Sound
symbolism refers to associations people make between certain language
sounds and perceptual and/or semantic features. For example, most agree
that sonorant consonants (e.g., /l/, /m/, n/) evoke associations of
roundness, while voiceless stop consonants (e.g., /p/, /t/, /k/) evoke
associations of sharpness. In recent studies we have shown that these
associations extend to personality, with either type of consonant
associated with certain personality factors from the HEXACO six factor
model of personality. I also discuss studies on the related phenomenon
of iconicity: instances in which the sound of a word resembles its
meaning, either directly (e.g., meow) or via association (e.g.,
balloon). We have found that these words tend to have a greater amount
of associated sensory experience, and smaller semantic neighbourhoods.
Iconic words are also processed faster, suggesting that iconicity plays
a role in the representation of word meaning. Together these studies
demonstrate new ways in which sound and meaning are related in language
.