Toward an Explanation of Phonetic Symbolism

French, Patrice

doi:10.1080/00437956.1977.11435647

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…That is, if there exists an association between Dimensions A-B, and B-C, this might create an association between Dimensions A-C. French (1977) made a similar suggestion for sound symbolic associations. He theorized that phonemes are only directly related with a small number of stimulus dimensions, and that these mediate relationships with other stimulus dimensions.…”

Section: Mechanisms For Associations Between Phonetic and Semantic Fementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, Johansson and Zlatev (2013) proposed this as one potential explanation for the association between high-front vowels and small distances. Many have also pointed out that the vowels associated with roundness (i.e.,/u/, and /oʊ / as in hoed) involve a rounded articulation (e.g., French, 1977;Ikegami & Zlatev, 2007; also suggested in Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Note that these accounts involve some amount of abstraction or other mechanism by which features can be united across modalities, and do not necessarily imply that phonemes and stimuli possess identical perceptual features.…”

Section: Mechanisms For Associations Between Phonetic and Semantic Fementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While there are a number of proposals, there is a scarcity of experimental work focused on adjudicating between them. One potential reason for this is that the mechanisms have yet to be thoroughly described and evaluated in a single work (though see Deroy & Auvray, 2013;Fischer-Jørgensen, 1978;French, 1977;Johansson & Zlatev, 2013;Masuda, 2007;Nuckolls, 1999;Shinohara & Kawahara, 2010); that is the aim of the present article. We begin by describing two well-known instances of sound symbolism to serve as reference points.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in the weaker version of the language patterns theory outlined above, contextual factors likely moderate the expression of sound symbolic associations rather than create them. For instance, some have theorized that forcedchoice tasks may lead participants to become aware of shared properties among stimuli that they would not have considered otherwise (e.g., Bentley & Varron, 1933;French, 1977). In addition, some authors have speculated that pairing sounds with congruent meanings in real language may serve to highlight potential associations (e.g., Waugh, 1993).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…17 Interestingly though, participants were faster to articulate an /m/ or a /t/, in response to a round or a sharp shape, respectively. Perceptual feature High-front vowels and small shapes sharing the property smallness (Sapir, 1929) Magnitude or intensity a Both high volume and brightness being high in magnitude (Spence, 2011) Connotation Stop consonants and angular shapes having the connotations of being fast and tense (Bozzi & Flores D'Arcais, 1967) Relationship with a mediating dimension High-front vowels being associated with thinness via the mediating dimension of size (French, 1977) Affective quality and resulting impression Sweet taste and round shape being united via their positive hedonic value (Velasco et al, 2015) Linguistic label Vowels referred to as bright or dark being associated with high and low brightness, respectively.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

2017

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Sound symbolism refers to an association between phonemes and stimuli containing particular perceptual and/or semantic elements (e.g., objects of a certain size or shape). Some of the best-known examples include the mil/mal effect (Sapir, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 225-239, 1929) and the maluma/takete effect (Köhler, 1929). Interest in this topic has been on the rise within psychology, and studies have demonstrated that sound symbolic effects are relevant for many facets of cognition, including language, action, memory, and categorization. Sound symbolism also provides a mechanism by which words' forms can have nonarbitrary, iconic relationships with their meanings. Although various proposals have been put forth for how phonetic features (both acoustic and articulatory) come to be associated with stimuli, there is as yet no generally agreed-upon explanation. We review five proposals: statistical co-occurrence between phonetic features and associated stimuli in the environment, a shared property among phonetic features and stimuli; neural factors; species-general, evolved associations; and patterns extracted from language. We identify a number of outstanding questions that need to be addressed on this topic and suggest next steps for the field.

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Section: Mechanisms For Associations Between Phonetic and Semantic Fementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mechanisms For Associations Between Phonetic and Semantic Fementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

2017

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Phonetic Symbolism and Memory for Advertisements

Boltz

Mangigian

Allen

2016

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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This study investigated whether phonetic symbolism within brand names influences the memory of advertisements. Participants both saw and heard brand names with front vs. back vowels paired with small vs. large products in a congruent vs. incongruent fashion. When later given several unexpected memory tasks, it was found that congruent (vs. incongruent) pairings led to enhanced brand name and product recall as well as the efficiency of both brand name and paired recognition. These findings are consistent with a theory of cross-modal processing involving perceptual unification.

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The Effects of Linguistic Devices on Consumer Information Processing and Persuasion: A Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework

2018

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People—be they politicians, marketers, job candidates, product reviewers, or romantic interests—often use linguistic devices to persuade others, and there is a sizeable literature that has documented the effects of numerous linguistic devices. However, understanding the implications of these effects is difficult without an organizing framework. To this end, we introduce a Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework for classifying linguistic devices based on two continuous dimensions: language complexity, ranging from simple to complex, and processing mode, ranging from automatic to controlled. We then use the framework as a basis for reviewing and synthesizing extant research on the effects of the linguistic devices on persuasion, determining the conditions under which the effectiveness of the linguistic devices can be maximized, and reconciling inconsistencies in prior research.

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Toward an Explanation of Phonetic Symbolism

Cited by 39 publications

References 7 publications

Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association

Phonetic Symbolism and Memory for Advertisements

The Effects of Linguistic Devices on Consumer Information Processing and Persuasion: A Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework

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