共感覚と音象徴からのぞく認知処理間の潜在的な結びつき

抄録

This article examines two types of nonarbitrary correspondences between apparently disconnected perceptual-cognitive entities—synesthesia and sound symbolism—the latter of which is a kind of crossmodal correspondence. First, the article describes the basic characteristics of these phenomena along with the similarities and differences between them. While both synesthesia and sound symbolism are intriguing matchings between different domains that are consistent over time, they differ in terms of their prevalence (rare vs. frequent) and idiosyncrasy (idiosyncratic vs. widely shared across individuals), and whether the concurrent is consciously experienced (conscious vs. not necessarily conscious). Although the similarities are often emphasized, the differences should never be neglected in the exploration of the underlying mechanisms of these phenomena. This article further discusses recent advances in these research fields, especially those showing a close relationship between language development and each of the two phenomena. Studies on synesthesia and sound symbolism should provide new insights into cognitive language processing.