Bouba/Kiki in Touch: Associations Between Tactile Perceptual Qualities and Japanese Phonemes

Abstract

Several studies have shown cross-modal associations between sounds and vision or gustation by asking participants to match pre-defined sound-symbolic words (SSWs), such as “bouba” or “kiki,” with visual or gustatory materials. Here, we conducted an explorative study on cross-modal associations of tactile sensations using spontaneous production of Japanese SSWs and semantic ratings. The Japanese language was selected, because it has a large number of SSWs that can represent a wide range of tactile perceptual spaces with fine resolution, and it shows strong associations between sound and touch. In the experiment, we used 120 everyday materials to cover basic material categories that could be associated with fundamental dimensions of tactile perception. Upon contact with these materials, participants expressed their tactile sensations by using Japanese SSWs, and at the same time, evaluated the tactile sensations by semantic differential scales using adjective pairs. Thanks to the variety of testing materials, we were able to demonstrate the existence of systematic associations between sounds and tactile fundamental perceptual dimensions in a more detailed and comprehensive way than ever done so before. In particular, we found that for vowels, positive tactile ratings were associated with the back vowel (/u/), while negative ratings were associated with the front vowels (/i/ and /e/). The central vowels (/o/ and /a/) were mainly associated with rough, hard, and dry feelings. Consonants were categorized based on vocal features and articulation. The category of the voiced consonants (e.g., /dz/ and /g/) corresponded to feelings of roughness, while that of voiceless consonants (e.g., /ʦ/, and /s/) corresponded to feelings of smoothness. The categories of the bilabial plosive (/p/ and /b/) and voiced alveolar nasal (/n/) consonants were mainly related to soft, sticky and wet feelings, while that of voiceless alveolar affricate (/ʦ/) and voiceless velar plosive (/k/) consonants were related to hard, slippery and dry feelings.

Sensory Linguistics

“…For example, in size sound symbolism, high and front vowels, such as /i/, are associated with small objects or animals; low and back vowels are associated with large objects or animals (Berlin, 2006;Diffloth, 1994;Fitch, 1994, Appendix 1;Marchand, 1959, p. 146;Ohala, 1984Ohala, , 1994Sapir, 1929;Thompson & Estes, 2011;Tsur, 2006Ultan, 1978). Phonological iconicity has also been established for other sensory qualities, including visually perceived speed of motion (Cuskley, 2013), luminance (Hirata, Ukita, & Kita, 2011), taste Gallace, Boschin, & Spence, 2011;Ngo, Misra, & Spence, 2011;Sakamoto & Watanabe, 2016;Simner, Cuskley, & Kirby, 2010), and texture (Etzi, Spence, Zampini, & Gallace, 2016;Fontana, 2013;Fryer, Freeman, & Pring, 2014;Sakamoto & Watanabe, 2018).…”

“…Some languages have thousands of ideophones, such as Japanese, which has ideophones such as sara-sara for smooth surfaces, zara-zara for rough surfaces, puru-puru for soft surfaces, kachi-kachi for hard surfaces, gorogorogoro for 'rolling', and pikapika for 'shiny' (Kita, 1997;Sakamoto & Watanabe, 2018;Watanabe, Utsunomiya, Tsukurimichi, & Sakamoto, 2012, p. 2518). Nakagawa (2012) describes a group of 32 "food texture verbs" in the Khoe language G|ui that describe mouthfeel by mimicking chewing sounds.…”

System to quantify the impression of sounds expressed by onomatopoeias

“…Compared with other languages, Japanese has a large number of onomatopoeic words for tactile sensations, and associations between the phonemes of Japanese onomatopoeic words and typical categories of tactile sensations can be observed [4]. Most Japanese onomatopoeias (SSWs) expressing tactile sensations consist of two-syllable repetitions (C1V1C2V2-C1V1C2V2, where C and V indicate a consonant and vowel, respectively, e.g., ''sara-sara''), and the sound of the first syllable (C1V1, e.g., ''sa'' for ''sarasara'') is strongly associated with evaluations of tactile sensations.…”

Haptic sound-symbolism in young Spanish-speaking children

“…Sakamoto and Watanabe [38] found tactile associations in Japanese ideophones. Using 120 different materials as tactile stimuli, participants were asked to express their sensations using Japanese ideophones in relation with dimensions such as comfort/discomfort, bumpy/flat, rough/smooth, hard/soft, non-elastic/elastic, slippery/sticky, dry/moist, and warm/cold.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, the studies of Fryer et al [39], Etzi et al [40], and Domínguez-Gallegos [41] are the only studies reporting evidence for haptic sound symbolism with nonwords ([38,42] study ideophones). The present study explores an auditory-tactile association not previously addressed, and it does so in young children, in an early developmental stage.…”