Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53703, USA
Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Proc Biol Sci. 2018 Mar 14;285(1874). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2709.
People have long pondered the evolution of language and the origin of words. Here, we investigate how conventional spoken words might emerge from imitations of environmental sounds. Does the repeated imitation of an environmental sound gradually give rise to more word-like forms? In what ways do these forms resemble the original sounds that motivated them (i.e. exhibit iconicity)? Participants played a version of the children's game 'Telephone'. The first generation of participants imitated recognizable environmental sounds (e.g. glass breaking, water splashing). Subsequent generations imitated the previous generation of imitations for a maximum of eight generations. The results showed that the imitations became more stable and word-like, and later imitations were easier to learn as category labels. At the same time, even after eight generations, both spoken imitations and their written transcriptions could be matched above chance to the category of environmental sound that motivated them. These results show how repeated imitation can create progressively more word-like forms while continuing to retain a resemblance to the original sound that motivated them, and speak to the possible role of human vocal imitation in explaining the origins of at least some spoken words.
人们长期以来一直在思考语言的演变和词汇的起源。在这里，我们研究了常规口语词汇是如何从对环境声音的模仿中产生的。对环境声音的重复模仿是否会逐渐产生更像单词的形式？这些形式在哪些方面与激发它们的原始声音相似（即表现出象似性）？参与者玩了一个儿童游戏“电话”的版本。第一代参与者模仿可识别的环境声音（例如玻璃破碎声、水溅声）。随后的几代人模仿前几代的模仿，最多模仿八代。结果表明，模仿变得更加稳定和像单词，并且后来的模仿作为类别标签更容易学习。同时，即使经过八代，口语模仿及其书面转录都可以高于机会匹配到激发它们的环境声音类别。这些结果表明，重复模仿如何在继续保留激发它们的原始声音的相似性的同时，逐步创造出更像单词的形式，并探讨了人类声音模仿在解释至少一些口语词汇起源方面的可能作用。
