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Autological

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A self-descriptive word (e.g., “short” is short) used in poetry to create reflexive or meta-textual effects that comment on language itself.

Detailed Definition
Autological describes a word that expresses a property it itself possesses (e.g., "short" is short); in poetry, autological play creates self-referential wit or meta-linguistic reflection, as in concrete poetry or works by Ashbery that foreground language’s materiality.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Polysyllabic” is often called autological because it has many syllables; “English” is autological because the word itself is English; “Unhyphenated” is autological because it contains no hyphen; “Poetic” may be called autological when used to describe a word that itself functions poetically, though the claim depends on context; The opposite is heterological, as “monosyllabic” is not monosyllabic, making autology a useful linguistic and philosophical wordplay
Additional Notes
Autological: A word that describes itself (e.g., “noun” is a noun); in poetry, autological play can create self-referential or meta-poetic effects—related to autopoiesis and reflexive language.
Also Known As
Self-referential self-describing self-naming reflexive
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