Experimental approaches to sound symbolism

Abstract This chapter explores the phenomenon of sound symbolism: associations between language sounds and particular perceptual and/or semantic properties. This is a specific form of iconicity in which spoken language can imitate non-sound properties. The most well-known example of this is the association between phonemes like those in maluma and round shapes and those in takete and spiky shapes. In particular, this chapter provides an overview of the different approaches that have been used to study sound symbolism and the insights they have each provided. This includes forced-choice tasks, implicit tasks, learning and memory tasks, developmental studies, cross-cultural studies, and studies with atypical populations. This chapter also reviews the ways in which researchers have explored the mechanisms at work in sound symbolism and the effects of sound symbolism in the processing of existing language. Several open questions and future directions are also reviewed.