What sound symbolism can and cannot do: Testing the iconicity of ideophones from five languages
What sound symbolism can and cannot do: Testing the iconicity of ideophones from five languages
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DOI：
10.1353/lan.2016.0034
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发表时间：
2016-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Mitterer, Holger
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dingemanse, Mark;Schuerman, Will;Mitterer, Holger
声音象征是一种与语言和心理研究有着广泛相关性的现象，但它在语言学和心理学中的研究一直是脱节的。本研究测试的声音象征性的潜力的ideophones描述为图标的话，在一个实验任务，改善了以前的工作，在生态有效性和实验控制。我们提出了203 ideophones从五种语言的82荷兰听众在二进制选择任务，在四个版本：原始录音，全双音素再合成，段只再合成，和韵律只再合成。听众猜测以上的机会所有四个版本的意义，确认的意符的象似性，并显示语音合成的可行性，作为一种控制音段和超音段特性的声音象征的实验研究。成功率比之前使用bouba/kiki等伪词的研究要低，这意味着基于这些词的假设不能简单地转移到自然语言中。韵律和片段一起驱动效果：单独的都是不够的，这表明片段和韵律一起作为支持图标解释的线索。这些发现对将象似意义单独归于片段的尝试提出了质疑，并支持了将表意文字视为联合收割机任意性和象似性相结合的观点。我们讨论了声音象征和象似性的实证研究的理论和方法的影响。
Sound symbolism is a phenomenon with broad relevance to the study of language and mind, but there has been a disconnect between its investigations in linguistics and psychology. This study tests the sound-symbolic potential of ideophones-words described as iconic-in an experimental task that improves over prior work in terms of ecological validity and experimental control. We presented 203 ideophones from five languages to eighty-two Dutch listeners in a binary-choice task, in four versions: original recording, full diphone resynthesis, segments-only resynthesis, and prosody-only resynthesis. Listeners guessed the meaning of all four versions above chance, confirming the iconicity of ideophones and showing the viability of speech synthesis as a way of controlling for segmental and suprasegmental properties in experimental studies of sound symbolism. The success rate was more modest than prior studies using pseudowords like bouba/kiki, implying that assumptions based on such words cannot simply be transferred to natural languages. Prosody and segments together drive the effect: neither alone is sufficient, showing that segments and prosody work together as cues supporting iconic interpretations. The findings cast doubt on attempts to ascribe iconic meanings to segments alone and support a view of ideophones as words that combine arbitrariness and iconicity. We discuss the implications for theory and methods in the empirical study of sound symbolism and iconicity.*