Sound and Meaning Correlates of Word Preferences

Two studies were reported which are relevant to the question of whether the sound of a word contributes to its esthetic effect in poetry independently of its meaning or associations. In Experiment I each of four groups of subjects ranked one of two lists of words for beauty of meaning or beauty of sound. The words in the two lists were homophone pairs (e.g., Sun-Son). Sound preferences were not significantly correlated across lists even though the sounds judged were identical in each. However, meaning and sound preferences were highly and significantly correlated within each list. Interjudge agreement was very high for meaning but not for sound preferences. In Experiment II sound preferences for German words of unknown meaning were found to be highly correlated with meaning preferences for their English associations. These results do not support the hypothesis that sound has an independent esthetic effect, although they are not conclusive evidence against it.