Onomatopoeias Beyond Childhood: A Comparison of Adult- and Child-Directed Speech

Piepers, Matsen (2026) Onomatopoeias Beyond Childhood: A Comparison of Adult- and Child-Directed Speech. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Onomatopoeias are a form of iconic language in which word forms imitate or evoke sounds associated with objects or actions (e.g., bang, chop). While previous research has shown that onomatopoeias are frequently used by adults in child-directed speech, particularly in learning contexts involving unfamiliar objects, not much is known about their role in speech among multiple adults. The present study investigates whether patterns observed in child-directed speech generalize to adult communication. Adding onomatopoeia annotation in adult-directed speech to the pre-existing ECOLANG corpus, the frequency of onomatopoeias was compared between child-directed and adult-directed speech, and the effect of object familiarity was examined in both contexts. We hypothesized that onomatopoeias would be used less frequently in adult-directed speech than in child-directed speech, and that adults would use more onomatopoeias when discussing unfamiliar objects. A mixed-design analysis of variance was conducted, with Group (adult-directed vs. child-directed speech) as a between-subjects factor and Familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar objects) as a within-subjects factor. Results showed that onomatopoeias were significantly less frequent in adult-directed speech than in child-directed speech. Contrary to expectations, object familiarity did not affect onomatopoeia use in adult-directed speech. These findings suggest that the learning-related function of onomatopoeias may be more closely tied to child-directed speech than to adult word learning. Instead, we suggest that onomatopoeias in daily adult communication primarily serve expressive or illustrative functions, with their learning function possibly being elicited by specific contexts such as second-language learning.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Jonge-Hoekstra, L. de
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Ontwikkelingspsychologie (O) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	08 May 2026 13:52
Last Modified:	08 May 2026 13:52
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/6400

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