WK10 L2: Readings

• What is sound symbolism?

  Association between phonemes and stimuli
• What does the mil/mal effect illustrate?

  Association between vowel sounds and object size

  
• What is the maluma/takete effect?

  Association between phonemes and shape perception
• How does sound symbolism relate to cognition?

  It affects language, action, memory, and categorization
• What is a key feature of sound symbolic associations?

  They provide nonarbitrary relationships with meanings
• What are the five proposals for sound symbolic associations?

  Statistical co-occurrence, shared properties, neural factors, evolved associations, language patterns
• What is the significance of sound symbolism in language learning?

  It influences how words are learned and processed
• What is the main focus of the article by Sidhu and Pexman?

  Reviewing mechanisms of sound symbolic association
• What does the term 'conventional sound symbolism' refer to?

  Associations deriving from phoneme use in language
• What is the role of sound symbolism in cognition?

  It impacts action, memory, and categorization
• What is the bouba/kiki effect?

  Association between phonemes and round or sharp shapes
• How do implicit tasks demonstrate sound symbolism?

  By showing faster responses to congruent pairings
• What is the relationship between sound symbolism and the arbitrariness of language?

  Sound symbolism introduces nonarbitrariness in language
• What is the significance of Hockett's 1963 description?

  It highlights the arbitrariness of language
• What are the implications of sound symbolic associations for language?

  • Nonarbitrary relationships between phonemes and meanings
  • Influence on language learning and processing
  • Impact on cognition, including action and memory
• What are the key features of the mil/mal and maluma/takete effects?

  • Mil/mal effect: Vowel sounds linked to size
  • Maluma/takete effect: Phonemes linked to shape
  • Both effects demonstrated across languages and ages
• What outstanding questions remain in the study of sound symbolism?

  • Mechanisms underlying phoneme associations
  • Experimental validation of proposed mechanisms
  • Broader implications for understanding language
• What happens to nonwords presented in congruent shape frames?

  They are responded to faster
• In which age group has the effect of shape frames on nonwords been demonstrated?

  4-month-old infants
• What is sound symbolism relevant to?

  The relationship between form and meaning
• What does Hockett (1963) describe about the relationship between form and meaning?

  It can be arbitrary with no special connection
• What is conventionality in language?

  Words mean what they do by agreement
• What does systematicity refer to in language?

  Statistical relationships among word groups
• How do English nouns typically relate phonologically to other nouns?

  They tend to be more similar to nouns
• What is an example of systematicity in English nouns?

  Initial syllable stress in disyllabic nouns
• What is iconicity in language?

  A resemblance between form and meaning
• How does iconicity manifest in American Sign Language?

  Through structural resemblance between form and meaning
• What is an example of direct iconicity in spoken language?

  Onomatopoeia like the word "ding"
• What is indirect iconicity?

  Associations that map onto meaning
• What phoneme is associated with smallness in sound symbolism?

  The high-front vowel /i/

  
• What is imagic iconicity?

  A relationship between a single form and meaning
• What is diagrammatic iconicity?

  Resemblance between two forms and their meanings
• In which languages are ideophones common?

  Sub-Saharan African languages
• What did Ultan (1978) find about vowel ablauting?

  High-front vowels denote diminutive concepts
• How do iconicity and arbitrariness coexist in language?

  Words can have both properties simultaneously
• What is the mil/mal effect in sound symbolism?

  Association between high-front vowels and smallness

  
• What is the significance of phonetic features in sound symbolism?

  They relate phonemes to perceptual features
• What does decoupling form and meaning in language allow?

  It allows limitless concepts to be denoted
• How does decoupling form and meaning avoid confusion?

  It prevents similar meanings from overlapping
• What is the mil/mal effect associated with?

  High-front vowels and smallness