Repeated imitation makes human vocalizations more word-like.

ABSTRACT: 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 catego

SUBMITTER: Edmiston P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5879629 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature