ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2018
Repeated imitation makes human vocalizations more word-like.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the Guessing-Game Experimental Paradigm: Inferences From Closed- Versus Open-Ended Semantic Space.Cognitive science · 2026Article
- Cracking arbitrariness: A data-driven study of auditory iconicity in spoken English.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Article
- Exploring the dynamics of Shannon's information and iconicity in language processing and lexeme evolution.PloS one · 2025Article
- Categorical perception and language evolution: a comparative and neurological perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Gesture is the primary modality for language creation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Rhythm in speech and animal vocalizations: a cross-species perspective.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2019Review
- Vocal imitation of percussion sounds: On the perceptual similarity between imitations and imitated sounds.PloS one · 2019Article
- Music Evolution in the Laboratory: Cultural Transmission Meets Neurophysiology.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2018Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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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 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.
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