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Chemotherapy as language: Sound symbolism in cancer medication names

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  • Abel, Gregory A.
  • Glinert, Lewis H.

Abstract

The concept of sound symbolism proposes that even the tiniest sounds comprising a word may suggest the qualities of the object which that word represents. Cancer-related medication names, which are likely to be charged with emotional meaning for patients, might be expected to contain such sound-symbolic associations. We analyzed the sounds in the names of 60 frequently-used cancer-related medications, focusing on the medications' trade names as well as the names (trade or generic) commonly used in the clinic. We assessed the frequency of common voiced consonants (/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/; thought to be associated with slowness and heaviness) and voiceless consonants (/p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/; thought to be associated with fastness and lightness), and compared them to what would be expected in standard American English using a reference dataset. A Fisher's exact test for independence showed the chemotherapy consonantal frequencies to be significantly different from standard English (p = 0.009 for trade; pÂ

Suggested Citation

  • Abel, Gregory A. & Glinert, Lewis H., 2008. "Chemotherapy as language: Sound symbolism in cancer medication names," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1863-1869, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:66:y:2008:i:8:p:1863-1869
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. George Doorn & Bryan Paton & Charles Spence, 2016. "Is J the new K? Initial letters and brand names," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 666-678, November.
    2. Motoki, Kosuke & Park, Jaewoo & Pathak, Abhishek & Spence, Charles, 2022. "The connotative meanings of sound symbolism in brand names: A conceptual framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 365-373.
    3. Abhishek Pathak & Carlos Velasco & Charles Spence, 2020. "The sound of branding: An analysis of the initial phonemes of popular brand names," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(3), pages 339-354, May.
    4. Shrum, L.J. & Lowrey, T.M. & Luna, David & Lerman, D.B. & Liu, Min, 2012. "Sound symbolism effects across languages: Implications for global brand names," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 275-279.
    5. Bell, Kirsten, 2009. "'If it almost kills you that means it's working!' Cultural models of chemotherapy expressed in a cancer support group," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 169-176, January.

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