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Abstract
This study investigates whether the meaning of foreign words can be partially deduced from their phonological form. Monolingual English speakers and native Spanish speakers listened to antonym word pairs in various foreign languages and judged their English equivalents. Results showed accuracy exceeding chance, suggesting a regularity in sound-meaning mappings across languages. This ability correlated with verbal working memory and the consistency of phonological and semantic covariation across languages.
Publisher
Communications Psychology
Published On
Nov 02, 2023
Authors
Sayuri Hayakawa, Viorica Marian
Tags
foreign words
phonological form
meaning deduction
linguistics
working memory
semantic covariation

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