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The Relationships Between Initial Consonants in Japanese Sound Symbolic Words and Familiarity, Multi-Sensory Imageability, Emotional Valence, and Arousal

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Abstract

Sound symbolic words consist of inevitable associations between sounds and meanings. We aimed to identify differences in familiarity, visual imageability, auditory imageability, tactile imageability, emotional valence, and arousal between Japanese sound symbolic words with voiced initial consonants (VCs; dakuon in Japanese; e.g., biribiri) and Japanese sound symbolic words with semi-voiced initial consonants (SVCs; handakuon in Japanese; e.g., piripiri), and between VCs (e.g., daradara) and Japanese sound symbolic words with voiceless initial consonants (VLCs; seion in Japanese; e.g., taratara). First, auditory imageability and arousal were significantly higher in VCs than SVCs, whereas familiarity, tactile imageability, and positive emotion (emotional valence) were significantly higher in SVCs than VCs. Second, visual imageability was higher in VCs than VLCs, while familiarity and positive emotion were higher in VLCs than VCs. Initial consonants in Japanese sound symbolic words could be associated with specific subjective evaluations such as familiarity, visual imageability, auditory imageability, tactile imageability, emotional valence, and arousal.

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Acknowledgements

The authors were supported by Hiroshima University Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (to TK), KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up (to TK), and KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (to TK and TU). This research was conducted as part of the School of Education Joint Research Project 2020 at Hiroshima University, and received research support from the School of Education. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, 1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 7398524, Japan

    Toshimune Kambara & Tomotaka Umemura

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  1. Toshimune Kambara
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  2. Tomotaka Umemura
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Correspondence to Toshimune Kambara.

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Kambara, T., Umemura, T. The Relationships Between Initial Consonants in Japanese Sound Symbolic Words and Familiarity, Multi-Sensory Imageability, Emotional Valence, and Arousal. J Psycholinguist Res 50, 831–842 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-020-09749-w

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