The comprehension of synesthetic expressions with onomatopeic words

Abstract

Synesthetic expressions combine words that belong to different sensory modalities. It is known that the understanding of synesthetic expressions is influenced by how the modalities are combined. However, expressions that use onomatopoeic words have not been examined to date, even though onomatopoeic words are synesthetic words. The present study examines comprehensible combinations of sensory modalities within synesthetic expressions that employ onomatopoeic words. In Experiment 1, the participants were asked to evaluate the sensory relevances of 47 onomatopoeic words. The results indicate that 39 of the onomatopoeic words are related to one of the five modalities (vision, hearing, touch, taste, and olfaction). In Experiment 2, the participants were asked to evaluate the degree to which 195 synesthetic expressions were comprehensible. The results indicate that, in principle, modification of high-modal words by lower-modal words can be understood. In addition, hearing was found to be independent of the other modalities within the structure of modification.