Takete and Maluma in Action: A Cross-Modal Relationship between Gestures and Sounds

Abstract

Despite Saussure’s famous observation that sound-meaning relationships are in principle arbitrary, we now have a substantial body of evidence that sounds themselves can have meanings, patterns often referred to as “sound symbolism”. Previous studies have found that particular sounds can be associated with particular meanings, and also with particular static visual shapes. Less well studied is the association between sounds and dynamic movements. Using a free elicitation method, the current experiment shows that several sound symbolic associations between sounds and dynamic movements exist: (1) front vowels are more likely to be associated with small movements than with large movements; (2) front vowels are more likely to be associated with angular movements than with round movements; (3) obstruents are more likely to be associated with angular movements than with round movements; (4) voiced obstruents are more likely to be associated with large movements than with small movements. All of these results are compatible with the results of the previous studies of sound symbolism using static images or meanings. Overall, the current study supports the hypothesis that particular dynamic motions can be associated with particular sounds. Building on the current results, we discuss a possible practical application of these sound symbolic associations in sports instructions.

Action sound–shape congruencies explain sound symbolism

“…In his seminal book entitled “Gestalt Psychology”, Köhler 3 described the classic “maluma–takete” paradigm in which humans match a round figure to a ‘round’ sounding pseudoword, such as “maluma”, and a sharp figure to a ‘sharp’ sounding pseudoword such as “takete”, thus presupposing an abstract ‘resemblance’ between the otherwise meaningless symbol (pseudoword) and the corresponding shape, possibly based on shared modality general abstract properties. Many experimental studies confirmed Köhler’s example and demonstrated the postulated iconic speech-sound/meaning mappings across languages 4 – 6 , even at early age (for a meta-analysis see 7 ) and across stimulus modalities 8 , 9 . Furthermore, the ability to perform well on sound symbolic tasks has been related to word learning capacity in young children 10 – 12 .…”

“…It is worth mentioning that previous studies have already shown that, beyond sound-shape associations, round and sharp dynamic body movements can also be associated to "maluma" versus "takete" pseudowords 9 as well as to certain speech sounds 8 . Shinohara et al 8 reported that front vowels and obstruents are more likely to be associated to sharp than round dynamic gestures and demonstrate a further fact of abstract cross-modal sound symbolism. In this study, the takete-maluma-type sound symbolism is considered just one type of sound symbolism and the movement-phonemic links represent a different one, so that all of these cross-modal links are instantiations of "a general feature of our cognition".…”

Visual and Proprioceptive Perceptions Evoke Motion-Sound Symbolism: Different Acceleration Profiles Are Associated With Different Types of Consonants

“…While there is little doubt that previous studies on sound symbolism have provided important insights into human cognitive capacities, some issues remain underexplored. To our knowledge, only a few experimental studies have explored sound symbolic associations with dynamic motions ( Cuskley, 2013 ; Koppensteiner et al, 2016 ; Shinohara et al, 2016 ).…”

“…More recently, Koppensteiner et al (2016) demonstrated that visual perception of dynamic gestures and consonant sounds can have the same sound-symbolic associations as the case of static round vs. angular shapes. Shinohara et al (2016) also employed visual stimuli of dynamic gestures tracing round vs. angular shapes to demonstrate that obstruent consonants tend to be associated with angular motions while sonorant consonants tend to be associated with round motions. All of these studies have demonstrated that dynamic motions can have sound-symbolic effects, showing that specific kinematic features of moving objects, such as trajectory, amplitude, and velocity, can be mapped onto particular types of sounds.…”

Heaviness-brightness correspondence and stimulus-response compatibility

“…Equally significant is the encouragement to extend the relevance of correspondences to situations where movements of the body, without the involvement of an object, can more or less successfully communicate simple concepts, such as brightness, according to the degree to which they accord with a relevant cross-sensory correspondence. For example, hand gestures that are more elevated in space, smaller in extent, or quicker, might be especially effective for communicating the relative brightness and sharpness of an object, or the relative pitch of a sound (see Shinohara, Yamauchi, Kawahara, & Tanaka, 2016, for a demonstration close to this).…”