Phonosemantics and Syntactic Sentence Structures: Implications for Language Acquisition in Learners Aged 10–20
Keywords:
(Phonosemantics, phonoesthemes, prosodic iconicity, syntactic complexity, sentence structures, L2 grammar instructions)Abstract
Phonosemantics, the study of motivated sound-meaning relationships including phonesthemes, sound symbolism, and iconicity, intersects with syntactic complexity through rhythmic patterns, prosodic flow, phonetic density, and lexical choices that characterize simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. For language learners aged 10–20, awareness of these connections can assist the acquisition of sentence variety, improve writing fluency, enhance reading comprehension of structurally complex texts, and support lexical development through sound-meaning relationships. This article synthesizes the relationship of sound symbolism and syntactic development and proposes an integrated pedagogical framework tailored to adolescent and young adult L2 learners.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Yasir Akram, Farah Saeed (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
