Reference, sound symbolism, and variation. In search of an elusive link

This paper deals with an unresolved issue concerning Ohala’s frequency code proposal on the origins of sound symbolism. To date, there is a lack of evidence supporting the assumed human capability of extracting meaning features from the indexical realm and repurposing them in sound-symbolic denotation strategies. Here an experimental replication of this mechanism was attempted, built on previous observations that, in the Florentine variety, long-lag voiceless plosives are invested with indexical meanings related to manliness. Through a forced-choice task, 22 local senior high-school students were asked to match nonwords with or without initial long-lag voiceless plosives with male or female specimens of fictitious animal species. Results failed to highlight the expected association between aspirated nonwords and male specimens; however, stimuli read by a male (vs. female) voice were significantly more likely to be matched with male animals, suggesting that sound-symbolic transfers between meaning domains can indeed be triggered under specific circumstances.