Keywords

embodied cognition, fNIRS, ideophones, neurolinguistics, onomatopoeia, Pastaza Kichwa, semantic maps, semanticity, speech perception

Abstract

Ideophones – imitative words using the stream of speech to simulate/depict the rise and fall of sensory perceptions and emotions and temporal experiences of completiveness, instantaneousness, and repetitiveness – have been characterized as semantically empty and context dependent. The research reported here tested a simple schematic for the semantic categories of Pastaza Kichwa ideophones by tracking neurological responses to ideophones categorized as VISUAL, MOTION, and SOUND. Seventeen native speakers of Pastaza Kichwa listened to audio clips of ideophones extracted from sentential contexts. Subjects’ neural activity was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results demonstrate that these posited semantic categories activate areas of the brain associated with visualization, motion, and sound processing and production, respectively. This suggests that these ideophones convey semantic information related to these concepts, independent of context. This contrasts with what would be expected by theories suggesting that ideophones on their own are semantically empty. The data give rise to questions regarding whether any language contains only sound ideophones that do not carry additional sensory information and whether ideophones in previous studies treated strictly as sound ideophones might require greater specification of their semantics, specifically from a multisensorial perspective.

Original Publication Citation

Dewey, D., Green, J. G., Nuckolls, J., Nygaard, A., & Swenson, T. (2024). Neurological Evidence for the Multisensorial Semantics of Ideophones in Pastaza Kichwa: An fNIRS Study in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Language & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2023.55

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2024

Publisher

Language and Cognition

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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Linguistics Commons

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