Emotional sound symbolism: Languages rapidly signal valence via phonemes
Emotional sound symbolism: Languages rapidly signal valence via phonemes
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.007
复制
发表时间：
2018-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Cossu, Martina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Adelman, James S.;Estes, Zachary;Cossu, Martina
快速传达刺激的情感效价（即，消极或积极）对于避免危险和获得奖励至关重要。因此，我们假设人类语言通过单个音素（情感声音象征）发出情感信号，更具体地说，单词开头的音素发出其效价信号，因为这将最大化接收者做出自适应反应的时间。分析了五种不同语言（英语、西班牙语、荷兰语、德语和波兰语）中的大约37，000个单词，我们发现所有五种语言中的情感声音象征意义，并且在每种语言中，单词的第一个音素比随后的音素更能预测其效价。此外，考虑到避免危险比获得奖励更紧迫，我们进一步假设并证明，最快发出的音素往往传达消极而不是积极。因此，情感声音象征是一种适应，在人类语言中提供了一个早期预警系统，类似于其他物种的警报呼叫。
Rapidly communicating the emotional valence of stimuli (i.e., negativity or positivity) is vital for averting dangers and acquiring rewards. We therefore hypothesized that human languages signal emotions via individual phonemes (emotional sound symbolism), and more specifically that the phonemes at the beginning of the word signal its valence, as this would maximize the receiver's time to respond adaptively. Analyzing approximately 37,000 words across five different languages (English, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Polish), we found emotional sound symbolism in all five languages, and within each language the first phoneme of a word predicted its valence better than subsequent phonemes. Moreover, given that averting danger is more urgent than acquiring rewards, we further hypothesized and demonstrated that phonemes that are uttered most rapidly tend to convey negativity rather than positivity. Thus, emotional sound symbolism is an adaptation providing an early warning system in human languages, analogous to other species' alarm calls.