Sound to Meaning Mappings in the Bouba-Kiki Effect.

Abstract

Sound to meaning correspondences in spoken language are\nassumed to be largely arbitrary. However, research has\nidentified a number of exceptions to the arbitrariness\nassumption. In particular, non-arbitrary mappings between\nsound and shape, the bouba/kiki effect, have been\ndocumented across diverse languages and both children and\nadults are sensitive to this type of sound symbolic mapping.\nThe cognitive basis for the associations between nonword\nlabels and particular shapes remains poorly understood\nmaking it difficult to predict how findings generalize beyond\nthe limited stimuli tested. To identify systematic bases for\nsound-to-shape mappings, we collected ratings of\nroundedness and pointedness for a large database of\npseudowords. We find that attributes of both consonants and\nvowels are systematically related to judged shape meanings\nof pseudowords, and offer hypotheses as to the cognitive\nmechanisms underlying the observed patterns