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Sources of Intelligibility of Distant Languages: An Empirical Study
Jiří Milička, Anna Marklová, Michal Láznička1
1Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Czech Republic.
Language and Speech
|July 12, 2025
Summary
Linguistic form and meaning are not entirely arbitrary. Czech speakers could guess Hindi word meanings with 60% accuracy, showing cross-linguistic sound-symbolism and intelligibility beyond random chance.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The relationship between linguistic form and meaning has traditionally been viewed as largely arbitrary.
- However, research into iconicity, systematicity, and sound-symbolism suggests non-arbitrary connections exist.
- These non-arbitrary links may facilitate cross-linguistic understanding even between unrelated languages.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the extent to which speakers can discern the meaning of unfamiliar words based on non-arbitrary linguistic features.
- To test the hypothesis that sound-symbolism and other form-meaning connections aid cross-linguistic intelligibility.
- To identify factors influencing the success rate of guessing word meanings across different language pairs.
Main Methods:
- Native Czech speakers, unfamiliar with Hindi, performed a word-matching task between Hindi and Czech words.
- The experiment was replicated with Turkish, Japanese, and Latvian, with varying degrees of linguistic relatedness to Czech.
- Statistical analysis examined the impact of phonological similarity, word length, cognates, and presentation method on guessing accuracy.
Main Results:
- Czech participants achieved approximately 60% accuracy in guessing Hindi word meanings, significantly above chance (50%).
- Success rates varied by language, reaching 80% for closely related Latvian and 60% for distant Japanese.
- Phonological similarity, word length alignment, cognates, and trial presentation significantly influenced intelligibility across all tested languages.
Conclusions:
- The study provides robust evidence for non-arbitrary links between linguistic form and meaning, facilitating cross-linguistic intelligibility.
- Sound-symbolism and related phenomena enable a degree of intuitive understanding across diverse languages, challenging the purely arbitrary view.
- Factors such as phonological and lexical similarity play a crucial role in this cross-linguistic intelligibility, with language-specific nuances.
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