scholarly journals Language as shaped by social interaction

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. Enfield

AbstractLanguage is shaped by its environment, which includes not only the brain, but also the public context in which speech acts are effected. To fully account for why language has the shape it has, we need to examine the constraints imposed by language use as a sequentially organized joint activity, and as the very conduit for linguistic diffusion and change.

2021 ◽  
Vol 383 (1) ◽  
pp. 485-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Kermen ◽  
Nathalie Mandairon ◽  
Laura Chalençon

AbstractWhether an odorant is perceived as pleasant or unpleasant (hedonic value) governs a range of crucial behaviors: foraging, escaping danger, and social interaction. Despite its importance in olfactory perception, little is known regarding how odor hedonics is represented and encoded in the brain. Here, we review recent findings describing how odorant hedonic value is represented in the first olfaction processing center, the olfactory bulb. We discuss how olfactory bulb circuits might contribute to the coding of innate and learned odorant hedonics in addition to the odorant’s physicochemical properties.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEES DE BOT ◽  
CAROL JAENSCH

While research on third language (L3) and multilingualism has recently shown remarkable growth, the fundamental question of what makes trilingualism special compared to bilingualism, and indeed monolingualism, continues to be evaded. In this contribution we consider whether there is such a thing as a true monolingual, and if there is a difference between dialects, styles, registers and languages. While linguistic and psycholinguistic studies suggest differences in the processing of a third, compared to the first or second language, neurolinguistic research has shown that generally the same areas of the brain are activated during language use in proficient multilinguals. It is concluded that while from traditional linguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives there are grounds to differentiate monolingual, bilingual and multilingual processing, a more dynamic perspective on language processing in which development over time is the core issue, leads to a questioning of the notion of languages as separate entities in the brain.


2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Rosenmeyer

In 130 ce, Hadrian and Sabina traveled to Egyptian Thebes. Inscriptions on the Memnon colossus document the royal visit, including fifty-four lines of Greek verse by Julia Balbilla, an elite Roman woman of Syrian heritage. The poet's style and dialect (Aeolic) have been compared to those of Sappho, although the poems' meter (elegiac couplets) and content are quite different from those of her archaic predecessor. This paper explores Balbilla's Memnon inscriptions and their social context. Balbilla's archaic forms and obscure mythological variants showcase her erudition and allegiance to a Greek past, but while many of the Memnon inscriptions allude to Homer, Balbilla aligns herself closely with Sappho as a literary model. The main question raised here is what it means for Julia Balbilla to imitate Sappho while simultaneously honoring her royal patrons in the public context of dedicatory inscriptions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhalasa Iyer ◽  
James Neve

The thriller “Split” by M. Night Shyamalan showed a glimpse into the multiple personalities of the antagonist in the film. While many elements were added for intense suspense, the existence of such a disorder was factual. Dissociative Identity Disorder is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a “psychological illness with 2 or more distinct identities, each accompanied by changes in behavior, memory, and thinking” (American Psychiatric Association). In a legal setting, the actions of the patients with DID have numerous ramifications. This paper aims to illustrate how the accountability of DID patients during a crime should be assessed. To find out how DID patients could be held accountable, we analyzed the disorder by researching the transformations in the brain, identified its origins, and explored the consequences in a judicial milieu. After conducting this research, we identified the solution that could be seamlessly embedded into our current society and benefit the patient as well as the courts. Through the analysis of the psychological disorder with a social lens, we evaluated that the jury and the public should be made more aware of the disorder and the court should not automatically assume innocence based on just the Insanity Defense. This plan is the best course of action for patients and the court systems and also aims to adapt societal thought to be more aware of DID’s difficulties. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>


Author(s):  
Jake Kurczek ◽  
Natalie Vanderveen ◽  
Melissa C. Duff

There is a long history of research linking the various forms of memory to different aspects of language. Clinically, we see this memory-language connection in the prevalence of language and communication deficits in populations that have concomitant impairments in memory and learning. In this article, we provide an overview of how the demands of language use and processing are supported by multiple memory systems in the brain, including working memory, declarative memory and nondeclarative memory, and how disruptions in different forms of memory may affect language. While not an exhaustive review of the literature, special attention is paid to populations who speech-language pathologists (SLPs) routinely serve. The goal of this review is to provide a resource for clinicians working with clients with disorders in memory and learning in helping to understand and anticipate the range of disruptions in language and communication that can arise as a consequence of memory impairment. We also hope this is a catalyst for more research on the contribution of multiple memory systems to language and communication.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jona Fras

My ESRC-funded doctoral research explores linguistic practice on Jordanian radio today. The main conclusion of my research is that details of Arabic use in the radio setting have significant implications for the kind of audiences addressed – that is, who is included as a legitimate or “validated” listener – and the way members of the public can participate in radio discourse – this latter in particularly through call- ins, which are a frequent feature of Jordanian radio programming more generally.This paper looks at one type of programmes present on many contemporary Jordanian radio stations: the so-called “service programmes,” "barāmiž ḳadamātiyya," in which listeners call the station and speak live on the air in order to request assistance or mediation with local authorities in resolution of an issue – such as a damaged road, a broken water pipe, et cetera. It compares two popular service programmes: Barnāmiž al-wakīl, hosted by Muhammad al-Wakeel, and Wasaṭ al- balad, hosted by Hani al-Badri. It argues that, in order to properly appreciate the differences between the two programmes, an interdisciplinary approach to the data is required. This has raised certain methodological issues for my work, but on the other hand allowed me to explore new theoretical pathways and contribute new insights to scholarship on both contemporary Arabic language use, and Middle Eastern media.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica J. Yoon ◽  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
Michael Henry Tessler ◽  
Noah D. Goodman

Language is a remarkably efficient tool for transmitting information. Yet human speakers make statements that are inefficient, imprecise, or even contrary to their own beliefs, all in the service of being polite. What rational machinery underlies polite language use? Here, we show that polite speech emerges from the competition of three communicative goals: to convey information, to be kind, and to present oneself in a good light. We formalize this goal tradeoff using a probabilistic model of utterance production, which predicts human utterance choices in socially-sensitive situations with high quantitative accuracy, and we show that our full model is superior to its variants with subsets of the three goals. This utility-theoretic approach to speech acts takes a step towards explaining the richness and subtlety of social language use.


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