English Language and Literature Studies; Vol. 8, No. 1; 2018 ISSN 1925-4768 E-ISSN 1925-4776 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 1 Emotional Sound Symbolism and the Volta in Shakespearean and Petrarchan Sonnets Cynthia Whissell 1 1 Psychology Department, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Correspondence: Cynthia Whissell, Psychology Department, Laurentian University, Sudbury, P3E 2C6, Canada. E-mail: cwhissell@laurentian.ca Received: November 30, 2017 Accepted: January 15, 2018 Online Published: February 3, 2018 doi:10.5539/ells.v8n1p1 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ells.v8n1p1 Abstract Sonnets written in the Shakespearean or Petrarchan form are both assumed to present and then answer a problem, but they do so in different ways. The two forms have different rhyming schemes. The volta or turn is predicted to occur between lines 12 and 13 in the first and lines 8 and 9 in the second form. It is argued that sound in poetry is emotionally communicative (symbolic), especially when the predominance of Harsh (e.g., t, r) over Gentle (e.g., l, m) sounds is considered. An analysis of the sounds (phonemes) in various exemplars of the two forms (N=285 sonnets) was undertaken. Shakespeare’s sonnets represented his form and those of a variety of authors represented the Petrarchan form. Predominant Harshness was the dependent variable in a design which compared line and form. There were significant effects associated with line, form, and their interaction (p<.05). Shakespeare’s sonnets, had a lower predominant Harshness than the Petrarchan sonnets. Both Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets exhibited a major drop in predominant Harshness (a volta) between lines 8 and 9. Both began on a gentle note, increased in predominant Harshness as problems were being expounded, and returned to a gentler note for their endings. Only Shakespearean sonnets had a spike in harshness in the third quatrain, suggesting that the author was still unfolding problems rather than resolving them there. Keywords: sound symbolism, emotion, sonnets, Shakespearean, Petrarchan 1. Introduction 1.1 The Sound Structure of Sonnets This research examines sonnets in terms of their sound structure. Fuller (2011) emphasized the immediate experience of poetry and stressed the importance of both sound (p. 76) and emotional engagement (p. 16) in the reading of sonnets. Approaching the issue of poetic appreciation from a different perspective, Skinner (1941) took a rigorous behavioural stance to the analysis of poetry which involved an examination of its sound patterns. Combining these viewpoints, Whissell (2017) identified the location of emotional turns in Shakespeare’s sonnets on the basis of their sound patterns. This article aims to demonstrate that sounds (phonemes), which convey emotional information, are an important cue to poetic form especially for highly structured poems such as sonnets. Sonnets present a problem and then resolve it. (Note 1) Of special interest within a sonnet is the volta or turn, which is assumed to occur between the presentation of the problem and its resolution, and the predicted location of this turn in Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms. Petrarch’s name is associated with the Italian sonnet form and Shakespeare’s with the later-developing English form (Table 1). Other sonnet forms exist, but these two (Petrarchan/Italian and Shakespearean/English) have consistently influenced authors of sonnets written in English. Sonnets have a rather rigid structure (Chiasson & Rogers, 2009; Fuller, 1972), which is summarized in Table 1. There are prescriptions for the sonnet’s length, its meter, its rhyming schemes, and the nature and location of its volta. A sonnet’s volta is broadly defined as its turning point. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Note 2) the volta can refer to a turn in the development of an argument, but it can also refer to a turn in mood within the poem, for example from a harsher mood to a gentler one, or vice versa. The definition of volta in terms of mood is recognized by Fuller (1972, p. 2) who speaks of voltas in terms of “a shift of thought or feeling” between one part of the poem and another. Whissell (2017) noted the presence of several voltas in Shakespeare’s sonnets: she identified these on the basis of the changes in mood expressed by the sounds in the poetry. Sounds convey emotional messages (Whissell, 2000) and a turn in mood was observed when the predominance of Harsh sounds over Gentle ones changed