TY - JOUR
T1 - Japanese sound-symbolism facilitates word learning in English-speaking children
AU - Kantartzis, Katerina
AU - Imai, Mutsumi
AU - Kita, Sotaro
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011/4
Y1 - 2011/4
N2 - Sound-symbolism is the nonarbitrary link between the sound and meaning of a word. Japanese-speaking children performed better in a verb generalization task when they were taught novel sound-symbolic verbs, created based on existing Japanese sound-symbolic words, than novel nonsound-symbolic verbs (Imai, Kita, Nagumo, & Okada, 2008). A question remained as to whether the Japanese children had picked up regularities in the Japanese sound-symbolic lexicon or were sensitive to universal sound-symbolism. The present study aimed to provide support for the latter. In a verb generalization task, English-speaking 3-year-olds were taught novel sound-symbolic verbs, created based on Japanese sound-symbolism, or novel nonsound-symbolic verbs. English-speaking children performed better with the sound-symbolic verbs, just like Japanese-speaking children. We concluded that children are sensitive to universal sound-symbolism and can utilize it in word learning and generalization, regardless of their native language.
AB - Sound-symbolism is the nonarbitrary link between the sound and meaning of a word. Japanese-speaking children performed better in a verb generalization task when they were taught novel sound-symbolic verbs, created based on existing Japanese sound-symbolic words, than novel nonsound-symbolic verbs (Imai, Kita, Nagumo, & Okada, 2008). A question remained as to whether the Japanese children had picked up regularities in the Japanese sound-symbolic lexicon or were sensitive to universal sound-symbolism. The present study aimed to provide support for the latter. In a verb generalization task, English-speaking 3-year-olds were taught novel sound-symbolic verbs, created based on Japanese sound-symbolism, or novel nonsound-symbolic verbs. English-speaking children performed better with the sound-symbolic verbs, just like Japanese-speaking children. We concluded that children are sensitive to universal sound-symbolism and can utilize it in word learning and generalization, regardless of their native language.
KW - Language acquisition
KW - Language development
KW - Mimetics
KW - Sound-symbolism
KW - Verb
KW - Word learning
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01169.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01169.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79953059401
VL - 35
SP - 575
EP - 586
JO - Cognitive Science
JF - Cognitive Science
SN - 0364-0213
IS - 3
ER -