Reconsidering phonæsthemes: Submorphemic invariance in English ‘ sn- words’

Abstract

I reconsider the English phonæstheme sn- in order to provide a principled explanation for the dyadic sn-/nasality relation, noted by many scholars, in words such as sneeze, sniff and snore. After discussing the structural aspects of this relation and the morphological status of phonæsthemes, I focus on the issue of meaning in a psychomechanical perspective, before analysing core invariance in phonosemantic ‘ sn-/n- doublets’ such as sniff/ niff. I then examine the notion of nasality within the framework of embodied semantics, and explore the cognitive status of phonæsthemes within a topological paradigm. I adduce a possible diachronic evolution between Old and Modern English (word-initial /xn/ > /n/ → /sn/) to account for the fact that one particular subset of ‘ sn- words’ has meanings related to biting, and investigate the issue of arbitrariness with respect to sn- and other phonæsthemes. Finally, in order to address the possible origins of the sn-/nasality relation within the phylogenetic perspective provided by semiogenesis, I adopt the gestural approach advocated by articulatory phonology and conclude, within a theory of the emergence and evolution of the linguistic sign (STEELS), that the naturally nasal quality of n may originally have endowed it with a metonymically based, self-referential capacity.