The Relationships Between Initial Consonants in Japanese Sound Symbolic Words and Familiarity, Multi-Sensory Imageability, Emotional Valence, and Arousal
- 4 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
- Vol. 50 (4), 831-842
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-020-09749-w
Abstract
Sound symbolic words consist of inevitable associations between sounds and meanings. We aimed to identify differences in familiarity, visual imageability, auditory imageability, tactile imageability, emotional valence, and arousal between Japanese sound symbolic words with voiced initial consonants (VCs; dakuon in Japanese; e.g., biribiri) and Japanese sound symbolic words with semi-voiced initial consonants (SVCs; handakuon in Japanese; e.g., piripiri), and between VCs (e.g., daradara) and Japanese sound symbolic words with voiceless initial consonants (VLCs; seion in Japanese; e.g., taratara). First, auditory imageability and arousal were significantly higher in VCs than SVCs, whereas familiarity, tactile imageability, and positive emotion (emotional valence) were significantly higher in SVCs than VCs. Second, visual imageability was higher in VCs than VLCs, while familiarity and positive emotion were higher in VLCs than VCs. Initial consonants in Japanese sound symbolic words could be associated with specific subjective evaluations such as familiarity, visual imageability, auditory imageability, tactile imageability, emotional valence, and arousal.Keywords
Funding Information
- Hiroshima University Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
- KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up (18H05599)
- KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Young Scientists (19K13181, 18K13297)
- KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (18K03177)
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