Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants [Paperback]

Margaret Magnus (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0943549523 | ISBN-13: 978-0943549521 | Publication Date: July 8, 2010

Margaret Magnus is a programmer and linguist, and one of the most prominent researchers in the branch of linguistics known as sound symbolism. This book is a non-technical introduction to an expanded understanding of how the form of a word -- its sound -- affects its meaning. Each vowel and each consonant in a language has a meaning which is very broad, yet distinct from that of every other vowel and consonant. There are two levels of sound-meaning -- the iconic, and the phonesthetic. The phonesthetic dimension of a consonant's meaning is archetypal in nature. And each consonant and vowel infuses every word that contains it with this meaning. This book introduces the reader to the nature of the phenomenon, and outlines some experiments that the reader can perform with a pencil and sheet of paper, by means of which they can verify for themselves that the phenomenon is real.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Magnus is a programmer and computational linguist with SDL International. She has written several commercial natural language software products, as well as some web sites about how the sound of a word affects its meaning.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (July 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0943549523
• ISBN-13: 978-0943549521
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,826,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revolutionary work by an independent researcher, August 23, 2001

By 

Brian J. Miller "primematter" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants (Paperback)

Gods of the Word is a rare, beautiful and poetic work of revolutionary science. If Freud was the first to listen to his patients, Margaret Magnus is the first to listen to words and what they are saying to us. Anyone involved with language -- reading, speaking, listening, writing, understanding -- will never see their medium in quite the same way again, and will be richer for the experience of reading this book.

For they will have discovered the underlying phonosemantic structure of inherent meaning in the arbitrary connections between the signifiers and signifieds of their language.

In psychoanalysis and intellectual history, the selected fact is ignored until the anxiety it provokes can be tolerated, and insight (new paradigm) achieved. 2400 years ago, Socrates said in Cratylus that sounds and words are imitations of the essence of their referents. It seems no one got around to testing this theory until Margaret Magnus.

In this book you will learn that monomorphemic (single-syllable) words tend to reduce to a relatively small number of meaning groups (concepts), defined by their phonemes (sounds), and tend to cluster in related groups of meanings. Each phoneme has its own underlying related concepts (or pre-conceptions) which cluster and are different in meaning and direction from other phonemes. The inherent meanings of phonemes interact with the more arbitrary connections between words and what they mean (reference). Inherent phoneme meaning varies between languages but often points to the same underlying concepts.

These are the subterranean "Gods of the Word" that speak through us.

This book is both scientific and spiritual. It offers a testable hypothesis about material reality (provable at home in three hours or less) that calls into question basic assumptions about language, meaning and communication that have been scientific (academic) dogma since de Saussure and responsible for both the shaping and subject of much of twentieth century "discourse." It is spiritual because it points to a realm beyond the arbitrary connections of material reality, to an underlying world of inherent meaning, where sounds and letters and words have essential, formative and poetic capabilies.

The ultimate value of Gods of the Word lies in its capacity to link these two worlds and viewpoints by showing their intimate connections in language. It should open doors in a number of directions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As it turns out, the sign is not entirely arbitrary., February 3, 2010

By 

M. Patteson (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants (Paperback)

Magnus eloquently shares the findings of her research in sound symbolism. Contrary to popular assumtion, the assertion is not so much that the phonemes of a word create its denotation; but that the connotative difference between two synonyms is accounted for by the assotiative sound qualities of the phonemes of the respective words.

This small, lovely book is for people who love words, books, a turn of phrase; folks whose hearts can resonate with the throb of a well-crafted poem. Its design- look, feel, and sound- is elegance itself. If you are the sort of person who is happiest when submerged in words, this book is a salve to the heart, an inspiration to the mind, and a confirmation to the spirit, which always Knew there was something more to words than the dry bones they taught you about in school.