Rights statement: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-and-cognition/article/do-sound-symbolism-effects-for-written-words-relate-to-individual-phonemes-or-to-phoneme-features/BB0B048EC4A6D26017906345306E8EDF The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Language and Cognition, 11 (2), pp 235-255 2019, © 2019 Cambridge University Press.
Accepted author manuscript, 332 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Do sound symbolism effects for written words relate to individual phonemes or to phoneme features?
AU - Monaghan, P.
AU - Fletcher, Matthew
N1 - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-and-cognition/article/do-sound-symbolism-effects-for-written-words-relate-to-individual-phonemes-or-to-phoneme-features/BB0B048EC4A6D26017906345306E8EDF The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Language and Cognition, 11 (2), pp 235-255 2019, © 2019 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - The sound of words has been shown to relate to the meaning that the words denote, an effect that extends beyond morphological properties of the word. Studies of these sound-symbolic relations have described this iconicity in terms of individual phonemes, or alternatively due to acoustic properties (expressed in phonological features) relating to meaning. In this study, we investigated whether individual phonemes or phoneme features best accounted for iconicity effects. We tested 92 participants' judgements about the appropriateness of 320 nonwords presented in written form, relating to 8 different semantic attributes. For all 8 attributes, individual phonemes fitted participants' responses better than general phoneme features. These results challenge claims that sound-symbolic effects for visually presented words can access broad, cross-modal associations between sound and meaning, instead the results indicate the operation of individual phoneme to meaning relations. Whether similar effects are found for nonwords presented auditorially remains an open question.
AB - The sound of words has been shown to relate to the meaning that the words denote, an effect that extends beyond morphological properties of the word. Studies of these sound-symbolic relations have described this iconicity in terms of individual phonemes, or alternatively due to acoustic properties (expressed in phonological features) relating to meaning. In this study, we investigated whether individual phonemes or phoneme features best accounted for iconicity effects. We tested 92 participants' judgements about the appropriateness of 320 nonwords presented in written form, relating to 8 different semantic attributes. For all 8 attributes, individual phonemes fitted participants' responses better than general phoneme features. These results challenge claims that sound-symbolic effects for visually presented words can access broad, cross-modal associations between sound and meaning, instead the results indicate the operation of individual phoneme to meaning relations. Whether similar effects are found for nonwords presented auditorially remains an open question.
KW - cross-modal correspondences
KW - iconicity
KW - keywords:
KW - phonology
KW - psycholinguistics'
KW - sound symbolism
U2 - 10.1017/langcog.2019.20
DO - 10.1017/langcog.2019.20
M3 - Journal article
VL - 11
SP - 235
EP - 255
JO - Language and Cognition
JF - Language and Cognition
SN - 1866-9808
IS - 2
ER -