Eric -
Great observation. I'm very interested in the power of how things are
*shaped* in their ability to persuade (all perceptions, with sound being
unique). It also ties into synaesthetic experiences. Your description
of the hypothetical Douglas Adams creature is a good example of how the
sound of the name is highly suggestive of it's shape/etc. Another
aspect of the Structure/Function duality.
I do suspect that the EPIC2014 folks chose Googlezon specifically for
it's phonetic reference to Godzilla...
My wife watches a lot of movies on her computer/iPad while she works,
where I cannot see them. I am generally not interested in the content
of the movies themselves, so do my best to ignore the dialog. But I
cannot ignore the soundtrack, the shape of the music and the dialog and
the ambient sounds. It is an entertaining (if sometimes distracting)
experience.
I also enjoy the phonotactics of poetry and literature and marvel at the
writers who can manipulate my emotions through the shaping of the sounds
behind the writing (and no, I don't move my lips while I read, but I
*do* hear eloquent writing as I read?).
I have tried to follow some of the Neuro Linguistic Programming
literature but got put off by the cultish mind-control factions there to
the point of letting that line drop. If you have more serious
references to send me to, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
- Steve
Don't mean to thread hijack, but it seems this thread was pretty far
gone anyway.
I must say that the English phonotactics are really on display here.
Googlezon sounds like something big, heavy and vaguely dangerous, a
kind of Golem but somewhat clunky and difficult to take seriously,
like the monsters in old Japanese semi-animations.
Amazoogle sounds like something from a Douglas Adams book, with a long
wiggly trunk and lumpy multicolored skin, probably involving purple
and green coloration and perhaps spots, and even more difficult to
take seriously.
Now why would that be? Syllable-initial stops versus vowels and
sibilants? Stress on the final versus the penultimate syllable? A
reduced final vowel in the latter that kind of dribbles away? Must
ask my psycholinguist friends for a breakdown. I'm sure they have
nothing better to do.
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