Haptic sound-symbolism in young Spanish-speaking children

Abstract

Haptic sound symbolism has been found in adults, between ideophones and various textures, between words and shape, and between written words and texture. However, associations between the sound of nonwords and features other than shape and in early stages of development have been less explored. The present study investigates the haptic manifestation of sound symbolism in an early developmental stage. We examined associations between nonwords and the rough-smooth tactile dimension in 3.5-to-4.5-year-old children. Two experiments were conducted: a pointing selection task and a naming task. Sound symbolic associations were found in the naming task, but not in the pointing task. On the other hand an unexpected bias towards smoothness was found in the pointing task. We explain these results by suggesting that the articulation of nonwords may facilitate or intensify sound symbolism, and that hedonic biases are manifested in the pointing task.