Abstract Iconicity is a resemblance between form and meaning grounded in perceptuo-motor analogy. In speech, iconicity is understood as words “sounding like what they mean.” Studies on English and Spanish use ratings to identify words speakers consider iconic. Perry et al. (2015) show that English onomatopoeia are rated highest, followed by adjectives/verbs > nouns > function words. Our study replicates this for Japanese but, owing to additional variables, yields more nuanced findings. Word-class aside, Japanese speakers are more likely to rate words as iconic if they are an (1) ideophone > (2) Yamato/native prosaic word > or (3) non-Yamato prosaic word. For comparison, we reanalyzed English ratings from Perry et al. (2015), and found neither strata (Germanic, Latinate, French) nor historically iconic etymology had a significant effect. With these factors in mind, we propose that ratings reflect a word’s relationship to sensory information rather than iconicity.

中文翻译：

---

日语词典中的象似性评级：与英语的对比研究

摘要象似性是基于知觉运动类比的形式与意义之间的相似之处。在言语中，象似性被理解为“听起来像他们的意思”这样的词。有关英语和西班牙语的研究使用等级来识别说话者认为具有标志性的单词。佩里等。（2015年）表明，英语拟声词的等级最高，其次是形容词/动词>名词>功能词。我们的研究在日语中重复使用此方法，但由于存在其他变量，因此产生了更细微的发现。除了单词级别以外，如果日语发音者是（1）语音读音器>（2）Yamato /本地平庸单词>或（3）非Yamato平庸单词，则更有可能将单词评为标志性单词。为了进行比较，我们重新分析了Perry等人的英语评分。（2015年），发现地层（德语，拉丁语，法语）和历史上的标志词源学都没有显着影响。