Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds.
Sound symbolism, or the nonarbitrary link between linguistic sound and meaning, has often been discussed in connection with language evolution, where the oral imitation of external events links phonetic forms with their referents (e.g., Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). In this research, we explore...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116494&type=printable |
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| _version_ | 1850023001130532864 |
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| author | Mutsumi Imai Michiko Miyazaki H Henny Yeung Shohei Hidaka Katerina Kantartzis Hiroyuki Okada Sotaro Kita |
| author_facet | Mutsumi Imai Michiko Miyazaki H Henny Yeung Shohei Hidaka Katerina Kantartzis Hiroyuki Okada Sotaro Kita |
| author_sort | Mutsumi Imai |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sound symbolism, or the nonarbitrary link between linguistic sound and meaning, has often been discussed in connection with language evolution, where the oral imitation of external events links phonetic forms with their referents (e.g., Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). In this research, we explore whether sound symbolism may also facilitate synchronic language learning in human infants. Sound symbolism may be a useful cue particularly at the earliest developmental stages of word learning, because it potentially provides a way of bootstrapping word meaning from perceptual information. Using an associative word learning paradigm, we demonstrated that 14-month-old infants could detect Köhler-type (1947) shape-sound symbolism, and could use this sensitivity in their effort to establish a word-referent association. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e510423ac2684a14b990b127e2a4fbdb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-e510423ac2684a14b990b127e2a4fbdb2025-08-20T03:01:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01102e011649410.1371/journal.pone.0116494Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds.Mutsumi ImaiMichiko MiyazakiH Henny YeungShohei HidakaKaterina KantartzisHiroyuki OkadaSotaro KitaSound symbolism, or the nonarbitrary link between linguistic sound and meaning, has often been discussed in connection with language evolution, where the oral imitation of external events links phonetic forms with their referents (e.g., Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). In this research, we explore whether sound symbolism may also facilitate synchronic language learning in human infants. Sound symbolism may be a useful cue particularly at the earliest developmental stages of word learning, because it potentially provides a way of bootstrapping word meaning from perceptual information. Using an associative word learning paradigm, we demonstrated that 14-month-old infants could detect Köhler-type (1947) shape-sound symbolism, and could use this sensitivity in their effort to establish a word-referent association.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116494&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Mutsumi Imai Michiko Miyazaki H Henny Yeung Shohei Hidaka Katerina Kantartzis Hiroyuki Okada Sotaro Kita Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. PLoS ONE |
| title | Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. |
| title_full | Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. |
| title_fullStr | Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. |
| title_short | Sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14-month-olds. |
| title_sort | sound symbolism facilitates word learning in 14 month olds |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0116494&type=printable |
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