Chapter 3. Articulation

The interplay between spatial and temporal relations is evident in language, which rides the mind like a surfboard riding a wave. Symbolic structure is supported by two poles; a phonological pole, represented by the act of surfing, and a semantic pole, represented by the breaking wave. Characterising the phonological pole, the penetration and release phases in surfing are analogous to obstruents and sonorants. Obstruents are produced by obstructing the airflow against a range of articulation points within the vocal tract. By contrast, sonorants are produced without obstructing airflow through the vocal tract. Since obstruents and sonorants alternate like the penetration and release phases of surfing, the different combinations of obstruents and sonorants are analogous to the surfer's repertoire of manoeuvres; whereby sequences of rotational axes direct flow across the wetted surface of the surfboard, such that each angle of flow corresponds to a phoneme. Characterising the semantic pole, the curvature in the surface of the wave is analogous to the access afforded by language to the contents of the mind. The hollower the wave, the deeper the access, the more layers of signification attainable. Between the contents of the mind and the phonemes we use to explore it, there is a yin-yang sort of struggle influencing what we 'make' of reality (both in terms of speech perception and speech production).

Figure 1. Kiki & Bouba.

Numerous sounds remind us of shapes. This is classically demonstrated by the Kiki and Bouba experiment (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001, p.19). In this experiment, a drawing of two aliens is presented (see fig.1). The subject is asked to identify which alien is Kiki and which is Bouba. The vast majority of respondents identify Kiki as the pointy shaped alien and Bouba as the rounded one, indicating that our perception of sound and shape overlaps. This form of cross modal perception is analogous to the surfer-shaper's ability to associate the shape of a surfboard with its response during surfing manoeuvres. The sound of the word "kiki" is more closely associated with sudden changes in direction, as depicted by the drawing of a spiky figure. By contrast, the sound of the word "bouba" is more closely associated with long, drawn out turns, as depicted by the drawing of a curvaceous figure.

The stimulation in one modality that triggers sensations in another is called synaesthesia. For example, a synaesthete may consistently experience a specific colour when hearing a particular tone or looking at a certain numeral. Mild forms of synaesthesia permeate consciousness, as revealed by the sounds Kiki and Bouba, which invoke an association with shape. For example, a painting by Kandinsky has been found to trigger activity in portions of the brain that are associated with hearing (Ward, 2008). Synaesthesia might also play a role in other forms of self-expression. Dance could even be regarded as a form of synaesthesia, in this case sensory-to-motor, where the rhythm of movements synaesthetically mimics the auditory rhythm (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Similarly, the design skills of a surfer-shaper could be regarded as building a synaesthetic link between surfing manoeuvres and the shape of the surfboard.

Such motor-to-sensory synaesthesia would probably be underpinned by mirror-neurons, so-named because they fire in response to movements that share a common trajectory, whether performed by you or someone else. Mirror neurons are believed to be implicated in learning to speak. They facilitate the transfer of skills, e.g. from parent to child, by coding movements in terms of their purpose. As a result, the mind learns how to deal with objects through their use, which is fundamentally different to their spatial presence, since the use of an object extends the self beyond its physical limits.

To design a surfboard as an extension of the self, the surfer-shaper has to decipher manoeuvres in terms of the spatial and temporal paradigms. The axes of penetration and release represent the set of alternatives from which manoeuvres are composed, just as the letters of an alphabet are combined to form words. The similarity between the movements of surfing and the movements of speech is evident in passages that employ onomatopoeia, where the sound of a word, or group of words, seems to characterise its denotation. For example:

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance,
'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows,
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar,
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Alexander Pope (1711)

This passage demonstrates the perceptual overlapping of sound, movement and meaning, which is analogous to the perceptual overlapping required to design a surfboard:

1. The set of speech sounds is analogous to the set of curves present in a surfboard.
2. The sense of movement induced by the speech sounds is analogous to manoeuvring the surfboard.
3. The meaning of the poem is analogous to the order of execution, since this displays the surfer's understanding of the wave, which is analogous to our understanding of context.

1. The textual metafunction concerns the clause as a message, according to which the first component of a sentence is the point of departure for the message. It is a monadic relation in the sense that it grounds what is being said.
2. The interpersonal metafunction concerns the clause as a process in ongoing human experience. It is a dyadic relation insofar as it relates to features that are independent of itself; an actor participating in a process, directed toward a goal.
3. The experiential metafunction concerns the clause as an exchange of information between speaker and listener. It is a triadic relation insofar as a subject is deemed responsible for the validity of the information presented by the interpersonal metafunction.

As in surfing, each thread contributes a dimension of structure to the composition of the clause. In fact, as Halliday (1994) explains:

"the threefold pattern of meaning is not simply characteristic of the clause; these three kinds of meaning run throughout the whole of language, and in a fundamental respect they determine the way that language has evolved." (p.35)

Moreover, multiple patterns of meaning fold back on the setting in which it occurs, as seen in the following situation:

Late one night, I overheard a couple arguing in the street. Their speech was slurred and they seemed to be dragging their feet, so I think it is fair to assume they were on their way home from the local pub. Suddenly, the man shouted: "You're a fucking slut!" in response to which the woman said: "I'm your fucking slut!" and together they continued stumbling along the street.

1. acknowledging the preceding comment as a threat to their status as a couple,
2. rejecting the allegation of infidelity, and
3. implicating her partner in their relationship being sound.

C H A P T E R S
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Surfism : Triadic relations : Articulation : Spatial perception : Dimensionality : Periodicity : Semiosis : Conclusion

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