Margo's Magical Letter Page
Help!!! Someone who practices phonoemotionality sent this very interesting analysis to me. I've failed to make a note of who sent it. Anyone know?
Here are some "phonoemotional profiles" of the words provided
in response to your various prompts, which are listed at the beginning of
each table.
(1) There are 8 emotional categories of phoneme: Pleasant, Cheerful, Active,
Nasty, Unpleasant, Sad, Passive, and Soft.
(2) These are arranged in order (clockwise) at equal intervals around a
clock rim. They represent an emotional cartesian space with Pleasantness
and Activation as the axes. Some phonemes belong to more than one adjacent
category (see Table at end).
(3) The number of "x" marks indicates how much category was used
in comparison to normal English. Each column represents a z score, each
unit is .1z (one tenth of a standard deviation).
(4) The "." indicates the normal English usage for each category
of phoneme. Here z=0.
(5) A statistically significant difference for this data set would be one
where there is a difference of 2 or more "x" marks (2 standard
errors).
I will go through one example in some detail:
Profile of: Stormy Sky
Pleas xxxx .
Cheer xxx .
Activ xxxxx.x
Nasty xxxxx.x
Unpls xxxxx.xx
Sad - xxxxx.xxx
Passv xxxxx.x
Soft- xxxx .
This is the profile for words invented to describe a stormy sky. Two types
of phonemes (unpleasant, sad) were used at significantly greater than normal
rates: both of these have at least two "x" marks beyond the "."
One type of phoneme (cheerful) was used at significantly less than normal
rates which is two "x" marks below the "." We can also
conclude that passive phonemes were used more often than soft ones (the
difference is two "x" marks in size), and that sad phonemes were
used more often than any other kind except unpleasant ones (same logic).
The peak emotion is easy to spot - it is sadness. The trough emotion is
cheerfulness, which makes sense because these would be at opposite locations
on the emotional clock.
Following are the 9 profiles and the list of phonemes in a table that explains
category assignments.
Profile of: Scraping burnt stuff off toast
Pleas xx .
Cheer xxx .
Activ xxxxx.xx
Nasty xxxxx.xxx
Unpls xxxxx.xxxx
Sad-- xxx .
Passv x .
Soft- xx .
Profile of: Dragging a heavy object to Water
Pleas xxxx .
Cheer xxx .
Activ xxxxx.xx
Nasty xxxxx.x
Unpls xxxxx.
Sad-- xxxxx.xx
Passv xxxxx.
Soft- xxxx .
Profile of: Swarming Mosquitos
Pleas xxxxx.x
Cheer xxxxx.
Activ xxxxx.xx
Nasty xxxxx.
Unpls xxxx .
Sad-- xxx .
Passv xxxx .
Soft- xxxxx.x
Profile of: Hedgehog
Pleas xxx .
Cheer xxxx .
Activ xxxxx.xxx
Nasty xxxxx.xxxx
Unpls xxxxx.xxx
Sad - xxx .
Passv xxxxx.
Soft- xxx .
Profile of: Rollercoaster
Pleas xxxx .
Cheer xxxx .
Activ xxxxx.xx
Nasty xxxxx.x
Unpls xxxx .
Sad - xxxx .
Passv xxxx .
Soft- xxxx .
Profile of: Stormy Sky
Pleas xxxx .
Cheer xxx .
Activ xxxxx.x
Nasty xxxxx.x
Unpls xxxxx.xx
Sad - xxxxx.xxx
Passv xxxxx.x
Soft- xxxx .
Profile of: Paper Cutter
Pleas xxx .
Cheer xxxx .
Activ xxxxx.xxxx
Nasty xxxxx.xxxx
Unpls xxxxx.x
Sad - xxx .
Passv xxx .
Soft- xx .
Profile of: Pollen on Leaves
Pleas xxxxx.
Cheer xxxxx.x
Activ xxxxx.xx
Nasty xxxx .
Unpls xxx .
Sad - xxxxx.
Passv xxxx .
Soft- xxxxx.
Profile of: Brush Knobs
Pleas xxxxx.
Cheer xxx .
Activ xxxxx.x
Nasty xxxxx.
Unpls xxxxx.x
Sad - xxxxx.xx
Passv xxxxx.
Soft- xxxx .
Table 1: The distribution of phonemes across the eight categories
of emotional space, with 'X' indicating the central point for each phoneme
and 'o' indicating additional categories associated with that phoneme.
PHONEME PLS* CH ACT NA UNP SA PSS SO
eh gE t . o . . . . o X
z Z oo o . . . . . o X
l L augh o . . . . o o X o
ao lAW n . . . . . . o X o
m M at . . . . . . o X o
ae fA t . . . . . . X .
ah bU t . . . . . . X .
dh TH at . . . . . o X o
n N ut . . . . . o X o .
aw hOW . . . . o X o .
ow lO ne . . . . o X o .
b B ut . . . . o X o . .
k K it . . . o o X . o .
d D ime . . . o o X o o .
r R at . . o X o . . .
t T ub . . o X o . . .
g G oat . . o X o . . . .
p P at . . o X o . . . .
sh SH ip . . o X o . . . .
uw fOO l . . o X o . . . .
er murdER . o X o . . . .
ih bI t . o X o . . . .
ng siNG . o X o . . . .
oy tOY . o X o . . . .
aa fA ther . o X o . . . . .
ch CH air . o X o . . . . .
f F ork . o X o . . . . .
j J ar . o X o . . . . .
uh fU ll o X o . . . . . .
w W et o X o . . . . . .
ay hI de X o . . . . . o
iy bEA t X o . . . . . o
th TH ump X o . . . . . o
v V et X o . . . . . o