University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
Bocconi University, Italy.
Cognition. 2018 Jun;175:122-130. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.007. Epub 2018 Mar 16.
Rapidly communicating the emotional valence of stimuli (i.e., negativity or positivity) is vital for averting dangers and acquiring rewards. We therefore hypothesized that human languages signal emotions via individual phonemes (emotional sound symbolism), and more specifically that the phonemes at the beginning of the word signal its valence, as this would maximize the receiver's time to respond adaptively. Analyzing approximately 37,000 words across five different languages (English, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Polish), we found emotional sound symbolism in all five languages, and within each language the first phoneme of a word predicted its valence better than subsequent phonemes. Moreover, given that averting danger is more urgent than acquiring rewards, we further hypothesized and demonstrated that phonemes that are uttered most rapidly tend to convey negativity rather than positivity. Thus, emotional sound symbolism is an adaptation providing an early warning system in human languages, analogous to other species' alarm calls.
快速传达刺激的情绪效价（即消极或积极）对于避免危险和获得奖励至关重要。因此，我们假设人类语言通过单个音素来传达情绪，更具体地说，单词开头的音素会信号其效价，因为这将使接收者有最大的时间来做出适应性反应。我们分析了来自五种不同语言（英语、西班牙语、荷兰语、德语和波兰语）的大约 37000 个单词，发现所有五种语言都存在情感声音象征，并且在每种语言中，单词的第一个音素比后续音素更能预测其效价。此外，鉴于避免危险比获得奖励更为紧迫，我们进一步假设并证明，发音最快的音素往往传达负面情绪而不是正面情绪。因此，情感声音象征是一种适应，为人类语言提供了一个早期预警系统，类似于其他物种的警报叫声。
