壹苹派生活美语　波巴奇奇效应揭开声音的奥秘

　　The Bouba-Kiki effect is interesting because it reveals a connection between sound, image, and meaning. Many scientists and linguists are interested in understanding whether or not language has meaning beyond what we assign to it. There are other experiments that have been conducted in this field. In 1933, a study tested English speakers on their ability to match Japanese words with their meanings. For example, participants were presented with the words heiwa and tatakai, and they had to guess which one means “war” and which one means “peace.”

　　波巴奇奇效应很有趣，因为它透露了声音、图像和意义之间的关联。许多科学家与语言学家都对了解语言是否具有超出我们赋予的意义感兴趣。另有其他与此领域相关的实验被执行。1933 年，一项研究测试了英语母语者将日文单字与其字义配对的能力。例如，参与者被展示了 heiwa 与 tatakai 两个词，他们必须猜出哪个表示「战争」、哪个表示「和平」。

 

生活必备字词：

reveal　vt. 揭露，透露

assign　vt. 将……归属于

match A with B　　将 A 与 B 配对

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本文节录自《常春藤生活英语》杂志，完整内容请见七月号。