In this thesis the in-depth research of phonosemantic phenomena in modern German language has been carried out. Topical issues of Phonosemantics, namely the correlation between the categories of sound and meaning of a lexical unit on the «phoneme-meaning» level, have been elucidated. The functional peculiarities of phonosemantic constants in German phonological system both in diachronic and synchronic perspectives as well as from the point of view of new cognitive approach in the development of Phonosemantic Science have been identified. To show the facts of similarities and peculiarities among their differential features and the ways of their own sound symbolic meaning formation we conducted comparative analysis of phonological units. To reveal the principal of consonant onomatopoeia within vocal and consonant phonemes functioning in lexical system according to strength, activity and evaluation the experimental study of associative symbolic meaning has been made. Lexical framework of onomatopoetic verbs, nouns, adjectives and exclamations on paradigmatic level, as well as their specific, individual, structural characteristic features in positional and combinational phonetic condition have been identified. Modifying processes and variability of the parts of speech on codification level have been studied in detail.
Our thesis characterises the linguistic essence of phonemes and lexemes within various approaches, such as cognitive, lexical, stylistic and paradigmatic. The detailed analysis of phonetic phonological, lexical grammatical and structural semantic peculiarities of the development of German language has contributed to the set tasks.
The function of correlation between lexeme meaning and its sound meaning, which essence lies within the ability of a sound to provoke a sound symbolic meaning has been proved. We explain this characteristic in the following way: the connotation of a sound, set in a human mind through the different stages of evolution and caused by derivation of particular associations with positive or negative evaluation, is transferred on any modern sounds. The results of our psycholinguistic experiment verify and prove this point of view. The specifics of sound symbolic notion of phoneme on the «sound–meaning» category correlation level confirms its extraordinary expressiveness and the ability to create certain emotive background.
In the unity of the triad components sound-denotation-value the symbolic properties of each of these categories intertwine. There is a cyclical process of mutual influence of the phoneme on the lexical unit and vice versa. The more transparent the relationship of the symbols of sounding with the nominee, the more effective is the process of lexeme remembering by the native speaker.
Onomatopoeia is a very interesting and universal fact since the set of the sounds in any word is not random. On the contrary, it is motivated according to the sound we hear in the environment. Consequently, we consider that the functioning of phonetic meaning is objective. This is due to the fact that emotions and imagination, provoked by the sounds made in conversation are described not only in fiction but also in separate lexical units independently of cohesive texts as it is represented in our work.
Such parts of speech as verb, noun and adjective experience onomatopoeic phenomenon. Moreover, our sample shows that lexemes of the last two mentioned parts of speech derive mostly from verb. This means that verb, noun and adjective share common root semes.
The results of the research after the statistical processing show that in modern German, the degree of symbolism of phonemes is different. Taking into account that the sounds may lack symbolic significance, it becomes clear that the phenomenon of phonosemanticism has a specific national character. This is facilitated by barely invisible differences in the perception of semantics of phonemes, which are caused, most likely, by the specifics of the German language.
Onomatopoeic lexics of modern German language is in fact a large group of words, which requires complex description in the framework of general theory of phonosemantics. The diverse motivation of the lexical unit, the symbolic-sound meanings of the phonetic units make up a high proportion in motivational processes, as evidenced by the phonosemantic research. We can state that the scientific search is a theoretical and experimental study, since the basis of each nomination is the sound with its certain characteristics and parameters.
