Exploring the Positional Effects in Sound Symbolism: The Case of Hardness Judgments by English and Japanese Speakers

Abstract

Sound symbolism refers to the systematic and iconic relationships between sounds and meanings. While the research on this topic is growing rapidly, one issue that is understudied in the literature is whether segments in psycholinguistically salient positions (e.g., word-initial position) exhibit stronger sound–symbolic effects. We report two experiments that, together, show Japanese speakers are more sensitive to the sound–symbolic values of segments in initial syllables, whereas English speakers, rather surprisingly, are more sensitive to the sound–symbolic values of segments in final syllables. This cross-linguistic difference is intriguing, and we believe it opens up opportunities for future experimentation.