Percentage of Round Choices by Name Type and Gender in Experiment 1b.

<p>The percentage of trials on which participants selected the round silhouette as the best match for round-sounding and sharp-sounding, female and male names. Error bars reflect 95% confidence intervals computed using the method outlined by Cousineau [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0126809#pone.0126809.ref031" target="_blank">31</a>] to remove between-subject variability.</p

Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a round name selection.

<p>** <i>p</i> < .01,</p><p>*** <i>p</i> < .001</p><p><i>N</i> = 620; log-likelihood = –423.01; AIC = 850.02</p><p>Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a round name selection.</p

Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a congruent name selection.

<p>** <i>p</i> < .01</p><p><i>N</i> = 620; log-likelihood = –419.93; AIC = 849.85</p><p>Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a congruent name selection.</p

Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a round silhouette selection.

<p>**<i>p</i> < .01,</p><p>*** <i>p</i> < .001</p><p><i>N</i> = 680; log-likelihood = –412.44; AIC = 834.88</p><p>Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a round silhouette selection.</p

What’s in a Name? Sound Symbolism and Gender in First Names

<div><p>Although the arbitrariness of language has been considered one of its defining features, studies have demonstrated that certain phonemes tend to be associated with certain kinds of meaning. A well-known example is the Bouba/Kiki effect, in which nonwords like <i>bouba</i> are associated with round shapes while nonwords like <i>kiki</i> are associated with sharp shapes. These sound symbolic associations have thus far been limited to nonwords. Here we tested whether or not the Bouba/Kiki effect extends to existing lexical stimuli; in particular, real first names. We found that the roundness/sharpness of the phonemes in first names impacted whether the names were associated with round or sharp shapes in the form of character silhouettes (Experiments 1a and 1b). We also observed an association between femaleness and round shapes, and maleness and sharp shapes. We next investigated whether this association would extend to the features of language and found the proportion of round-sounding phonemes was related to name gender (Analysis of Category Norms). Finally, we investigated whether sound symbolic associations for first names would be observed for other abstract properties; in particular, personality traits (Experiment 2). We found that adjectives previously judged to be either descriptive of a figuratively ‘round’ or a ‘sharp’ personality were associated with names containing either round- or sharp-sounding phonemes, respectively. These results demonstrate that sound symbolic associations extend to existing lexical stimuli, providing a new example of non-arbitrary mappings between form and meaning.</p></div

Lonely sensational icons: semantic neighbourhood density, sensory experience and iconicity

<p>Perry, Perlman, and Lupyan (2015. Iconicity in English and Spanish and its relation to lexical category and age of acquisition. <i>PLoS One</i>, <i>10</i>, e0137147. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137147" target="_blank">10.1371/journal.pone.0137147</a>) found that a sample of English words was rated as being slightly iconic, on average, with words varying in their iconicity. Thus, the relationship between word form and meaning does not seem to be categorically arbitrary. We investigated factors that might explain variation in iconicity: specifically, that concepts with sparser semantic neighbourhoods have more iconic word forms, and that concepts with more sensory information are more likely to have iconic word forms (as in Winter, Perlman, Perry, & Lupyan, in press. Which words are the most iconic? Iconicity in English sensory words. <i>Interaction Studies</i>. Retrieved from http://sapir.psych.wisc.edu/papers/winter_perlman_perry_lupyan_interaction-studies.pdf), even after accounting for age of acquisition (AoA; Kuperman, Stadthagen-Gonzalez, & Brysbaert, 2012. Age-of-acquisition ratings for 30,000 English words. <i>Behavior Research Methods</i>, <i>44</i>, 978–990. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0210-4" target="_blank">10.3758/s13428-012-0210-4</a>). We found support for both predictions: words with sparser semantic neighbourhoods (ARC; Shaoul & Westbury, 2010. Exploring lexical co-occurrence space using HiDEx. <i>Behavior Research Methods</i>, <i>42</i>, 393–413. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/Brm.42.2.393" target="_blank">10.3758/Brm.42.2.393</a>), and greater associated sensory experience (SER; Juhasz & Yap, 2013. Sensory experience ratings for over 5,000 mono-and disyllabic words. <i>Behavior Research Methods</i>, <i>45</i>, 160–168. doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0242-9" target="_blank">10.3758/s13428-012-0242-9</a>), were more iconic, even after accounting for AoA. ARC was also found to moderate SER. These results further our appreciation of iconicity as a general property of the lexicon.</p

Summary of the logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a name being female.

<p>*<i>p</i> < .05,</p><p>**<i>p</i> < .01</p><p><i>N</i> = 100; log-likelihood = –63.61; AIC = 133.22</p><p>Summary of the logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a name being female.</p

Percentage of Round Choices by Adjective Type and Name Pair Gender in Experiment 2.

<p>The percentage of trials on which participants selected the round-sounding name as the best match for a metaphorically-round or a metaphorically-sharp adjective, when the trial included female or male names. Error bars reflect 95% confidence intervals computed using the method outlined by Cousineau [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0126809#pone.0126809.ref031" target="_blank">31</a>] to remove between-subject variability.</p

Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a congruent silhouette selection.

<p>* <i>p</i> < .05</p><p><i>N</i> = 680; log-likelihood = –416.84; AIC = 849.69</p><p>Summary of logistic regression predicting the likelihood of a congruent silhouette selection.</p

Percentage of Round-Sounding and Sharp-Sounding Consonants in Typical Names.

<p>The percentage of round-sounding and sharp-sounding consonant phonemes within either typical female or male names. Error bars reflect 95% confidence intervals computed using the method outlined by Cousineau [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0126809#pone.0126809.ref031" target="_blank">31</a>] to remove between-item variability.</p