Sound–meaning association biases evidenced across thousands of languages
University of Zurich · Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences · +7 more institutions
Abstract
It is widely assumed that one of the fundamental properties of spoken language is the arbitrary relation between sound and meaning. Some exceptions in the form of nonarbitrary associations have been documented in linguistics, cognitive science, and anthropology, but these studies only involved small subsets of the 6,000+ languages spoken in the world today. By analyzing word lists covering nearly two-thirds of the world's languages, we demonstrate that a considerable proportion of 100 basic vocabulary items carry strong associations with specific kinds of human speech sounds, occurring persistently across continents and linguistic lineages (linguistic families or isolates). Prominently among these relations,…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 836.42
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 58
Authors
5- DEDamián E. BlasíCorresponding
University of Zurich, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
- SWSøren Wichmann
Leiden University, Kazan Federal University
- HHHarald Hammarström
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
- PFPeter F. Stadler
Santa Fe Institute, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig University
- MHMorten H. Christiansen
Aarhus University, Cornell University
Topics & keywords
- Linguistics
- Meaning (existential)
- Association (psychology)
- Vocabulary
- Psychology
- Language evolution
- Word Association
- Relation (database)
- Quality Education