System to quantify the impression of sounds expressed by onomatopoeias

Abstract

Sounds can be expressed by onomatopoeias such as tick-tock and ding-dong, where we verbalize the perceived auditory information from environmental sound. Onomatopoeias, i.e., sound symbolic words, indicate linguistic forms closely related to environmental sounds. In recent years, some researchers have reported that onomatopoeias are implicated in affective aspects. Our research group has developed a system to quantify the affective impression or texture of environmental sounds expressed by onomatopoeias. Interestingly, our system can estimate not only sound impressions but also tactile or taste impressions expressed by onomatopoeias.