Articulation contributes to valence sound symbolism
- PMID: 34694857
- DOI: 10.1037/xge0001124
Articulation contributes to valence sound symbolism
Abstract
Vowels are sound-symbolically associated with valence. Specifically, words containing /i/ (vs. /o/) are judged more suitable to denote positive (vs. negative) objects. Here, we examine the psychological processes driving valence sound symbolism by testing competing predictions for the vowel /y/. The articulatory hypothesis predicts /y/ to be associated with negative valence, because its articulation inhibits smiling; while the pitch-based hypothesis predicts /y/ to be associated with positive valence, because of its high intrinsic pitch. In four experiments, /i/ was associated with more positive valence than both /o/ and /y/ when reading (Experiments 1-3) and when hearing words (Experiment 4). The more negative valence of /y/ compared with /i/ supports the articulatory hypothesis; the similar (or even more negative) valence of /y/ compared with /o/ contradicts the pitch-based hypothesis. Thus, the present finding suggests that valence sound symbolism has its basis rather in articulatory than auditory phoneme properties. This advances our understanding of psychological processes in valence-vowel associations and in sound symbolism more generally. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Similar articles
-
Cross-sensory correspondences in language: Vowel sounds can symbolize the felt heaviness of objects.J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2019 Feb;45(2):246-252. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000583. Epub 2018 Apr 26. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2019. PMID: 29698035
-
Talking emotions: vowel selection in fictional names depends on the emotional valence of the to-be-named faces and objects.Cogn Emot. 2019 May;33(3):404-416. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1456406. Epub 2018 Apr 16. Cogn Emot. 2019. PMID: 29658373
-
The gleam-glum effect: /i:/ versus /λ/ phonemes generically carry emotional valence.J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2021 Jul;47(7):1173-1185. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001017. Epub 2021 Apr 22. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2021. PMID: 34694842
-
Sound-Action Symbolism.Front Psychol. 2021 Sep 14;12:718700. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718700. eCollection 2021. Front Psychol. 2021. PMID: 34594278 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Five mechanisms of sound symbolic association.Psychon Bull Rev. 2018 Oct;25(5):1619-1643. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1361-1. Psychon Bull Rev. 2018. PMID: 28840520 Review.
Cited by
-
Using artificial intelligence to explore sound symbolic expressions of gender in American English.PeerJ Comput Sci. 2024 Jan 17;10:e1811. doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1811. eCollection 2024. PeerJ Comput Sci. 2024. PMID: 38283586 Free PMC article.
-
Embodied Processing at Six Linguistic Granularity Levels: A Consensus Paper.J Cogn. 2023 Oct 10;6(1):60. doi: 10.5334/joc.231. eCollection 2023. J Cogn. 2023. PMID: 37841668 Free PMC article.
-
Articulation posture influences pitch during singing imagery.Psychon Bull Rev. 2023 Dec;30(6):2187-2195. doi: 10.3758/s13423-023-02306-1. Epub 2023 May 23. Psychon Bull Rev. 2023. PMID: 37221280 Free PMC article.
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources