Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

Sidhu, David M.; Pexman, Penny M.

doi:10.3758/s13423-017-1361-1

Cited by 162 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 173 publications

(251 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

176

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Another factor, which is not necessarily mutually exclusive from the frequency hypothesis, that might explain some of these kinds of sound–meaning associations, emphasizes the role of size‐grasp affordances on building an association between the size of a referent object and the vowels [i] and [ɑ] (Sidhu and Pexman, ; Vainio et al, ). The current study provides supporting evidence for this view.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sound of Grasp Affordances: Influence of Grasp‐Related Size of Categorized Objects on Vocalization

Vainio

Lipsanen

et al. 2019

Cognitive Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous research shows that simultaneously executed grasp and vocalization responses are faster when the precision grip is performed with the vowel [i] and the power grip is performed with the vowel [ɑ]. Research also shows that observing an object that is graspable with a precision or power grip can activate the grip congruent with the object. Given the connection between vowel articulation and grasping, this study explores whether grasp‐related size of observed objects can influence not only grasp responses but also vowel pronunciation. The participants had to categorize small and large objects into natural and manufactured categories by pronouncing the vowel [i] or [ɑ]. As predicted, [i] was produced faster when the object's grasp‐related size was congruent with the precision grip while [ɑ] was produced faster when the size was congruent with the power grip (Experiment 1). The effect was not, however, observed when the participants were presented with large objects that are not typically grasped by the power grip (Experiment 2). This study demonstrates that vowel production is systematically influenced by grasp‐related size of a viewed object, supporting the account that sensory‐motor processes related to grasp planning and representing grasp‐related properties of viewed objects interact with articulation processes. The paper discusses these findings in the context of size–sound symbolism, suggesting that mechanisms that transform size‐grasp affordances into corresponding grasp‐ and articulation‐related motor programs might provide a neural basis for size‐sound phenomena that links small objects with closed‐front vowels and large objects with open‐back vowels.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sound of Grasp Affordances: Influence of Grasp‐Related Size of Categorized Objects on Vocalization

Vainio

Lipsanen

et al. 2019

Cognitive Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(Imai & Kita 2014;Laing 2014;Perniss & Vigliocco 2014) • Which cognitive and perceptual processes underlie iconic associations? (Bankieris & Simner 2015;Sidhu & Pexman 2017) • What is the role of iconicity in the cultural evolution of language? (Verhoef, Kirby & de Boer 2015;Tamariz et al 2017;Pleyer et al 2017) • How are new vocal depictions created and interpreted?…”

Section: In Conclusion: Challenges and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redrawing the margins of language: Lessons from research on ideophones

Dingemanse

2018

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ideophones (also known as expressives or mimetics, and including onomatopoeia) have been systematically studied in linguistics since the 1850s, when they were first described as a lexical class of vivid sensory words in West-African languages. This paper surveys the research history of ideophones, from its roots in African linguistics to its fruits in general linguistics and typology around the globe. It shows that despite a recurrent narrative of marginalisation, work on ideophones has made an impact in many areas of linguistics, from theories of phonological features to typologies of manner and motion, and from sound symbolism to sensory language. Due to their hybrid nature as gradient vocal gestures that grow roots in discrete linguistic systems, ideophones provide opportunities to reframe typological questions, reconsider the role of language ideology in linguistic scholarship, and rethink the margins of language. With ideophones increasingly being brought into the fold of the language sciences, this review synthesises past theoretical insights and empirical findings in order to enable future work to build on them.

show abstract

“…Neuroimaging methods are one type of approach to the ubiquitous question of why sound symbolic CCs exist in natural language and how they arise (Sidhu & Pexman, 2017). One explanation to this question is that these associations are a necessary part of language acquisition (Imai & Kita, 2014).…”

Section: Sound Symbolism In Language Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic and Visual Stimulus Parameters Underlying Sound Symbolic Crossmodal Correspondences

Sm¹,

McCormick²,

Lacey

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is often assumed that a fundamental property of language is the arbitrariness of the relationship between sound and meaning. Sound symbolism, which refers to non-arbitrary mapping between the sound of a word and its meaning, contradicts this assumption. Sensitivity to sound symbolism has been studied through crossmodal correspondences (CCs) between auditory pseudowords (e.g. 'loh-moh') and visual shapes (e.g. a blob). We used representational similarity analysis to examine the relationships between physical stimulus parameters and perceptual ratings that varied on dimensions of roundedness and pointedness, for a range of auditory pseudowords and visual shapes. We found that perceptual ratings of these stimuli relate to certain physical features of both the visual and auditory domains. Representational dissimilarity matrices (RDMs) of parameters that capture the spatial profile of the visual shapes, such as the simple matching coefficient and Jaccard distance, were significantly correlated with those of the visual ratings. RDMs of certain acoustic parameters of the pseudowords, such as the temporal fast Fourier transform (FFT) and spectral tilt, that reflect spectral composition, as well as shimmer and speech envelope that reflect aspects of amplitude variation over time, were significantly correlated with those of the auditory perceptual ratings. RDMs of the temporal FFT (acoustic) and the simple matching coefficient (visual) were significantly correlated. These findings suggest that sound-symbolic CCs are related to basic properties of auditory and visual stimuli, and thus provide insights into the fundamental nature of sound symbolism and how this might evoke specific impressions of physical meaning in natural language.

show abstract

Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

Cited by 162 publications

References 173 publications

The Sound of Grasp Affordances: Influence of Grasp‐Related Size of Categorized Objects on Vocalization

The Sound of Grasp Affordances: Influence of Grasp‐Related Size of Categorized Objects on Vocalization

Redrawing the margins of language: Lessons from research on ideophones

Acoustic and Visual Stimulus Parameters Underlying Sound Symbolic Crossmodal Correspondences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About