Pokémonikers: A study of sound symbolism and Pokémon names

Sound symbolism flouts the core assumption of the arbitrariness of the sign in human language. The cross-linguistic prevalence of sound symbolism raises key questions about the universality versus language-specificity of sound symbolic correspondences. One challenge to studying cross-linguistic sound symbolic patterns is the difficulty of holding constant real-world referents across cultures. In this study, we address the challenge of cross-linguistic comparison by utilising a rich, cross-linguistic dataset drawn from the Pokémon game franchise. Within this controlled universe, we compare the sound symbolisms of Japanese and English Pokémon names (pokemonikers). Our results show a tendency in both languages to encode the same attributes with sound symbolism, but also reveal key differences rooted in language-specific structural and lexical constraints

The Processing and Structure of Kanji and their Implications for Kanji Acquisition: a Theoretical Approach to Kanji Literacy

<p>The following paper approaches the topic of learning Japanese logographic characters, known as kanji, from the perspectives of both linguistic processing and second language acquisition. Three existing methods of kanji learning are analyzed in relation to four proposed key criteria of kanji literacy, and research on kanji structure and processing are synthesized to achieve a stronger understanding of the relationships between kanji, the Japanese language, and literacy. Finally, the information from the first two sections is tied together and a novel method of kanji learning, which is consistent with the results and evidence regarding kanji learning and kanji processing, is proposed.</p

Efficient use of ambiguity in an early writing system:Evidence from Sumerian cuneiform

Ambiguity has often been viewed as a hindrance to communi-cation. In contrast, Piantadosi et al. (2012) argued that ambi-guity may be useful in that it allows communication to be ef-ficient, and they found support for this argument in the spokenforms of modern English, Dutch, and German. The historicalorigins of this phenomenon cannot be probed in the case of spo-ken language, but they can for written language, as it leaves anenduring trace. Here, we explore ambiguity and efficiency inone of the earliest known written forms of language: Sumeriancuneiform. Sumerian cuneiform exhibits extensive ambiguity,and for that reason it has been considered to be poorly suited forcommunication. We find, however, that ambiguity in Sumeriancuneiform supports efficient communication, mirroring the ear-lier findings for spoken English, Dutch, and German. Thus, theearly stages of human writing exhibit evidence suggesting pres-sure for communicative efficiency

Natural concepts” revisited in the spatial-topological domain:Universal tendencies in focal spatial relations

It has long been noted that the best examples, or foci, ofcolor categories tend to align across diverse languages (Berlin&amp; Kay, 1969)—but there is limited documentation of suchuniversal foci in other semantic domains. Here, we explorewhether spatial topological categories, such as “in” and “on”in English, have focal members comparable to those in color.We document names and best examples of topological spatialrelations in Dutch, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Man-darin Chinese, and Spanish, and find substantial consensus,both within and across languages, on the best examples of suchspatial categories. Our results provide empirical evidence forfocal best examples in the spatial domain and contribute fur-ther support for a theory of “natural concepts” in this domain.Keywords: Language and thought; spatial cognition; cate-gories; semantic universals.The central role of fociFor decades, discussions of natural language categories suchas “dog” or “blue” have emphasized prototypes, family re-semblance, and fuzzy sets—all notions specifying relationsbetween central cases and boundaries, and recognizing gra-dation in category membership. An especially well-studiedand debated case is that of focal colors, or best examplesof color categories (e.g. Berlin &amp; Kay, 1969; Heider, 1972;Kay &amp; McDaniel, 1978; Roberson et al., 2000; Regier etal., 2005; Abbott et al., 2016). Despite the ongoing debate,there is broad consensus that such best examples of color cat-egories often (but not always) align across languages, andthat languages sometimes have composite categories appar-ently organized around multiple foci—for example a com-posite green-blue or “grue” category.Despite the attention given to focal colors, studies of cate-gorization and semantic typology in many other semantic do-mains have not emphasized category best examples as promi-nently, but have instead tended to characterize categories assets, such that an exemplar may simply be a member of thecategory or not. Within the domain of spatial topological re-lations, previous work has drawn on extensional patterns innaming as evidence for central exemplars and core meaningsof categories like “in” and “on” (e.g., Levinson et al., 2003;Johannes, Wang, Papafragou, &amp; Landau, 2015; Johannes,Wilson, &amp; Landau, 2016; Landau, Johannes, Skordos, &amp; Pa-pafragou, 2017), but without directly querying speakers aboutbest examples per se. Here, we employ empirical best ex-ample data to provide a long-overdue response to a call byFeist (2000: 236) to determine whether spatial relational cat-egories, like colors, have focal members.In what follows, we review key findings on focal colorsand their relationship to color category semantics. We thendescribe parallels to color in the domain of spatial topologicalrelations, and summarize an account (Levinson et al., 2003)of focal spatial relations that was developed and evaluatedon the basis of spatial naming data, but without groundingin empirical best examples. We then present our study, whichreexamines the hypotheses of this previous account using em-pirical best example data from seven languages. We explor

“Natural concepts” revisited in the spatial-topological domain: Universal tendencies in focal spatial relations

It has long been noted that the best examples, or foci, ofcolor categories tend to align across diverse languages (Berlin&amp; Kay, 1969)—but there is limited documentation of suchuniversal foci in other semantic domains. Here, we explorewhether spatial topological categories, such as “in” and “on”in English, have focal members comparable to those in color.We document names and best examples of topological spatialrelations in Dutch, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Man-darin Chinese, and Spanish, and find substantial consensus,both within and across languages, on the best examples of suchspatial categories. Our results provide empirical evidence forfocal best examples in the spatial domain and contribute fur-ther support for a theory of “natural concepts” in this domain.Keywords: Language and thought; spatial cognition; cate-gories; semantic universals.The central role of fociFor decades, discussions of natural language categories suchas “dog” or “blue” have emphasized prototypes, family re-semblance, and fuzzy sets—all notions specifying relationsbetween central cases and boundaries, and recognizing gra-dation in category membership. An especially well-studiedand debated case is that of focal colors, or best examplesof color categories (e.g. Berlin &amp; Kay, 1969; Heider, 1972;Kay &amp; McDaniel, 1978; Roberson et al., 2000; Regier etal., 2005; Abbott et al., 2016). Despite the ongoing debate,there is broad consensus that such best examples of color cat-egories often (but not always) align across languages, andthat languages sometimes have composite categories appar-ently organized around multiple foci—for example a com-posite green-blue or “grue” category.Despite the attention given to focal colors, studies of cate-gorization and semantic typology in many other semantic do-mains have not emphasized category best examples as promi-nently, but have instead tended to characterize categories assets, such that an exemplar may simply be a member of thecategory or not. Within the domain of spatial topological re-lations, previous work has drawn on extensional patterns innaming as evidence for central exemplars and core meaningsof categories like “in” and “on” (e.g., Levinson et al., 2003;Johannes, Wang, Papafragou, &amp; Landau, 2015; Johannes,Wilson, &amp; Landau, 2016; Landau, Johannes, Skordos, &amp; Pa-pafragou, 2017), but without directly querying speakers aboutbest examples per se. Here, we employ empirical best ex-ample data to provide a long-overdue response to a call byFeist (2000: 236) to determine whether spatial relational cat-egories, like colors, have focal members.In what follows, we review key findings on focal colorsand their relationship to color category semantics. We thendescribe parallels to color in the domain of spatial topologicalrelations, and summarize an account (Levinson et al., 2003)of focal spatial relations that was developed and evaluatedon the basis of spatial naming data, but without groundingin empirical best examples. We then present our study, whichreexamines the hypotheses of this previous account using em-pirical best example data from seven languages. We explor