scholarly journals The grammar of engagement II: typology and diachrony

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICHOLAS EVANS ◽  
HENRIK BERGQVIST ◽  
LILA SAN ROQUE

abstractEngagement systemsencodethe relative accessibility of an entity or state of affairs to the speaker and addressee, and are thus underpinned by our social cognitive capacities. In our first foray into engagement (Part 1), we focused on specialised semantic contrasts as found in entity-level deictic systems, tailored to the primal scenario for establishing joint attention. This second paper broadens out to an exploration of engagement at the level of events and even metapropositions, and comments on how such systems may evolve. The languages Andoke and Kogi demonstrate what a canonical system of engagement with clausal scope looks like, symmetrically assigning ‘knowing’ and ‘unknowing’ values to speaker and addressee. Engagement is also found cross-cutting other epistemic categories such as evidentiality, for example where a complex assessment of relative speaker and addressee awareness concerns the source of information rather than the proposition itself. Data from the language Abui reveal that one way in which engagement systems can develop is by upscoping demonstratives, which normally denote entities, to apply at the level of events. We conclude by stressing the need for studies that focus on what difference it makes, in terms of communicative behaviour, for intersubjective coordination to be managed by engagement systems as opposed to other, non-grammaticalised means.

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Rakoczy

Abstract The natural history of our moral stance told here in this commentary reveals the close nexus of morality and basic social-cognitive capacities. Big mysteries about morality thus transform into smaller and more manageable ones. Here, I raise questions regarding the conceptual, ontogenetic, and evolutionary relations of the moral stance to the intentional and group stances and to shared intentionality.


1983 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice J. Elias ◽  
Charles A. Maher

The development of handicapped and nonhandicapped children in the social and affective domains is considered as a potentially important, yet presently neglected aspect of Public Law 94–142. Given this current perceived state of affairs, the social-cognitive problem-solving approach is presented as a necessary and viable means for ensuring social and affective development of all children in public schools. Within this context, the utilization of a television-based instructional format to facilitate children's social and affective development is described, and application of that approach is illustrated by an actual example of a television-based instructional program.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Eva Wiese ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska

The present chapter provides an overview from the perspective of social cognitive neuroscience (SCN) regarding theory of mind (ToM) and joint attention (JA) as crucial mechanisms of social cognition and discusses how these mechanisms have been investigated in social interaction with artificial agents. In the final sections, the chapter reviews computational models of ToM and JA in social robots (SRs) and intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and discusses the current challenges and future directions.


1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome S. Bruner

However one conceives of the relation between a sign and its significate, referring is a communicative act in which a speaker must intentionally direct the attention of an interlocutor to some object, event, or state of affairs that the speaker has in mind. This article examines the ontogenesis and phylogenesis of acts of referring, with special concern for the possible nature of sign-significate relationships. Findings from developments psychology indicate that a group of abilities and skills underlie the ability to refer. Infants follow the gaze of others to objects of attention, and enjoy joint attention with others. Interactions with caregivers in routines well known to the child enable her to achieve joint attention with the adult on a particular ingredient in the routine. In this way, the ability to refer develops from certain "language games ", interactions that combine goal-seeking and joint attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyowon Gweon

Abstract Veissière et al.'s proposal aims to explain how cognition enables cultural learning, but fails to acknowledge a distinctively human behavior critical to this process: communication. Recent advances in developmental and computational cognitive science suggest that the social-cognitive capacities central to TTOM also support sophisticated yet remarkably early-emerging inferences and communicative behaviors that allow us to learn and share abstract knowledge.


Author(s):  
Peter Mundy

A neural networks approach to the development of joint attention can inform the study of the nature of human social cognition, learning, and symbolic thought process. Joint attention development involves increments in the capacity to engage in simultaneous or parallel processing of information about one’s own attention and the attention of other people. Infant practice with joint attention is both a consequence and an organizer of a distributed and integrated brain network involving frontal and parietal cortical systems. In this chapter I discuss two hypotheses that stem from this model. One is that activation of this distributed network during coordinated attention enhances the depth of information processing and encoding beginning in the first year of life. I also propose that with development joint attention becomes internalized as the capacity to socially coordinate mental attention to internal representations. As this occurs the executive joint attention network makes vital contributions to the development of human social cognition and symbolic thinking.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANGELIKA H. CLAUSSEN ◽  
PETER C. MUNDY ◽  
SANGEETA A. MALLIK ◽  
JENNIFER C. WILLOUGHBY

The development of joint attention skills is a major milestone of infancy. Recent research suggests that the development of these skills may be affected by disorganized (D) attachment. This hypothesis was examined in a longitudinal study of attachment and joint attention skill development in a sample of infants at risk for developmental–behavioral morbidity. The results revealed that toddlers with D classifications initiated joint attention with an experimenter significantly less often than did secure, or even other insecure, toddlers. However, no group differences in the capacity to respond to the joint attention bids of others were observed in this study. These data suggest that a disturbance in the tendency to initiate episodes of joint attention with others may be indicative of early social–cognitive and social–emotional disturbance among infants affected by disorganized attachment status. Theory and research is reviewed to suggest that an early impairment in joint attention facility may make a significant contribution to risk for negative cognitive and emotional outcomes among these infants.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document