Gesture, verb aspect, and the nature of iconic imagery in natural discourse

Gesture ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Verb Aspect ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Linguistic Analyses ◽  
Chinese And English

Linguistic analyses of Mandarin Chinese and English have detailed the differences between the two languages in terms of the devices each makes available for expressing distinctions in the temporal contouring of events — verb aspect and Aktionsart. In this study, adult native speakers of each language were shown a cartoon, a movie, or a series of short action sequences and then videotaped talking about what they had seen. Comparisons revealed systematic within-language covariation of choice of aspect and/or Aktionsart in speech with features of co-occurring iconic gestures. In both languages, the gestures that speakers produced in imperfective aspect-marked speech contexts were more likely to take longer to produce and were more complex than those in perfective aspect speech contexts. Further, imperfective-progressive aspect-marked spoken utterances regularly accompanied iconic gestures in which the speaker’s hands engaged in some kind of temporally-extended, repeating or‘agitated’ movements. Gestures sometimes incorporated this type of motion even when there was nothing corresponding to it in the visual stimulus; for example, when speakers described events of stasis. These facts suggest that such gestural agitation may derive from an abstract level of representation, perhaps linked to aspectual view itself. No significant between-language differences in aspect- or Aktionsart-related gesturing were observed. We conclude that gestural representations of witnessed events, when performed in conjunction with speech, are not simply derived from visual images, stored as perceived in the stimulus, and transposed as faithfully as possible to the hands and body of the speaker (cf. Hadar & Butterworth, 1997). Rather, such gestures are part of a linguistic-conceptual representation (McNeill & Duncan, 2000) in which verb aspect has a role. We further conclude that the noted differences between the systems for marking aspectual distinctions in spoken Mandarin and English are at a level of patterning that has little or no influence on speech-co-occurring imagistic thinking.

scholarly journals VERB CHOICE IN COMPETITION OF ASPECTUAL MODUS MEANINGS

2016 ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
M. V. Voronets
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Verb Aspect

The paper deals with the problem of verb choice in potential aspectual competition. The analysis of the most popular interpretations of invariant aspectual meanings suggests that the Imperfective Aspect defines an action itself while the Perfective Aspect defines the action’s limit. If this hypothesis is correct, the opposition of an action and the action’s limit is supposed to stay relevant in any contexts even in case of competition of aspectual modus meanings. Such contexts are considered as a field where verb aspect conveys more distinctive nuance of the action compared to the traditional particular aspectual meanings. However, in such cases verb choice is to be motivated by invariant aspectual meanings as verb choice in any other context. To verify this hypothesis we have conducted an experiment that aimed to identify the rules of the verb choice in potential aspectual competition. The paper considers the results of the part of the experiment that was dedicated to modus meanings. Results of the experiment proved that the opposition of the action and the action’s limit is relevant for Russian native speakers even in case of competition of aspectual modus meanings.

scholarly journals Authentic Discourse and Model Exemplars in Japanese Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Apologies and Requests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nobuko Kato
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Discourse Model ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Language Textbooks

<p>In recent years, the communicative approach has prevailed in second language teaching, such that model dialogues are presented in textbooks for language learners. However, there has been little research on the extent to which such exemplars reflect authentic discourse in Japanese. This thesis, therefore, explores the speech acts of Japanese language native speakers (NSs), non-native speakers who are learning Japanese (NNSs), and discourse model examples presented in Japanese language textbooks (TXs) in order to investigate their similarities and differences, and thereby enhance the contents of textbooks. In particular, this thesis focuses on the discourse structure and expressions. The study takes a quantitative approach to the data analysis, using two different scenarios in settings of apology and requests. NSs pairs and NNSs pairs were requested to perform role-plays of two different scenarios in Japanese. The conversational data of the role-plays were transcribed, and the model exemplars of apology and request presented in the selected Japanese language textbooks were also analysed. The analysis employs the framework of cross-cultural speech act realisation patterns (CCSARP) of Blum-Kulka et al. (1989) to categorise utterances based on the intentions of the speakers into two parts, namely: Head Acts (HAs) and Supportive Moves (SMs). Once the data were classified by the CCSARP, individual HAs and SMs were sorted according to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987), which divides politeness strategies into four types: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. By adopting both CCSARP and politeness theory, the characteristics of the discourse strategies and expressions of the three groups analysed in this thesis can be grasped. The analysis produces several new findings by identifying various ways in which the model dialogues in Japanese language textbooks fail to reflect the natural discourse of Japanese native speakers. The thesis presents suggestions for improvement for the benefit of textbook authors in future.</p>

Becoming a proficient academic writer: shifting lexical preferences in the use of the progressive

Corpora ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Wulff ◽  
Ute Römer
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Verb Aspect ◽  
Academic Writer ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
The One

Recent corpus studies have shown that learners of English are aware of systematic associations between verbs and their preferred argument structures to an extent that is similar to that of a native speaker of English (e.g., Gries and Wulff, 2005 ). Given evidence for similarly systematic associations in native speaker data at the lexis–morphology interface (e.g., Römer, 2005a ), the question arises whether, and to what extent, learners of English are also sensitive to lexical dependencies at the level of morphology, and how their verb-aspect associations compare with those of native speakers. In order to address this question, this study focusses on the potential associations between verbs and progressive aspect in German learners' academic writing. On the basis of the German component of the International Corpus of Learner English and the Cologne–Hanover Advanced Learner Corpus, learners' significantly preferred verb-aspect pairs are identified using an adaptation of collostructional analysis ( Stefanowitsch and Gries, 2003 ). The results are complemented with corresponding analyses of a subset of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers on the one hand and published research articles from the Hyland Corpus on the other hand. The findings indicate that upper-intermediate and advanced German learners of English exhibit clear lexical preferences in the use of progressives. Furthermore, comparative analyses suggest that verb-aspect preferences shift as a function of writers' mastery of text type-specific conventions rather than language proficiency at large.

The effects of discourse processing with regard to syntactic and semantic cues: A competition model study

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Intended Interpretation ◽  
Chinese And English

Based on Bates and MacWhinney's competition model, the present study aims to examine the effects of discourse context on sentence interpretation. In my previous study it was found that both Chinese and English monolinguals paid less attention to context than to intrasentential cues that have been identified as the determinants for Chinese and English sentence processing. The conclusions obtained in that study have to be considered tentative because the contextual sentences were short and might not have been sufficiently biasing toward the intended interpretation. Hence, the present study was undertaken to further examine the context effects by elaborating the contents of the contextual sentences. The results show that English native speakers rely on discourse context in interpreting their native language to a greater extent than the previous research has suggested and that Chinese native speakers make use of context information to a greater degree than do their English counterparts.

scholarly journals Homophone auditory processing in cross-linguistic perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 529
Author(s):  
Youtao Lu ◽  
James L. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Chinese And English

Previous studies reported conflicting results for the effects of homophony on visual word processing across languages. On finding significant differences in homophone density in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and English, we conducted two experiments to compare native speakers’ competence in homophone auditory processing across these three languages. A lexical decision task showed that the effect of homophony on word processing in Japanese was significantly less detrimental than in Mandarin and English. A word-learning task showed that native Japanese speakers were the fastest in learning novel homophones. These results suggest that language-intrinsic properties influence corresponding language processing abilities of native speakers.

Multivariate Analysis of Refusal Strategies in Request Situations: The Case of Russian JFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 829
Author(s):  
Maria E. Bulaeva
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Situational Factor ◽  
Tree Analysis ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Refusal Strategies

Using decision tree analysis by SPSS Classification Trees (Version 18.0), the present study investigated the rank order of significance between the five factors (i.e., power factor, distance factor, situational factor, culture/language factor, and type of refusal strategy) when predicting the choice of refusal strategies in request situations. To examine the frequency of refusal strategies, we conducted a discourse completion test in the L1 and L2 of Russian JFL students and compared them with Russian and Japanese native speakers. The findings show that there is a hierarchical order among the factors involved in realization of request refusals. The effects of cultural and language differences are very complex and deeply intertwined with the content of refusal situations and nature of specific strategies. The results were able to demonstrate in which conditions the following occurred: the influence of L2 (Japanese) onto L1 (Russian), the maintenance of Russian national identity, and the accommodation to the target language culture.

Transfer of sentence processing strategies: A comparison of L2 learners of Chinese and English

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Chinese And English

A sentence interpretation experiment based on Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model was administered to L2 learners of English and Chinese at three different stages of learning. The main purposes of the research were (a) to examine how transfer patterns at the sentence processing level change as a function of proficiency and (b) to investigate whether or how transfer patterns found in Chinese EFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a semantics-based language learning a syntax-centered target language) differ from those found in English CFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a syntax-based language acquiring a semantics-centered one). The results show that transfer patterns do vary as a function of proficiency, and that Chinese EFL learners and English CFL learners display somewhat different patterns of developmental change in sentence processing transfer.

Explicit Attitudes in Brazil Towards Varieties of Portuguese

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Talia Bugel
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Explicit Attitudes ◽  
First Choice ◽  
Policy And Planning ◽  
Teaching Situations

AbstractThe study of language attitudes is relevant to the study of language use in society, language policy and planning, and language acquisition and learning. The purpose of this paper is to increase our knowledge of attitudes of native speakers about Portuguese varieties and the role of extralinguistic factors conditioning them. Seventy-nine adult Brazilian Portuguese native speakers were surveyed on their perception of outstanding language differences within various Portuguese-speaking areas, their preferences for specific regional varieties of their language, and their opinion on which variety of Portuguese would be the best choice to teach schoolchildren in Brazil, foreigners visiting Brazil, and Uruguayans and Argentineans in their home countries - in the context of regional integration under Mercosul. Results show the highest percentages of preference favoring the neutral/general variety of Portuguese as the first choice for teaching situations, followed by the Brazilian variety. This contrasts with the information collected on the subjective preferences of the same participants, who reported having a preference for a specific national or regional variety of Portuguese in 78.5% of their answers.

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