Abstract Ancient writers, including Socrates and the Upanishads, argued that sibilants are associated with the notions of wind, air and sky. From modern perspectives, these statements can be understood as an assertion about sound symbolism, i.e., systematic connections between sounds and meanings. Inspired by these writers, this article reports on an experiment that tests a sound symbolic value of sibilants. The experiment is a case study situated within the Pokémonastics research paradigm, in which the researchers explore the sound symbolic patterns in natural languages using Pokémon names. The current experiment shows that when presented with pairs of a flying-type Pokémon character and a normal-type Pokémon character, Japanese speakers are more likely to associate the flying-type Pokémons with names that contain sibilants than those names that do not contain sibilants. As was pointed out by Socrates, the sound symbolic connection identified in the experiment is likely to be grounded in the articulatory properties of sibilants – the large amount of oral airflow that accompanies the production of sibilants. Various implications of the current experiment for the sound symbolism research are discussed throughout the article.

中文翻译：

---

Sibilants会飞吗？神奇宝贝名字中声音符号模式的证据

摘要包括苏格拉底和奥义书在内的古代作家认为，沉默与风，空气和天空的概念有关。从现代的角度来看，这些陈述可以理解为关于声音象征的断言，即声音和意义之间的系统联系。受这些作者的启发，本文报道了一项测试助听剂的声音象征价值的实验。该实验是一个案例研究，位于“神奇宝贝”研究范式之内，研究人员在其中使用神奇宝贝的名字探索自然语言中的声音符号模式。当前的实验表明，当展示一对飞行型神奇宝贝角色和普通型神奇宝贝角色时，与不包含助词的名称相比，日语使用者更倾向于将飞行型神奇宝贝与包含助词的名称相关联。正如苏格拉底指出的那样，实验中确定的声音符号联系可能是基于稳定剂的发音特性，即伴随产生稳定剂的大量口腔气流。整篇文章都讨论了当前实验对声音符号学研究的各种含义。