Communication Support System    Between Japanese Patients and Foreign Doctors Using Onomatopoeia to Express Pain Symptoms

Maki Sakamoto; Yuya Ueda; Ryuichi Doizaki; Yuichiro Shimizu

doi:10.20965/jaciii.2014.p1020

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JACIII Vol.18 No.6 pp. 1020-1025

doi: 10.20965/jaciii.2014.p1020

(2014)

Paper:

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Communication Support System Between Japanese Patients and Foreign Doctors Using Onomatopoeia to Express Pain Symptoms

Maki Sakamoto, Yuya Ueda, Ryuichi Doizaki,
and Yuichiro Shimizu

Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1, Chofugaoka, Chofushi, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

Received:

September 30, 2013

Accepted:

May 15, 2014

Published:

November 20, 2014

Keywords:

onomatopoeia, sound symbolism, pain, medical support, multilingual communication

Abstract

In medical interviews, Japanese patients often use onomatopoeia, such as ‘zuki-zuki’ and ‘chiku-chiku,’ to express pain symptoms and medical conditions. However, onomatopoeia shows cross-linguistic variation, and thus Japanese onomatopoeia cannot be used effectively to express pain symptoms in medical interviews with foreign doctors who do not speak Japanese. In this study, we developed a system that supports communication between Japanese patients and foreign doctors by putting an onomatopoeia evaluation system to medical use. Our system estimates the quality of pain and other medical conditions based on the sound symbolic meanings expressed by certain onomatopoetic expressions. The relationships between the sound symbolic properties and rating scales were obtained through psychological experiments in which 120 participants evaluated the mental images of 354 Japanese onomatopoeia terms used to express pain symptoms and medical conditions against 35 semantic differential (SD) scales such as “sharp–dull,” “strong–weak,” and “momentary–continuous.” Our system accepts any Japanese onomatopoetic expression input by users and can also respond to any novel onomatopoetic expression. If the rating scales were translated into various languages, foreign doctors all over the world would be able to understand the meaning of Japanese onomatopoeia.

Cite this article as:

M. Sakamoto, Y. Ueda, R. Doizaki, and Y. Shimizu, “Communication Support System Between Japanese Patients and Foreign Doctors Using Onomatopoeia to Express Pain Symptoms,” J. Adv. Comput. Intell. Intell. Inform., Vol.18 No.6, pp. 1020-1025, 2014.

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References

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[3] J. Watanabe, T. Hayakawa, S. Matsui, A. Kano, Y. Shimizu, and M. Sakamoto, “Visualization of Tactile Material Relationships UsingSound Symbolic Words,” EuroHaptics 2012, Part II, LNCS 7283, pp. 175-180, 2012.
[4] S. Hamano, “The sound symbolic system of Japanese,” Kuroshio., Tokyo. CSLI Publications., Stanford, CA., 1998.
[5] N. Fujisawa, F. Obata, M. Takada, and S. Iwamiya, “Impression of auditory imagery associated with Japanese 2-mora onomatopoeic representation,” J. of The Acoustical Society of Japan, Vol.62, No.11, pp. 774-783, 2006 (in Japanese).
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[7] Y. Shimizu and M. Sakamoto, “Japanese onomatopoeia generation system and image evaluation system by sound symbolism,” Proc. of the 25th Annual Conf. of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Vol.1C2-OS4b-2, pp. 1-3, 2011 (in Japanese).
[8] N. Osaka, M. Osaka, M. Morishita, H. Kondo, and H. Fukuyama, “A word expressing affective pain activates the anterior cingulate cortex in the human brain: an fMRI study,” Behavioural Brain Research, Vol.153, No.1, pp. 123-127, 2004.
[9] H. Miyazaki, “The fifth vital sign,” Juntendo Medical Journal, Vol.52, No.2, pp. 197-206, 2005 (in Japanese).
[10] Y. Kasai, “Types of Pains and their Expressions,” Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, Vol.52, No.5, pp. 479-482, 2009 (in Japanese).
[11] N. Iwasaki, D. P. Vinson, and G. Vigliocco, “How does it hurt, “kirikiri” or “siku-siku”? Japanese mimetic words of pain perceived by Japanese speakers and English speakers,” In Applying theory and research to learning Japanese as a foreign language, pp. 2-19, Cambridge Scholars Publishing., 2007.
[12] A. C. Chang, “A thesaurus of Japanese mimesis and onomatopoeia: Usage by categories,” Taishuukan Publishing., 1990 (in Japanese).

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.

[1] [1] W. Köhler, “Gestalt Psychology,” Liveright Pub., 1929.

[2] [2] V. S. Ramachandran and E. M. Hubbard, “Synaesthesia: A Window Into Perception, Thought and Language,” J. of Consciousness Studies, Vol.8, No.12, pp. 3-34, 2001.

[3] [3] J. Watanabe, T. Hayakawa, S. Matsui, A. Kano, Y. Shimizu, and M. Sakamoto, “Visualization of Tactile Material Relationships UsingSound Symbolic Words,” EuroHaptics 2012, Part II, LNCS 7283, pp. 175-180, 2012.

[4] [4] S. Hamano, “The sound symbolic system of Japanese,” Kuroshio., Tokyo. CSLI Publications., Stanford, CA., 1998.

[5] [5] N. Fujisawa, F. Obata, M. Takada, and S. Iwamiya, “Impression of auditory imagery associated with Japanese 2-mora onomatopoeic representation,” J. of The Acoustical Society of Japan, Vol.62, No.11, pp. 774-783, 2006 (in Japanese).

[6] [6] C. Hayashi, “On the Prediction of phenomena from Qualitative Data and the Quantification of Qualitative Data the Mathematic-Statistical Point of View,” Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Vol.3, No.1, 1952 (in Japanese).

[7] [7] Y. Shimizu and M. Sakamoto, “Japanese onomatopoeia generation system and image evaluation system by sound symbolism,” Proc. of the 25th Annual Conf. of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Vol.1C2-OS4b-2, pp. 1-3, 2011 (in Japanese).

[8] [8] N. Osaka, M. Osaka, M. Morishita, H. Kondo, and H. Fukuyama, “A word expressing affective pain activates the anterior cingulate cortex in the human brain: an fMRI study,” Behavioural Brain Research, Vol.153, No.1, pp. 123-127, 2004.

[9] [9] H. Miyazaki, “The fifth vital sign,” Juntendo Medical Journal, Vol.52, No.2, pp. 197-206, 2005 (in Japanese).

[10] [10] Y. Kasai, “Types of Pains and their Expressions,” Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, Vol.52, No.5, pp. 479-482, 2009 (in Japanese).

[11] [11] N. Iwasaki, D. P. Vinson, and G. Vigliocco, “How does it hurt, “kirikiri” or “siku-siku”? Japanese mimetic words of pain perceived by Japanese speakers and English speakers,” In Applying theory and research to learning Japanese as a foreign language, pp. 2-19, Cambridge Scholars Publishing., 2007.

[12] [12] A. C. Chang, “A thesaurus of Japanese mimesis and onomatopoeia: Usage by categories,” Taishuukan Publishing., 1990 (in Japanese).

Communication Support System Between Japanese Patients and Foreign Doctors Using Onomatopoeia to Express Pain Symptoms

Maki Sakamoto, Yuya Ueda, Ryuichi Doizaki, and Yuichiro Shimizu

Maki Sakamoto, Yuya Ueda, Ryuichi Doizaki,
and Yuichiro Shimizu