A Study on the Sound Symbolism of Gender Differences in Perfume Names

Abstract

The phenomenon where sounds themselves evoke certain images is known as sound symbolism. Although numerous studies on sound symbolism have been conducted, many aspects remain unexplained. The ultimate goal of our research is to elucidate the comprehensive nature of sound symbolism. To achieve this, we aim to collect diverse examples and identify their unique sound-symbolic characteristics. By integrating these instances, we hope to clarify the overall picture of sound symbolism. In this study, we focused on perfume names as a case believed to exhibit sound symbolism. This choice stems from the availability of perfumes for both men and women, leading us to hypothesize that perfume names might have distinctive sound symbolism associated with gender. In our experiment, we performed binary classification of perfume names into "male" and "female" categories. The classifier was constructed using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and for feature analysis, we employed Grad-CAM, one of the Explainable AI (XAI) techniques. Based on the experimental results, we hypothesized that the consonant /r/ imparts a feminine impression.