Sound Symbolism and Early Word Learning in Two Languages

Verb learning seems especially difficult for children learning many languages, at least relative to nouns. Many have speculated because this is because verbs refer to relational events that are components of much more complex events. Consider a buying-selling event. If the child hears the verb “buy”, does it mean sell, get, handover, give money, or perhaps smile? By this view, a key problem in learning verb is parsing complex events into relevant components and then attending to the right components. This study presents evidence that parents use sound symbolism to direct children’s attention to the proper component and that children readily use that information when learning new verbs. The study specifically compares two languages that differ in their sound-symbolic words—Japanese language with its class of mimetics that are heavily used in speech to children and English language which is commonly considered to be a less sound symbolic language. The results indicate that both Japaneseand English-speaking parents use sound symbolism to teach verbs and that both children learning Japaneseand English benefit from this symbolism. This work provides new insight into verb learning, the nature of the input, and the universal aspects of sound symbolism in language use.