Novel vocalizations are understood across cultures
Aleksandra Ćwiek
(1)
,
Susanne Fuchs
,
Christoph Draxler
,
Eva Liina Asu
,
Dan Dediu
(2)
,
Katri Hiovain
,
Shigeto Kawahara
,
Sofia Koutalidis
,
Manfred Krifka
,
Pärtel Lippus
,
Gary Lupyan
,
Grace E Oh
,
Jing Paul
,
Caterina Petrone
(3)
,
Rachid Ridouane
(4)
,
Sabine Reiter
,
Nathalie Schümchen
,
Ádám Szalontai
,
Özlem Ünal-Logacev
,
Jochen Zeller
,
Bodo Winter
,
Marcus Perlman
Susanne Fuchs
- Fonction : Auteur
Christoph Draxler
- Fonction : Auteur
Eva Liina Asu
- Fonction : Auteur
Dan Dediu
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 170980
- IdHAL : ddediu
- ORCID : 0000-0002-0704-6365
- IdRef : 241404002
Katri Hiovain
- Fonction : Auteur
Shigeto Kawahara
- Fonction : Auteur
Sofia Koutalidis
- Fonction : Auteur
Manfred Krifka
- Fonction : Auteur
Pärtel Lippus
- Fonction : Auteur
Gary Lupyan
- Fonction : Auteur
Grace E Oh
- Fonction : Auteur
Jing Paul
- Fonction : Auteur
Caterina Petrone
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 172400
- IdHAL : caterina-petrone
- IdRef : 156862794
Rachid Ridouane
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 839649
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5938-2125
- IdRef : 077727533
Sabine Reiter
- Fonction : Auteur
Nathalie Schümchen
- Fonction : Auteur
Ádám Szalontai
- Fonction : Auteur
Özlem Ünal-Logacev
- Fonction : Auteur
Jochen Zeller
- Fonction : Auteur
Bodo Winter
- Fonction : Auteur
Marcus Perlman
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 760432
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1269-3882
Résumé
Linguistic communication requires speakers to mutually agree on the meanings of words, but how does such a system first get off the ground? One solution is to rely on iconic gestures: visual signs whose form directly resembles or otherwise cues their meaning without any previously established correspondence. However, it is debated whether vocalizations could have played a similar role. We report the first extensive cross-cultural study investigating whether people from diverse linguistic backgrounds can understand novel vocalizations for a range of meanings. In two comprehension experiments, we tested whether vocalizations produced by English speakers could be understood by listeners from 28 languages from 12 language families. Listeners from each language were more accurate than chance at guessing the intended referent of the vocalizations for each of the meanings tested. Our findings challenge the often-cited idea that vocalizations have limited potential for iconic representation, demonstrating that in the absence of words people can use vocalizations to communicate a variety of meanings.
Domaines
LinguistiqueFormat du dépôt | Fichier |
---|---|
Type de dépôt | Article dans une revue |
Titre |
en
Novel vocalizations are understood across cultures
|
Résumé |
en
Linguistic communication requires speakers to mutually agree on the meanings of words, but how does such a system first get off the ground? One solution is to rely on iconic gestures: visual signs whose form directly resembles or otherwise cues their meaning without any previously established correspondence. However, it is debated whether vocalizations could have played a similar role. We report the first extensive cross-cultural study investigating whether people from diverse linguistic backgrounds can understand novel vocalizations for a range of meanings. In two comprehension experiments, we tested whether vocalizations produced by English speakers could be understood by listeners from 28 languages from 12 language families. Listeners from each language were more accurate than chance at guessing the intended referent of the vocalizations for each of the meanings tested. Our findings challenge the often-cited idea that vocalizations have limited potential for iconic representation, demonstrating that in the absence of words people can use vocalizations to communicate a variety of meanings.
|
Auteur(s) |
Aleksandra Ćwiek
1
, Susanne Fuchs
, Christoph Draxler
, Eva Liina Asu
, Dan Dediu
2
, Katri Hiovain
, Shigeto Kawahara
, Sofia Koutalidis
, Manfred Krifka
, Pärtel Lippus
, Gary Lupyan
, Grace E Oh
, Jing Paul
, Caterina Petrone
3
, Rachid Ridouane
4
, Sabine Reiter
, Nathalie Schümchen
, Ádám Szalontai
, Özlem Ünal-Logacev
, Jochen Zeller
, Bodo Winter
, Marcus Perlman
1
IDSL -
Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Linguistik
( 95237 )
- Dorotheenstraße 24, 10099 Berlin
- Allemagne
2
DDL -
Dynamique Du Langage
( 740 )
- INSTITUT DES SCIENCES DE L'HOMME 14 Avenue Berthelot 69363 LYON CEDEX 07
- France
3
LPL -
Laboratoire Parole et Langage
( 199923 )
- Laboratoire Parole et Langage
CNRS - Aix Marseille Université
5 avenue Pasteur
13100 Aix-en-Provence
- France
4
LPP -
LPP - Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie - UMR 7018
( 986 )
- Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Maison de la Recherche
4, rue des Irlandais
75005 PARIS
- France
|
Date de publication |
2021
|
Date de publication électronique |
2021-05-12
|
Page/Identifiant |
10108
|
Langue du document |
Anglais
|
Nom de la revue |
|
Vulgarisation |
Non
|
Comité de lecture |
Oui
|
Audience |
Internationale
|
Volume |
11
|
Domaine(s) |
|
DOI | 10.1038/s41598-021-89445-4 |
Origine :
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