Let's test sound symbolism.

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Observer
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Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Observer »

The Bouba/Kiki effect fascinates me. I'm going to post several made-up words with three possible definitions each. I'd appreciate it if you'd post what you think the definition of each word should be, based solely on its sound. If you look at other peoples posts before you post, you may influence your decisions.

1. sverous [sv'ɛərɪs]
a. amicable
b. indifferent
c. rude

2. mara ['mɑɾɑ]
a. wood
b. metal
c. plastic

3. ghult ['gʌlt]
a. freed
b. guarded
c. captured

4. nur ['njuɾ]
a. sun
b. moon
c. star

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Hallow XIII »

-
Last edited by Hallow XIII on Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by WeepingElf »

1c, 2a, 3c, 4b
Last edited by WeepingElf on Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by cromulant »

Answers in white.
1b, 2a, 3c, 4c

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Boşkoventi »

1c, 2a, 3c, 4c
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Shrdlu »

1c 2a 3a 4a
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Haplogy »

1b 2a 3c 4b
I've always loved sound symbolism. It's quite fascinating, really.
Also, for anyone interested, my L1 is Dutch.
Last edited by Haplogy on Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Drydic »

Experiment ruined by first responder not blanking their answers.

And apparently not even reading the post.
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Hakaku »

1b, 2a, 3c, 4c
Chances are it's Ryukyuan (Resources).

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Lyhoko Leaci »

1c, 2a, 3c, 4b.
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by finlay »

Observer wrote:The Bouba/Kiki effect fascinates me. I'm going to post several made-up words with three possible definitions each. I'd appreciate it if you'd post what you think the definition of each word should be, based solely on its sound. If you look at other peoples posts before you post, you may influence your decisions.

1. sverous [sv'ɛərɪs]
a. amicable
b. indifferent
c. rude

2. mara ['mɑɾɑ]
a. wood
b. metal
c. plastic

3. ghult ['gʌlt]
a. freed
b. guarded
c. captured

4. nur ['njuɾ]
a. sun
b. moon
c. star
1c 2b 3c 4b

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by clawgrip »

1 c (sounds like severe)
2 a (or c, but not b)
3 c
4 a

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by finlay »

if you want to do an experiment like this, you need to check what the subject's native language is, otherwise your results will be negated because you can say "well it actually might be because of differing languages". to do this kind of test ideally you want native monolingual speakers of two particular languages so that you can compare and see if it's crosslinguistic. furthermore, if one group consistently comes up with an answer that another group doesn't, it's probably some other influence (for instance, clawgrip and myself both picked c for 1 because it sounds like another English word, although I thought it sounded like swear).

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Vuvuzela »

1c 2a 3b 4a

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Boşkoventi »

finlay wrote:if you want to do an experiment like this, you need to check what the subject's native language is, otherwise your results will be negated because you can say "well it actually might be because of differing languages". to do this kind of test ideally you want native monolingual speakers of two particular languages so that you can compare and see if it's crosslinguistic. furthermore, if one group consistently comes up with an answer that another group doesn't, it's probably some other influence (for instance, clawgrip and myself both picked c for 1 because it sounds like another English word, although I thought it sounded like swear).
Yeah, I thought about mentioning that 1) sounds like "severe", and ghult reminds me of "caught" / "captured". But I suspect this is a big part of sound symbolism anyway (i.e. association with related words).
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by finlay »

Naeboşkoventi wrote:
finlay wrote:if you want to do an experiment like this, you need to check what the subject's native language is, otherwise your results will be negated because you can say "well it actually might be because of differing languages". to do this kind of test ideally you want native monolingual speakers of two particular languages so that you can compare and see if it's crosslinguistic. furthermore, if one group consistently comes up with an answer that another group doesn't, it's probably some other influence (for instance, clawgrip and myself both picked c for 1 because it sounds like another English word, although I thought it sounded like swear).
Yeah, I thought about mentioning that 1) sounds like "severe", and ghult reminds me of "caught" / "captured". But I suspect this is a big part of sound symbolism anyway (i.e. association with related words).
No, the most surprising thing about bouba/kiki was that it holds across language boundaries extraordinarily consistently.

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by svld »

1b, 2a, 3c, 4b
2 is not plastic because it looks like a more basic word.
4 as moon might be influenced by English and Chinese.

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by tubragg »

1c 2a 3b 4b

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Click »

1. sverous [sv'ɛərɪs] c
2. mara ['mɑɾɑ] c
3. ghult ['gʌlt] c
4. nur ['njuɾ] b

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Observer »

finlay wrote:if you want to do an experiment like this, you need to check what the subject's native language is, otherwise your results will be negated because you can say "well it actually might be because of differing languages". to do this kind of test ideally you want native monolingual speakers of two particular languages so that you can compare and see if it's crosslinguistic. furthermore, if one group consistently comes up with an answer that another group doesn't, it's probably some other influence (for instance, clawgrip and myself both picked c for 1 because it sounds like another English word, although I thought it sounded like swear).
This is just for fun.
finlay wrote:
Naeboşkoventi wrote:
finlay wrote:if you want to do an experiment like this, you need to check what the subject's native language is, otherwise your results will be negated because you can say "well it actually might be because of differing languages". to do this kind of test ideally you want native monolingual speakers of two particular languages so that you can compare and see if it's crosslinguistic. furthermore, if one group consistently comes up with an answer that another group doesn't, it's probably some other influence (for instance, clawgrip and myself both picked c for 1 because it sounds like another English word, although I thought it sounded like swear).
Yeah, I thought about mentioning that 1) sounds like "severe", and ghult reminds me of "caught" / "captured". But I suspect this is a big part of sound symbolism anyway (i.e. association with related words).
No, the most surprising thing about bouba/kiki was that it holds across language boundaries extraordinarily consistently.
I find it interesting that autistic individuals assign a given name to a given shape nearly 50/50. This suggests that humans have a basic shared perceptual schema that autistic individuals lack.

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by finlay »

I tested it on some japanese folk today (my kid students and colleagues). They didn't know what the hell I was doing, but only one of them said it the "backwards" way. (out of 4 so not really "conclusive")

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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by cybrxkhan »

1a 2b 3b 4b
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Herr Dunkel »

Answers wrote:1b 2a 3b 4b
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Chagen »

1b 2a 3a 4b
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Re: Let's test sound symbolism.

Post by Nortaneous »

a a c b
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