Eric,
Your reference to EPIC2014 suggests you remember the provenance of the original spoof, which I am still hoping to find. But I got nothing when I googled epic2014. Do you remember it? Nobody else has confessed to having seen it, yet. Can you give me more breadcrumbs? Nick From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2013 8:18 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: [FRIAM] Googlezon and phonotactics Eric - Great observation. I'm very interested in the power of how things are *shaped* in their ability to persuade (all perceptions, with sound being unique). It also ties into synaesthetic experiences. Your description of the hypothetical Douglas Adams creature is a good example of how the sound of the name is highly suggestive of it's shape/etc. Another aspect of the Structure/Function duality. I do suspect that the EPIC2014 folks chose Googlezon specifically for it's phonetic reference to Godzilla... My wife watches a lot of movies on her computer/iPad while she works, where I cannot see them. I am generally not interested in the content of the movies themselves, so do my best to ignore the dialog. But I cannot ignore the soundtrack, the shape of the music and the dialog and the ambient sounds. It is an entertaining (if sometimes distracting) experience. I also enjoy the phonotactics of poetry and literature and marvel at the writers who can manipulate my emotions through the shaping of the sounds behind the writing (and no, I don't move my lips while I read, but I *do* hear eloquent writing as I read?). I have tried to follow some of the Neuro Linguistic Programming literature but got put off by the cultish mind-control factions there to the point of letting that line drop. If you have more serious references to send me to, I would appreciate it. Thanks, - Steve Don't mean to thread hijack, but it seems this thread was pretty far gone anyway. I must say that the English phonotactics are really on display here. Googlezon sounds like something big, heavy and vaguely dangerous, a kind of Golem but somewhat clunky and difficult to take seriously, like the monsters in old Japanese semi-animations. Amazoogle sounds like something from a Douglas Adams book, with a long wiggly trunk and lumpy multicolored skin, probably involving purple and green coloration and perhaps spots, and even more difficult to take seriously. Now why would that be? Syllable-initial stops versus vowels and sibilants? Stress on the final versus the penultimate syllable? A reduced final vowel in the latter that kind of dribbles away? Must ask my psycholinguist friends for a breakdown. I'm sure they have nothing better to do.
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
