Recent work has argued that sound symbolism plays a much larger part in language than previously believed, given the assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign. A slate of recent papers on Pokémonastics, for example, has found sound symbolic associations to be rampant in Pokémon names cross-linguistically. In this paper, we explore a real-world dataset that parallels Pokémon, in which human players similarly have physical attributes of weight, height, and power: Major League Baseball. We investigated phonological correlations between baseball player statistics and their given first names, chosen baseball-official first names, and baseball nicknames. We found numerous sound symbolic associations in player-chosen names and nicknames, where conscious design may play a role in choosing a name that communicates an attribute. These associations were often mediated by language-specific hypocoristic formation processes. We conclude that sound symbolism occurs in real-world naming practices, but only when names are chosen in cognizance of the relevant attributes.

最近的工作认为，考虑到符号的任意性，声音象征在语言中的作用比以前认为的要大得多。关于神奇宝贝的最新论文例如，发现跨语言的神奇宝贝名称中声音符号关联非常普遍。在本文中，我们探索了一个与Pokémon相似的现实世界数据集，其中人类玩家同样具有体重，身高和力量的物理属性：美国职业棒球大联盟。我们调查了棒球运动员统计信息与他们给定的名字，选定的棒球官员的名字以及棒球的昵称之间的语音相关性。我们在玩家选择的名字和昵称中发现了许多声音符号关联，在这种情况下，有意识的设计可能会在选择传达属性的名字时发挥作用。这些关联通常是由特定语言的低皮质形成过程介导的。我们得出结论，在现实世界的命名实践中会出现声音象征意义，