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Part of
The Language of Food in Japanese: Cognitive perspectives and beyond
Edited by Kiyoko Toratani
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 25] 2022
► pp. 79–110

Chapter 3
The sound-symbolic effects of consonants on food texture

An experimental study of snack names in Japanese

| Kansai University
| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
| Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

This study explores the sound-symbolic effects of Japanese consonants on image of food textures. Our experiment tested whether voiced vs. voiceless plosives, at various places of articulation, could affect participants’ image of the hardness of a snack. The results revealed that both voicing and place of articulation had effects and that voicing had a stronger effect. Our results support the explanation of sound symbolism based on embodied motivation, as discussed in Cognitive Linguistics. Regarding the voicing of obstruents, the acoustic account cannot explain our results, while the articulatory and the lexical accounts are compatible with them. Regarding the place of articulation, all three accounts can explain our results. These findings can provide insights for food product marketing and related fields.

Keywords: voicing in plosives, obstruents, place of articulation, hardness, experimental approach, phonetics, embodiment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Sound-symbolic phenomena in the language of Japanese food
    • 1.1Background and research focus
    • 1.2Research history of sound symbolism
    • 1.3Sound symbolism in snack names
  • 2.Experiment
    • 2.1Hypotheses tested
    • 2.2Method
      • 2.2.1Materials
      • 2.2.2Participants
      • 2.2.3Procedure
    • 2.3Results
  • 3.Discussion
    • 3.1Comparison of the factors influencing the image of hardness of food
    • 3.2Motivations for sound-symbolic associations
      • 3.2.1Motivations for sound symbolism: Acoustic, articulatory, and lexical explanations
      • 3.2.2Motivations for the sound-symbolic effect of voicing
      • 3.2.3Motivations for the sound-symbolic effect of place of articulation
  • 4.Conclusions and implications
    • 4.1Conclusions
    • 4.2Implications for further studies
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.25.03kum
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