Topic : Sound symbolism [Onomatpoeia]

Extension
Explore the use of sound symbolism based on consonants by collecting a range of data.
Here are some areas to consider:
Slogans can often use alliteration, for example:
Best Buy Bold (washing powder)
P-P-Pick up a Penguin (chocolate bar)
The Power to Hit Pain Precisely (analgesic)
Q: What did the duck say as it flew upside down?
A: I’m quacking up.
Q: What do sea monsters live on?
A: Fish and ships.
Q: What do cats read?
A: The Mews of the World.
But the same technique can be used for serious purposes too. Adverts can exploit the way phoneme substitution can call up two phrases at once, as in using ‘Limited Emission’ to describe a car with a catalytic converter (and calling up the sophistication and exclusiveness of ‘Limited Edition’ at the same time).
See if you can find some examples of sound substitution from newspaper headlines,
1 Plosives are often used in newspaper headlines to give a sense of energy and drama:
for example, in words like ‘probe’, ‘cut’, ‘hit’, ‘snap’, ‘quit’, ‘scoop’ and ‘block’.
(These words are also monosyllabic, giving them extra force.) Collect some headlines and investigate the types of words used in them.
2 Product brand names are carefully chosen by manufacturers to have a certain ‘ring’.
Choose some different products and list their brand names and slogans. Do certain sounds recur, or are certain sounds associated with particular types of product? For example, the names ‘Twix’, ‘Crunchie’, ‘Snickers’, ‘Kit Kat’ and ‘Picnic’ all contain plosives, perhaps because the manufacturers want to suggest a crisp, cracking noise. Are fricatives used for scouring creams and liquids, or air fresheners?
Slogans can often use alliteration, for example:
Best Buy Bold (washing powder)
P-P-Pick up a Penguin (chocolate bar)
The Power to Hit Pain Precisely (analgesic)
Q: What did the duck say as it flew upside down?
A: I’m quacking up.
Q: What do sea monsters live on?
A: Fish and ships.
Q: What do cats read?
A: The Mews of the World.
But the same technique can be used for serious purposes too. Adverts can exploit the way phoneme substitution can call up two phrases at once, as in using ‘Limited Emission’ to describe a car with a catalytic converter (and calling up the sophistication and exclusiveness of ‘Limited Edition’ at the same time).