Andrey Mikhalev - Onset and Rime: semiogenetic compounds of roots

It has been claimed since long ago that initial consonants and clusters (phonestemes) play an important starting role in the semantic emergence of a word. Our own research corroborates this assumption. The iconic properties of consonants give birth to the large spectrum of meanings which undergo semantic extension and, finally, form the whole semantic net of the language.
   The analysis of roots in different languages (so far mainly indo-european) has revealed the basic phonosemantic trends of the lexical semantic emergence. Thus the bilabial plosives /b, p/ correlate with various onomatopoeic aspects (mainly with loud explosive sounds), with oral activities (including speech process), with concepts “round” and “squeeze”. The labio-nasal /m/, correlated with latter three, has, moreover, its own preference like the tie with the concept “soft”. The labio-dental /v, f/, equally symbolizing oral activities and “roundness”, are specialized in reproducing “oscillation” and “passing”. The dental plosives /d, t/ tend to the correlation with the concepts “hard”, “pull”, “press, squeeze”, “sharp”, “cut”. A similar tendency is represented by the dental nasal /n/. The velars /g, k, h/ show an evident preference to correlate with oral activities, with concepts “grasp”, “sharp”, “round/container”. The spirants /s, z, š/ exhibit the ties with the concepts “pull”, “squeeze”, “expand”, “cut”. The liquid /l/ has its own priorities: it tends to symbolize “smooth”, “slippery”, “round”, “weak”, “soft” and various kinds of oral activities. The articulation of the vibrant /r/ makes it possible to imitate continuous sounds, to symbolize speech (glottal) activities and the concepts “cut”, “pull”, “round”. All of these phono-semantic correlations are motivated by articulatory symbolic features of speech sounds.
   Moreover, the study of rimes from the same standpoint has revealed similar semantic trends. Obviously, rimes are much more numerous than consonants since the formers include, in addition, vowel compounds. Thus, for example, in English the list of consonant onsets (initial elements) is represented by: b, br, bl, c (/k/), ch, cr, cl, d, dr, f, fr, fl, g, dZ, f, fr, fl, gr, gl, h, l, m, n, p, pr, pl, r, s, sc, scr, sh, shr, sl, sm, sn, sp, spl, spr, squ, st, str, sw, t, th, tr, tw, v, w, wh, wr, y, z (in total 52). On the other hand, the quantity of rimes in English is about 250 (5 times more). Nevertheless, viewing their semantic properties, rimes are very much alike to onsets: primo, by the field structure of their semantics, secundo, by the iconic potencies of final consonants and joint vowels.
   In order to conceive the semantic cooperation of onset and rime, it would be logical to juxtapose sets of monosyllabic words containing the same initial and final elements. For e.g., the set of words with the rime -am forms evidently the semantic field SQUEEZE: jam1, cram, shram (dial.), cham (dial.), dam1 ‘hold back or confine’, clam (SQUEEZE > CLOSE).
   Now, to analyze, say, the word jam we should undertake the monitoring of the whole lexical corpus with the initial j-, and try to notice possible semantic fields it represents:
   SQUEEZE (17 from 54 lexemes = 31%): jaw, jowl, juice, jelly, jibe colloq. ‘to harmonize, agree’ (SQUEEZE > JOIN), join, jess, jig2, job1 (SQUEEZE > MANIPULATE), jug1, jail, jar2, jacket (SQUEEZE > CONTAINER), jack ‘mechanism for lifting great weights’, joist (SQUEEZE > HOLD), etc.
   QUICK/SUDDEN/HARSH (25/54=46%): jab, jabber, jargon1, jangle, jingle, jazz sl. ‘liveliness’, jar1, jerk, jet2, jib2, jiff, jink, jitter, job2 ‘to prick, hit’, jog, joggle, jostle, jolt, jounce, etc.
   SHARP (12/54=22%): jag1, jut, just (SHARP > EXACT), jest, joke, etc.
   Thus, the word jam consists of two structural compounds which both have the iconic potency to symbolize the concept SQUEEZE. As we have already pointed out, the dental [dZ] and the labial [m] correspond to this concept.
   Following the proposed method of splitting root morphemes, morphologists will have to revise the trivial statement about a minimal significant unit of language.