Japanese Sound-Symbolism Facilitates Word Learning in English-Speaking Children
Cognitive Science 35 (3):575-586 (2011)
| Abstract | 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 | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesHenrik Saalbach, Mutsumi Imai & Lennart Schalk (2012). Grammatical Gender and Inferences About Biological Properties in German-Speaking Children. Cognitive Science 36 (7):1251-1267.
Takashi Koizumi (1989). The Attitudes of Japanese Children and the Effects of Parental Behaviour. Journal of Moral Education 18 (3):218-231.
Brian Butterworth & Robert Reeve (2008). Verbal Counting and Spatial Strategies in Numerical Tasks: Evidence From Indigenous Australia. Philosophical Psychology 21 (4):443 – 457.
Felix Ahlner & Jordan Zlatev (2010). Cross-Modal Iconicity. Sign Systems Studies 38 (1-4):298-346.
Walter J. Ong (1967/1981). The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History. University of Minnesota Press.
Sung-Joo Lim & Lori L. Holt (2011). Learning Foreign Sounds in an Alien World: Videogame Training Improves Non-Native Speech Categorization. Cognitive Science 35 (7):1390-1405.
Ann Dowker, Sheila Bala & Delyth Lloyd (2008). Linguistic Influences on Mathematical Development: How Important is the Transparency of the Counting System? Philosophical Psychology 21 (4):523 – 538.
Paul Bloom (2001). Précis of How Children Learn the Meanings of Words. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (6):1095-1103.
Letitia R. Naigles (2001). Why Theories of Word Learning Don't Always Work as Theories of Verb Learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (6):1113-1114.
Erik Doxtader (2011). Addressing Animals. Philosophy and Rhetoric 44 (1):79-80.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-02-01Total downloads5 ( #160,428 of 549,119 )Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
