Cross-linguistic zero-shot communication via ad-hoc pseudowords

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Linguistics
• Psychology

Background:

• Verbal communication relies on conventionalized word-meaning mappings within a language.
• Cross-linguistic communication is challenging due to the absence of shared lexical conventions.
• Generalized form-meaning mappings may facilitate communication across language barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if purely verbal communication is possible between speakers of different languages using novel words.
• To test the hypothesis that generalized form-meaning mappings enable cross-linguistic understanding.
• To explore the human capacity for spontaneous signal creation and interpretation.

Main Methods:

• An experiment involving Italian speakers creating German-like pseudowords from English words.
• German speakers then attempted to guess the original English words from these pseudowords.
• A pre-registered design and analysis were employed to ensure rigor.

Main Results:

• German participants' guesses were significantly closer in meaning to the original English words than to random control words.
• This indicates successful semantic transfer across language boundaries via novel word forms.
• The findings support the existence of generalized form-meaning mappings.

Conclusions:

• Humans possess a remarkable ability to spontaneously generate and interpret meaningful signals.
• Cross-linguistic communication is feasible even without a shared lexicon, relying on underlying form-meaning associations.
• This highlights the adaptive nature of human communication and cognition.