The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate

Cynthia Whissell

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate

Cynthia Whissell

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 2, Issue 6)

Received: 24 September 2014 Accepted: 10 October 2014 Published: 30 October 2014

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Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters’ expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 2, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11
Page(s)	343-347
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Expression, Masculinity, Non-Verbal Poetry, Sound

References

[1]	Fónagy, Ivan. (1991) La vive voix: essays de psycho-phonétique. Payot: Paris.
[2]	Hevner, Kate. (1937) An experimental study of the affective value of sounds in poetry. American Journal of Psychology, 49, 419-434.
[3]	Hopkins, David (2004) Dadaism and surrealism: a very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press. Pp 1-17.
[4]	Ohala, John. (1994) The frequency code underlies the sound-symbolic use of voice pitch. In Leanne Hinton, John J. Ohala and Johanna Nichols, Eds. Sound symbolism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. Pp. 325-347.
[5]	Ox, Jack. & Van Der Elst, Judith. (2011) How metaphor functions as a vehicle of thought: creativity as a necessity for knowledge building and communication. Journal of Visual Art Practice, 20, 83-102.
[6]	Lichtenstein, Sabine. (2008) Listening to Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate: a Dadaistic romantic transposition d’arts? Arcadia International Journal for Literary Studies, 38, 276-284.
[7]	Perloff, Nancy. (2010) Schwitters’ redesigned: a post-war Ursonate from the Getty Archives. Journal of Design History, 23, 195-203.
[8]	Roblee, Louise. & Washburn, Margaret F. (1912) The affective values of articulate sounds. American Journal of Psychology, 23, 579-583.
[9]	Rotherberg, Jerome & Joris, Pierre (2002). Introduction. In Schwitters, K. (2002) pppppp poems performance pieces proses plays poetics. Editors and Translators: Jerome Rothenberg & Pierre Joris. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change.
[10]	Sapir, Edward (1929) A study in phonetic symbolism. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 225-239.
[11]	Schwitters, Kurt. (2002) pppppp poems performance pieces proses plays poetics. Editors and Translators Jerome Rothenberg & Pierre Joris. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change.
[12]	Whissell, Cynthia. (2011) Sound and emotion in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 113, 257-267.
[13]	Whissell, Cynthia. (2009) Using the revised Dictionary of Affect in Language to quantify the emotional undertones of samples of natural language. Psychological Reports, 105, 509-521.
[14]	Whissell, Cynthia. (2001). Sound and emotion in given names. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 49, 97-120.
[15]	Whissell, Cynthia. (2000) Phonoemotional profiling: a description of the flavour of English texts on the basis of the phonemes employed in them. Perceptual Motor Skills, 91, 617-648.
[16]	Whissell, Cynthia M. (1996). Predicting the size and direction of sex differences in measures of emotion and personality. Genetic Social and General Psychology Monographs, 122, 253-284.

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Cynthia Whissell. (2014). The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(6), 343-347. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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Cynthia Whissell. The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2014, 2(6), 343-347. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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AMA Style

Cynthia Whissell. The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. Int J Lang Linguist. 2014;2(6):343-347. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11,
  author = {Cynthia Whissell},
  title = {The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {2},
  number = {6},
  pages = {343-347},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20140206.11},
  abstract = {This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters’ expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.},
 year = {2014}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate
AU  - Cynthia Whissell
Y1  - 2014/10/30
PY  - 2014
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JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
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AB  - This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters’ expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.
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Author Information

Cynthia Whissell

Psychology Department, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, P3E 2C6

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APA Style

Cynthia Whissell. (2014). The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(6), 343-347. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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ACS Style

Cynthia Whissell. The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2014, 2(6), 343-347. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

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AMA Style

Cynthia Whissell. The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate. Int J Lang Linguist. 2014;2(6):343-347. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11,
  author = {Cynthia Whissell},
  title = {The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {2},
  number = {6},
  pages = {343-347},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20140206.11},
  abstract = {This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters’ expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.},
 year = {2014}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Expressive Force of Primitive Masculine Sounds in Schwitters’ Sonata/Poem Ursonate
AU  - Cynthia Whissell
Y1  - 2014/10/30
PY  - 2014
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 343
EP  - 347
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140206.11
AB  - This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters’ expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.
VL  - 2
IS  - 6
ER  -

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