Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels

The current study is the first to attempt to perform a sound-symbolic analysis of the spells featured in the Harry Potter series. The present research analysed 171 spells in terms of syllable lengths and the number of voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The results showed that the Killing Cur...

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Autor principal:	Kumagai Gakuji
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	De Gruyter 2021
Materias:	syllable length voiced obstruents low vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a8cc55c729b9488eb36d137ba164d225
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a8cc55c729b9488eb36d137ba164d2252021-12-05T14:11:00ZAnalysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels2300-996910.1515/opli-2021-0025https://doaj.org/article/a8cc55c729b9488eb36d137ba164d2252021-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2021-0025https://doaj.org/toc/2300-9969The current study is the first to attempt to perform a sound-symbolic analysis of the spells featured in the Harry Potter series. The present research analysed 171 spells in terms of syllable lengths and the number of voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The results showed that the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, which is known as one of the most powerful and sinister spells, has the most voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The study then experimentally examined whether three factors – syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels – evoked the imagery of powerful spells using nonce words. The results suggested that voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels are sound-symbolically associated with powerful imagery, which aligns with the studies in Pokémonastics concerning strong character names (Kawahara et al. 2018; Shih et al. 2019). Moreover, names containing more syllables were favoured as powerful spells by those who are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter series, which is evidence of the iconicity of quantity in general English speakers.Kumagai GakujiDe Gruyterarticlesyllable lengthvoiced obstruentslow vowelsPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENOpen Linguistics, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 511-530 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	syllable length voiced obstruents low vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
spellingShingle	syllable length voiced obstruents low vowels Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Kumagai Gakuji Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
description	The current study is the first to attempt to perform a sound-symbolic analysis of the spells featured in the Harry Potter series. The present research analysed 171 spells in terms of syllable lengths and the number of voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The results showed that the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, which is known as one of the most powerful and sinister spells, has the most voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The study then experimentally examined whether three factors – syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels – evoked the imagery of powerful spells using nonce words. The results suggested that voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels are sound-symbolically associated with powerful imagery, which aligns with the studies in Pokémonastics concerning strong character names (Kawahara et al. 2018; Shih et al. 2019). Moreover, names containing more syllables were favoured as powerful spells by those who are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter series, which is evidence of the iconicity of quantity in general English speakers.
format	article
author	Kumagai Gakuji
author_facet	Kumagai Gakuji
author_sort	Kumagai Gakuji
title	Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
title_short	Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
title_full	Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
title_fullStr	Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
title_full_unstemmed	Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
title_sort	analysing spells in the harry potter series: sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels
publisher	De Gruyter
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/a8cc55c729b9488eb36d137ba164d225
work_keys_str_mv	AT kumagaigakuji analysingspellsintheharrypotterseriessoundsymboliceffectsofsyllablelengthsvoicedobstruentsandlowvowels
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Analysing spells in the Harry Potter series: Sound-symbolic effects of syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels

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