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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 18:2 (2020) ► pp.428–457

What’s in a villain’s name?

Sound symbolic values of voiced obstruents and bilabial consonants

| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
| Meikai University
| Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies

This paper reports two case studies of sound symbolism using the naturalistic name corpora of characters from Disney and Pokémon. Building upon previous studies of sound symbolism, we tested two hypotheses: (1) voiced obstruents, which are generally associated with negative images, are favored in villainous characters’ names, while (2) bilabial consonants, which are symbolically associated with cuteness, are disfavored in such names. The results show that these tendencies hold in our corpora, suggesting that a concept that is as complex as “villain” can be signaled via sound symbolism. Theoretical implications for cognitive linguistics based on our results are discussed.

Keywords: sound symbolism, evil/good, naming, obstruents, bilabials
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Theoretical background
  • 2.Sound symbolism in proper names
    • 2.1The current study
  • 3.Names of villainous Disney characters
    • 3.1Method
    • 3.2Results
  • 4.Names of villainous Pokémon characters
    • 4.1Method
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.General discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Tools and Corpus (on the Web)
Published online: 4 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00066.uno
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Tools and Corpus (on the Web)

LOGIOS Lexicon Tool
[URL] (accessed 2018/01/10)
The Disney Wiki: Characters from Theatrical Animated Features
[URL] (accessed 2018/01/10).
The Disney Wiki: List of Disney Villains
[URL] (accessed 2018/01/10).
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Godoy, Mahayana C., André Lucas Gomes, Gakuji Kumagai & Shigeto Kawahara
2021. Sound symbolism in Brazilian Portuguese Pokémon names: Evidence for cross-linguistic similarities and differences. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 20:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kawahara, Shigeto & Canaan Breiss
2021. Exploring the nature of cumulativity in sound symbolism: Experimental studies of Pokémonastics with English speakers. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology 12:1 DOI logo
Kawahara, Shigeto & Gakuji Kumagai
2021. What voiced obstruents symbolically represent in Japanese: evidence from the Pokémon universe. Journal of Japanese Linguistics 37:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Kawahara, Shigeto & Jeff Moore
2021. How to express evolution in English Pokémon names. Linguistics 0:0 DOI logo

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