Imai, Mutsumi and Kita, Sotaro (2014) The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society B: biological sciences, Volume 369 (Number 1651). Article number 20130298. doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0298 ISSN 0962-8436.
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Abstract
Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and meaning. We review evidence that, contrary to the traditional view in linguistics, sound symbolism is an important design feature of language, which affects online processing of language, and most importantly, language acquisition. We propose the sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis, claiming that (i) pre-verbal infants are sensitive to sound symbolism, due to a biologically endowed ability to map and integrate multi-modal input, (ii) sound symbolism helps infants gain referential insight for speech sounds, (iii) sound symbolism helps infants and toddlers associate speech sounds with their referents to establish a lexical representation and (iv) sound symbolism helps toddlers learn words by allowing them to focus on referents embedded in a complex scene, alleviating Quine's problem. We further explore the possibility that sound symbolism is deeply related to language evolution, drawing the parallel between historical development of language across generations and ontogenetic development within individuals. Finally, we suggest that sound symbolism bootstrapping is a part of a more general phenomenon of bootstrapping by means of iconic representations, drawing on similarities and close behavioural links between sound symbolism and speech-accompanying iconic gesture.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology |
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Language acquisition, Sound symbolism, Synesthesia |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society B: biological sciences |
| Publisher: | The Royal Society Publishing |
| ISSN: | 0962-8436 |
| Official Date: | 4 August 2014 |
| Dates: | Date Event 4 August 2014 Published |
| Volume: | Volume 369 |
| Number: | Number 1651 |
| Article Number: | Article number 20130298 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2013.0298 |
| Status: | Peer Reviewed |
| Publication Status: | Published |
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 28 December 2015 |
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 28 December 2015 |
| Funder: | Japan. Monbu Kagakushō [Japan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology] (MK), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (BBSRC) |
| Grant number: | #15300088 (MK), #22243043 (MK), #23120003 (MK), BB/G023069/1 (BBSRC) |
| URI: | https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/65926/ |
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