The role of vision in the development of sound symbolism.
(2017) Ten years of Mind/Brain Science at the University of Trento — Location: Rovereto - Italy (19.October.2017)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- Non-arbitrary sound-shape correspondences (SSCs) have been consistently observed across languages and together with other sound- symbolic phenomena facilitate language acquisition and may be important for language evolution. Yet, it is unclear what makes a sound "round" or "spiky" to the human mind. One possibility is that we automatically map shapes onto the motor representations used to articulate speech- sounds. However, some SSCs deviate from predictions based on articulation only, calling for additional mechanisms. We hypothesize that the shape of written letters (spontaneously activated by spoken words) may influence SSCs. We tested this hypothesis, in early blind people, who are exposed to an orthography (Braille) in which letters do not have spiky or round outlines. As predicted, early blind showed SSCs that reflected a pure articulatory approach better than sighted people. Conversely, sighted' SSCs were better explained by combining articulation and orthography. This result shed new light on the experiential basis of sound-symbolism, and demonstrates that vision is not necessary to develop sound-shape correspondences.
- Affiliations
University of Trento Center for Mind/Brain CIMeC
Citations
Barilari, M., Bottini, R., & Collignon, O. (2017). The role of vision in the development of sound symbolism. Ten years of Mind/Brain Science at the University of Trento, Rovereto - Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/100462