudden movement, as they should given the sudden movement of the
vocal organs in the articulation of the /ǰ/ sound.

Iconicity through Phonaesthesia and Kinaesthesia

Phonaesthemes and kinaesthemes can also be used more subtly to represent iconically a theme of a
poem. Consider how the rising vowels in Sandburg's "The Harbor" allow the reader to experience
(physically) the theme of uplifting release.
Passing through the huddled and ugly walls
By doorways where women
Looked from their hunger-deep eyes,
Haunted with shadows of hunger-hands,
Out from the huddled and ugly walls,
I came sudden, at the city's edge,
On a blue, burst of lake,
Long lake waves breaking under the sun
On a spray-flung curve of shore;
And a fluttering storm of gulls,
Masses of great grey wings
And flying white bellies
Veering and wheeling free in the open.

Notice the disproportionate use of mid vowels in the poem's first seven lines in the words huddled (2x),
ugly (2x), walls (2x), doorways, looked, from (2x), hunger (2x), sudden, a, burst, and of. Then, in lines 8
through 11, notice the use of diphthongs (vowels that begin as mid vowels in the mouth but end by rising
to high vowels) in the words lake, waves, breaking, great, and grey. The use of diphthongs begins in the
poem as the language of the poem suggests, thematically, a struggle for release. Finally, the thematic
struggle for release is complete by the last line, and that up-lifting release is reflected iconically in the use
of high vowels in veering, wheeling, free, and the.

Similarly, nursery rhymes often employ the same shifts in vowel frequency and articulation to support
literary themes through the use of kinaesthesia. Consider the first stanza of this traditional rhyme (Opie
and Opie 37):

There was a little girl

and she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good,
she was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Notice the predominance of high and front vowels in the first two lines, mid vowels in the middle two
lines, and low vowels in the last two lines; the falling frequency of the vowels iconically matches the
girl's fall from grace.

Likewise, Evan Valens, in his illustrated children's book Wildfire, also exploits the iconic properties of
language for thematic effects. Consider this passage from Wildfire, where Valens attempts to create
symmetry between his use of sound in the paragraph and his word choice so that his language conveys
more than just literal meaning; Valens' language here is enhanced by his sound patterns and word choice
(so that the language is also experienced, felt by the reader):

The heat of the long western summer lay stagnant on the forest when the first raindrops tumbled from the
sky. They rattled the dry needles and spanked hot rocks on the ridge above. A chipmunk scuttling for
shelter left a wisp of red dust hanging in the drowsy air. (1)

The two primary oppositions in the paragraph are between the continuing oppression of the summer heat
and the suddenness of the first raindrops. Valens captures the opposition, the tension, and the theme of
this paragraph perfectly in the sounds and words he uses.

When Valens opens the paragraph (which is also the opening of the book), he first establishes the
continuing oppression of the summer heat through the words he chooses: heat, long, western (connotes
overwhelming vastness), summer, lay ... on (connotes vastness again), stagnant, and forest. Valens then
reinforces the overwhelmingly long oppression of the summer heat by choosing words that have as many
[+continuent] sounds and [+nasal] sounds as possible in them, sounds that are alike in that they can be
continuously articulated or "held" by the vocal organs for several milliseconds, such as [m, n, ŋ, h, r, l, w,
f, v, s, š, θ, ð]. As a result, notice how rich the opening sentence is in [+continuent, +nasal] sounds —
italicized below — to produce just the intended effect: "The heat of the long western summer lay stagnant
on the forest when the first raindrops tumbled from the sky."

In opposition to the continuing oppression of the summer heat is the suddenness of the rain. At the level
of vocabulary, Valens captures the suddenness of the rain in word choices like: tumbled, rattled, spanked,
scuttling, and wisp. To reinforce the sense of suddenness at the level of sound, Valens tries to downplay
the [+continuent] or [+nasal] sounds mentioned above and tries to emphasize the [+explosive] sounds,
such as [p, b, t, d, k, g, č, ǰ]. Those are all sounds that are articulated suddenly, explosively in the vocal
organs. As a result he produces several clauses rich in [+explosive] sounds — double underlined below
— to capture the sense of suddenness: "They rattled dry needles and spanked hot rocks on the ridge
above. A chipmunk scuttling for shelter left a wisp of red dust...." Valens returns to the [+continuent,
+nasal] sounds in the last clause of the passage, iconically suggesting again the continuing activity of the
dust hanging in the air through the sounds alone: "...hanging in the drowsy air."

Notice that Valens continues the same opposition between continuing oppression and suddenness
through vocabulary and sound into the second paragraph of his book. Words connoting continu-ing
activity are rich in [+continuent] or [+nasal] sounds, like rolled and ricocheted, while words connoting
sudden action are rich in [+explosive] sounds, like cracked, quick, electric.

The sky cracked open, a quick electric slit of light running from a cloud to a towering fir. The crack was
mended with a clump of thunder, and the echo rolled and ricocheted. (1)

E. E. Cummings has often employed phonaesthesia and kinaesthesia as devices to promote his literary
themes or as tools to achieve various emotive effects. As one attempts to read his poem "!" (Poem 50)
notice how much time one's lips are rounded because of the large number of back, rounded vowels in the
poem.

!
 
o(rounD)moon, how
do
you(rouNd
er
than roUnd)float:
who
lly &(rOunder than)
go
:ldenly(Round
est)
 
?

Again, the rounding of the lips here revels a kinaestheme that iconically reflects the theme of the poem.
(Also notice how Cummings will break words so that lines end on round vowels.)
Like Cummings, Dr. Seuss will exploit the same phonetic properties of language. Notice the /-ʌmp/
phonaestheme suggesting roundness and dull impact in these selections from One Fish Two Fish Red
Fish Blue Fish:

Bump!
Bump!
Bump!
Did you ever ride a Wump?
We have a Wump
with just one hump.
But
we know a man
called Mr. Gump.
Mr. Gump has a seven hump Wump.
So...
if you like to go Bump! Bump!
just jump on the hump of the Wump of Gump. (18-19)

(Notice also the /ǰ-/ kinaestheme in the last line above to suggest sudden movement.)

The following selection from the same work depends on the /ŋ/ kinaestheme to sustain a sense of
continuous vibration, iconically representing again the theme of the piece:

It is fun to sing
if you sing with a Ying.
My Ying can sing
like anything.

I sing high
and my Ying sings low,
and we are not too bad,
you know. (40)

In the last example below, Dr. Seuss relies on monosyllabic words ending in explosive stops like /p/, /t/,
and /k/ to represent iconically abrupt movement or point action:

Hop! Hop! Hop!

I am a Yop.
All I like to do is hop
from finger top
to finger top.

I hop from left to right

and then...
Hop! Hop!
I hop right back again. (44)

Iconic properties of Nonsegmental Phonology

This use of sound patterning illustrated above is more than alliteration. It is an iconic match of sense and
sound — one mark of the aesthetic use of language. Such iconicity is a feature found in all great
literature. And phonetic iconicity is not restricted to segmental phonology: prosody can also be
significantly expressive. Consider, for example, how the meter and rhythm of the following folk rhyme
combine in the last line (Butler 10):

My mama and your mama lives across

the way
Every night they have a fight and this is
what they say:
Acca-bacca-soda-cracker
Acca-bacca-boo
Acca-bacca-soda-cracker
Out goes you!

The three strong stresses on "Out goes you!" in counterpoint to the lilting rhythm of the preceding three
lines iconically represents in prosody the closure of the poem (and the finality of the parents' fight)
simultaneously. Keats (202) employs the same combination of meter and rhythm for exactly the same
effect in the last stanza of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci":

And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

The three strong stresses on "no birds sing" again creates feelings of both poetic closure and fatality.
Through prosody, both the child's jumping rhyme and Keats' verse iconically merge theme and sound, as
is the case also in David McCord's "The Pickety Fence" (Butler 66):

The pickety fence

The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A clickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A lickety fence
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
With a rickety stick
Pickety
Pickety
Pickety
Pick

(Notice also the enormous frequency of [+explosive] kinaesthemes in addition to the prosody to help
sound merge with sense.)

Synaesthesia

Just as sound possesses mimetic power through phonaesthesia and kinaesthesia, the arrangement of
words can possess mimetic power, synaesthesia (from sun "together" and aistheta). Synaesthesia can refer
to word order in the clause ("syntactic" onomatopoeia) or to the arrangement of words on the page
("graphic" onomatopoeia). As examples of the "syntactic" variety of synaesthesia, consider both Mary E.
Wilkins Freeman's "The Ostrich is a Silly Bird" and Don L. Lee's "In the Interest of Black Salvation." In
Freeman's poem for children, notice that the subjectless finite verb has and the nonfinite verbs stand and
hang of the second stanza are waiting for the subject he to arrive in the last line, iconically representing
the theme of the poem through syntax:

The ostrich is a silly bird,

With scarcely any mind.
He often runs so very fast,
He leaves himself behind.
And when he gets there, has to stand
And hang about till night,
Without a blessed thing to do
Until he comes in sight. (Butler 148)

Similarly, Lee exploits the ambiguity of syntax (especially in the last lines presented below) to capture
iconically a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty expressed through the ambiguity of both the verb saves
(as either intransitive or transitive) and the poem's theme — the loss of faith:

When I was 17,

I didn't have time to dream,
Dreams didn't exist —
Prayers did, as dreams.
I am now 17 & 8,
I still don't dream.
Father forgive us for we know what we do.
Jesus saves,
     Jesus saves,
          Jesus saves — S&H Green Stamps1.

As examples of the "graphic" variety of synaesthesia, consider the graphic iconicity of the line patterns
in this example from E. E. Cummings (Poem 1):

l(a
 
le
af
fa
 
ll
 
s)
one
l
 
iness

Cummings vertically spreads the four words that compose this poem to capture graphically the image of a
falling leaf. Notice also how the longest (most horizontal) line of the poem is the last (as if representing
the Earth) and how the metaphor of the single falling leaf as loneliness is highlighted graphically too by
capturing the word one on a separate line. Likewise, George Herbert's "Easter Wings" presents a graphic
pattern that can be appreciated by both children and adults alike:

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,
 Decaying more and more
Till he became
Most poor;
With thee
Oh, let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories;
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did begin;

And still with sickness and shame
Thou didst so punish sin,
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day thy victory;
For if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Not only do the two stanzas take on the shape of wings (iconically representing "the flight"), but Herbert
also manipulates the syntax so that the beginning of each stanza grows increasingly "poor" and "thin," as
the narrator describes man's transgressions against the Lord. The stanzas only begin to expand again as
the narrator's will matches the Lord's, graphically illustrating the theme through synaesthesia.

Conclusions

In sum, as outlined in this paper, the principles of iconicity underlying onomatopoeia are identical in both
children's and general literature. Those principles can be illustrated as such:

onomatopoeia
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
phonaesthetics kinaesthetics synaesthetics
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
syntactic graphic

Further, after examining the semiotics of phonaesthemes, kinaesthemes and synaesthemes in children's
and general literature, one may draw these conclusions about the response (for people of all ages) to
literature:

1. In responding to literature, people speak of literary experiences; i.e., a story "made" them feel good, or
sad, or frightened. Literature is experienced; it is more than a static collection of words on a page, more
than a clever arrangement of the letters of the alphabet.

2. Literature is experienced through language. Language is the medium of literary expression. Whatever
one feels or learns (i.e., experiences) about literature comes through language.

3. The language of literature may be analyzed by the same methodologies used to analyze "ordinary"
language.

4. Aesthetic judgments are universal. Whatever one finds valuable in the language of children's literature
is also valuable in the language of literature in general. (One caveat: the language of literature for children
must be appropriate to the child's level of linguistic development.)

It seems best to close with the views of a verbal artist, Dylan Thomas, who above any other writer of
modern times not only exhibited magical power over the English language but also articulated clearly the
importance of iconicity in verbal art:

... I should say I wanted to write poetry in the beginning because I had fallen in love with words. The first
poems I knew were nursery rhymes, and before I could read them for myself I had come to love just the
words of them, the words alone. What the words stood for, symbolized, or meant, was of very secondary
importance. What mattered was the sound of them as I heard them for the first time on the lips of the
remote and incomprehensible grown-ups who seemed, for some reason, to be living in my world. And
these words were, to me, as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments, the noises of wind, sea,
and rain, the rattle of milkcarts, the clopping of hooves on cobbles, the fingering of branches on a window
pane, might be to someone, deaf from birth, who has miraculously found his hearing. (185-186)

Works Cited

Butler, F., ed. Sharing Literature with Children. New York: Longman, 1977.

Cummings, E. E. 95 Poems. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1958.

Firth, J. R. Speech. London: Ernest Benn, 1930.

Freeman, M. E. W. "The Ostrich is a Silly Bird." In Sharing Literature with Children. Ed. F. Butler. New
York: Longman, 1977. 148.

Herbert, G. "Easter Wings." In Interpreting Literature. Ed. K. Knickerbocker, et al. 7th ed. New York:
Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1985. 368.

Keats, J. Selected Poems and Letters. Ed. Douglas Bush. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959.

Lee, D. L. "In the Interest of Black Salvation." In The Poem: An Anthology. Ed. S. Greenfield and A.
Weatherhead. 2nd ed. New York: Appleton, Century, Crofts, 1972. 521-522.

Leech, G. N. A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Longman, 1969.

McCord, D. "The Pickety Fence." In Sharing Literature with Children. Ed. F. Butler. New York:
Longman, 1977. 66.

Nowottny, W. The Language Poets Use. London: Athlone Press, 1962.

Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, ed. The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1955.

Sandburg, C. "The Harbor." In Anthology of American Literature. Ed. G. McMichael. 2 vols. New York:
Macmillan, 1980. 2: 1015-16.

Shapiro, K. and R. Beum. A Prosody Handbook. New York: Harper and Row, 1965.

Seuss, Dr. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. New York: Beginner Books, 1960.
Thomas, D. "Notes on the Art of Poetry." In Modern Poetics. Ed. J. Scully. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1965. 185-203.

Ullmann, S. Language and Style. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1964.

Valens, E. Wildfire. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1963.

Note
1
S&H Green Stamps were devised as a store promotion commonly seen in the United States in the 1960s.
Store patrons would collect Green Stamps from participating retailers and redeem them later for “valuable
merchandise.”