Abstract:
Although the importance of iconicity in the learning of symbols has been widely acknowledged,
there have been few systematic investigations into the influence of culture on the ratings of
symbol iconicity. The purposes of this study were two-fold: to determine (a) the translucency
ratings of specific Blissymbols as rated by 6- to 7-year-old Setswana-speaking children (one of
South Africa’s official 11 languages); and (b) whether the ratings changed after second and third
exposures in order to determine the learnability of these symbols. This study is partially based on
the study by Quist et al. (1998), which utilized Dutch and American participants. Thirty-four
Setswana children were exposed to 93 selected Blissymbols. A 3-point semantic differential
scale consisting of three faces accompanied each Blissymbol, without the written gloss. This
procedure was repeated over a period of 3 days. The results indicated that the majority of
Blissymbols were rated as having high translucency ratings. The research further demonstrated significant differences in translucency ratings between the first and subsequent exposures, suggesting learning of the symbols. The comparison between the results of the current study and the results reported in the Quist et al. study, reveal that the translucency ratings of the majority of the selected Blissymbols ranged from moderate to high for all three studies, but that the distribution of symbols across the ratings appears to be different.
