Size sound symbolism in the English lexicon

Experimental and cross-linguistic evidence suggests that certain speech sounds are associated with size, especially high front vowels ‘small’ low back ‘large’. However, empirical statistically magnitude across words within a language has been mixed open to methodological critique. Here, we used random-forest analysis of near-exhaustive set English size adjectives (e.g.,tiny, gargantuan) determine whether the lexicon is characterized by size-symbolic patterns. We show sound structure highly predictive semantic in adjectives, most strongly for phonemes /ɪ/, /i/, /ɑ/, /t/. In comparison, an much larger more than 2,500 general vocabulary rated finds no symbolism, thereby suggesting symbolism restricted adjectives. Our findings first demonstration statistical property lexicon.