3.4.2.4. Euphony vs Cacophony

Both, alliteration and assonance may produce the effect of Euphony – a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing, an effective combination of sounds capable of producing a certain artistic impression; or Cacophony: harsh joining of sounds, producing a strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing.

Cacophony: We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang work wicked will.

Sometimes a competent reader, if unable to decipher the implied purpose of the alliteration, may grow irritated if it is overdone and be ready to discard it from the arsenal of useful stylistic devices.

E. g. «We wonder whether the wether will weather the weather, or whether the weather the wether will kill».

Or: «The skunk sat on a stump, the skunk thought the stump stunk, but the stump thought the skunk stunk».

An interesting example of the overuse of alliteration is given in Swindurn’s «Nefelidia» «Nefelidia» where the poet parodies his own style:

«Gaunt as the ghastliest of glimpses that gleam through the gloom of the gloaming when ghosts go aghast».

There's no discharge in the war!

Don't — don't — don't — don't — look at what's in front of you

(Boots — boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again!)

Men — men — men — men — men go mad with watchin' em,

An' there's no discharge in the war!

Try — try —try — try — think of something different —

Oh — my —God — keep me from goin' lunatic!

(Boots — boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again!)

There's no discharge in the war!

I — 've — marched — six — weeks in 'Ell an' certify

It — is — not — fire — devils, dark or anything

But boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again,

An' there's no discharge in the war!

3.4.2.4. Euphony vs Cacophony

Both, alliteration and assonance may produce the effect of Euphony, - a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing, an effective combination of sounds capable of producing a certain artistic impression; or Cacophony: harsh joining of sounds, producing a strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing.

Cacophony: We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work wicked will.

W.Churchill

Sometimes a competent reader, if unable to decipher the implied purpose of the alliteration, may grow irritated if it is overdone and be ready to discard it from the arsenal of useful stylistic devices.

E. g. «We wonder whether the wether will weather the weather, or whether the weather the wether will kill».

Or: «The skunk sat on a stump, the skunk thought the stump stunk, stump thought the skunk stunk».

An interesting example of the overuse of alliterationis is given in Swindurn’s «Nefelidia» where the poet parodies his own style:

«Gaunt as the ghastliest of glimpses that gleam through the gloom of the gloaming when ghosts go aghast».

Phonestheme

«PHONESTHEME is a repeated combination of phonemes, similar to a morpheme on the ground of associated meaning or content. (O.S. Akhmanova).

«Phonestheme is defined as a phoneme or a cluster of phonemes shared by a group of words which also have in common some element of meaning or function, though the words may be etymologically unrelated» (F. Householder. Opp. cit.) Words, partially close in their sounding, are called the «paronymic attraction». The term «phonestheme» was initially used by the English linguist John Firth. (Firth, 1957. See also: Bolinger, 1950; Householder, 1946; Marchand, 1966; Harris, 1960; Nida, 1951).

J.Firth first introdused the notion of the phonoaesthetic function of the sounds, i.e the ability of certain sound to correlate with more or less regularity with certain context of situation thus giving birth to definite associations; e.g.: crank, cross, crick, crab – words with initial SL, SN, SM bring negative connotations: smoke, smirk, smirch, smug,sniff,sap, snub, slip, slap, slum, etc.

D. Bolindger correlates phonestheme with «affective morphemes»: hear — ear; see — scene; cover-hover-over; crape-drape; sway-swasion; bloat-blow; strut-straight, etc. Phonestheme «st» often is used in alliterations, expressing immobility: «No STAR STEER us», or: to stay and stare (Swinburn); phonestheme BR» — energy and brilliancy: ex.: Back to the flower-town, side by side, the bright months bring, New-born, the bridegroom and the bride, «Freedom and spring»; phonestheme — FL — «light movement»: ex.:

Far flickers the flight of the swallows, Far flickers the weft of the grass.. .Flickering flame-wise through the clear live calm... or: Like flowers upon flowers, in a festival way, when hours after hours Shed grace on the day, white blossom-like butterflies hover and gleam through the snows of the spray. Like snow-coloured petals Of blossoms that flee from storm that unsettles The flowers as the tree. They flutter, a legion of flowers on the wing, through the field of the sea. (A. Ch. Swinburn. «Off shore»).

E.g. The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes

from leaf to flower and from flower to fruit;

And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire...

Swinburn