Vocable
Encyclopedia
In speech, a vocable is an utterance, term, or word
that is capable of being spoken and recognized. A non-lexical vocable is used without semantic role or meaning
, while structure of vocables is often considered apart from any meaning. A vocable consists of one or a sequence of phoneme
s and may be represented by a string of letters
or other symbols.
Non-lexical vocables are often used in music
as artistic content. As a common speech disfluencies in many languages, they have little formal meaning and are rarely purposeful.
They are also used in experiments in cognitive psychology
; examples from this context are the nonsense syllable
s introduced by Hermann Ebbinghaus
, or the use of non-words that mimic the structure of real words in experiments in psycholinguistics
.
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
that is capable of being spoken and recognized. A non-lexical vocable is used without semantic role or meaning
Meaning (linguistics)
In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same...
, while structure of vocables is often considered apart from any meaning. A vocable consists of one or a sequence of phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s and may be represented by a string of letters
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
or other symbols.
Non-lexical vocables are often used in music
Non-lexical vocables in music
Non-lexical vocables, which may be mixed with meaningful text, are a form of nonsense syllable used in a wide variety of music. A common English example would be "la la la".-Traditional music:...
as artistic content. As a common speech disfluencies in many languages, they have little formal meaning and are rarely purposeful.
They are also used in experiments in cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
; examples from this context are the nonsense syllable
Nonsense syllable
In cognitive psychology, a nonsense syllable is a word-like string of letters that is not intended to have any established meaning; it is a special case of a non-lexical vocable...
s introduced by Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve...
, or the use of non-words that mimic the structure of real words in experiments in psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
.