Bouba/Kiki in Homer? Looking for iconicity in the language of the epics

This article aims to bring together literary criticism of the Iliadand the Odyssey with linguistic research into iconicity. Scholars from ancient times onwards have pointed to instances in the Homeric epics where the sound or rhythm of the verse seems to be adapted to its content. These observations have been mostly ad hoc, however: the question how likely it is that such perceived correlations between form and meaning are merely due to chance has not been adequately answered. The present contribution seeks to improve on this state of affairs by introducing a quantitative method for investigating iconicity in the Homeric epics, a method grounded in cross-linguistic research. In particular, I will investigate whether verses containing keywords related to concepts such as quickness and sharpness contain more dactyls, more high tones, more high-frequency vowels, more unvoiced plosives, and more velars as opposed to labials, than verses containing keywords related to concepts such as inactivity and softness.