Proprioceptive-state expressions in Thai

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoichi Iwasaki
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Distributional Pattern ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Physical Strength ◽  
Intransitive Verb ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Asian Languages

While the structure consisting of a topic and a clausal comment, often referred to as the double-topic, double-subject, or double-nominative sentence, has been discussed in the literature, the internal constituent order within the comment has rarely been a target of study of linguistic typology. The purpose of the paper is to compare two constituent order possibilities found in Thai and other Southeast Asian languages to argue specific constructional meanings associated with them. In Thai, the topic with a clausal comment is used when a body-part is involved, and it may take the form of either [ N1 [ N2 V ]] or [ N1 [ V N2 ]]. In this structure, the topic (N1) is a possessor of N2 (= body-part), and the comment is a clause consisting of an intransitive verb (V) and a body-part noun (N2). These two constituent orders are distributed between the external-state and proprioceptive (internal) state. Thus physical sensations (e.g. “I have a headache”) and emotions (e.g. “I am sad”) are expressed with the [VN] structure in the comment, while the description of external-states such as physical appearances (e.g. “My head is big”) is expressed with [NV]. Since proprioceptive states can only be experienced directly by the experiencer himself and contrast with external states which can be observed by anyone, the constituent order reflects fundamentally different cognitive realities experienced by the speaker. I claim that the [VN] order has a structural meaning of “proprioceptively registered experience” in the Thai grammar. This explains further why some other internal events such as “recovering from cold” or “exhausting one’s physical strength” which do not directly involve body parts also take the [VN] order in the comment. I will also argue that the initial noun (N1) in the proprioceptive-state expression is a topic noun added to the more fundamental topicless structure, [VN], whereas the initial noun in the external-state description is an integral part of the basic argument structure. Finally, I will situate the distributional pattern of [VN] and [NV] found in Thai among other East and Southeast Asian languages.

scholarly journals An Embodied Account of Argument Structure Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Josita Maouene ◽  
Nitya Sethuraman ◽  
Mounir Maoene ◽  
Linda B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Structure Development ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
The Brain

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:All information enters the cognitive system through the body. Thus, it is possible that the body—and its morphology—may play a role in structurng knowledge and acquisition. This idea is particularly cogent in the case of verbs, since early learned verbs are about bodily actions and since recent advanc-es in cognitive neuroscience (Pulvermueller, 2005; James and Maouene, 2009) indicate that the neural processing of common verbs activates the brain regions responsible for the specific body parts that perform those actions. Here we provide initial evidence these body-part verb relations may also be related to the argument structures associated with specific verbs. We will conclude that in the same way that verb meaning and argument structure develop out of correlations in linguistic experiences, they may also develop out of correlations in body experiences. 

Expanding the boundaries of Asian linguistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Bernard Comrie ◽  
Raoul Zamponi
Keyword(s):  
Body Part ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Andaman Islands ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Range Of Variation

Abstract While the general lines of the areal linguistic typology of Asia are well known, there are some less well understood pockets that promise to throw light on the overall range of variation within the continent. These include the indigenous languages of the Andaman Islands, which have for much of history stood apart from the population and language spreads that have characterized most of Asia. They fall into two families: Great Andamanese – the focus of this article – and Ongan. In some respects Great Andamanese languages go with the bulk of Asia, e.g. verb-final constituent order, but other aspects even of constituent order represent a mixture that matches neither the general Asian head-final type nor the Southeast Asian head-initial type. Some properties of Great Andamanese are typologically unusual, but do find presumably accidental parallels in languages spoken inside Asia, e.g. retroflex consonants, or elsewhere, e.g. body-part prefixes and verb root ellipsis.

Some key body parts and polysemy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Priestley
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Visible Body

This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.

scholarly journals The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mora ◽  
Anna Sedda ◽  
Teresa Esteban ◽  
Gianna Cocchini
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Baseball Players ◽  
Space Condition ◽  
Hand Size ◽  
Stable Representation ◽  
The Face

AbstractThe representation of the metrics of the hands is distorted, but is susceptible to malleability due to expert dexterity (magicians) and long-term tool use (baseball players). However, it remains unclear whether modulation leads to a stable representation of the hand that is adopted in every circumstance, or whether the modulation is closely linked to the spatial context where the expertise occurs. To this aim, a group of 10 experienced Sign Language (SL) interpreters were recruited to study the selective influence of expertise and space localisation in the metric representation of hands. Experiment 1 explored differences in hands’ size representation between the SL interpreters and 10 age-matched controls in near-reaching (Condition 1) and far-reaching space (Condition 2), using the localisation task. SL interpreters presented reduced hand size in near-reaching condition, with characteristic underestimation of finger lengths, and reduced overestimation of hands and wrists widths in comparison with controls. This difference was lost in far-reaching space, confirming the effect of expertise on hand representations is closely linked to the spatial context where an action is performed. As SL interpreters are also experts in the use of their face with communication purposes, the effects of expertise in the metrics of the face were also studied (Experiment 2). SL interpreters were more accurate than controls, with overall reduction of width overestimation. Overall, expertise modifies the representation of relevant body parts in a specific and context-dependent manner. Hence, different representations of the same body part can coexist simultaneously.

scholarly journals Tone and Phonation in Southeast Asian Languages

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Brunelle ◽  
James Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Languages

Maximizing Recall of Gruesome Images for Health Effects Advertising: An Experimental Investigation

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Advertising Effectiveness ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Video Images ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.

scholarly journals Wrist and finger motor representations embedded in the cerebral and cerebellar resting-state activation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiki Kusano ◽  
Hiroki Kurashige ◽  
Isao Nambu ◽  
Yoshiya Moriguchi ◽  
Takashi Hanakawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Finger Movements ◽  
Multiple Components ◽  
Brain Activity Pattern ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
The Brain

AbstractSeveral functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that resting-state brain activity consists of multiple components, each corresponding to the spatial pattern of brain activity induced by performing a task. Especially in a movement task, such components have been shown to correspond to the brain activity pattern of the relevant anatomical region, meaning that the voxels of pattern that are cooperatively activated while using a body part (e.g., foot, hand, and tongue) also behave cooperatively in the resting state. However, it is unclear whether the components involved in resting-state brain activity correspond to those induced by the movement of discrete body parts. To address this issue, in the present study, we focused on wrist and finger movements in the hand, and a cross-decoding technique trained to discriminate between the multi-voxel patterns induced by wrist and finger movement was applied to the resting-state fMRI. We found that the multi-voxel pattern in resting-state brain activity corresponds to either wrist or finger movements in the motor-related areas of each hemisphere of the cerebrum and cerebellum. These results suggest that resting-state brain activity in the motor-related areas consists of the components corresponding to the elementary movements of individual body parts. Therefore, the resting-state brain activity possibly has a finer structure than considered previously.

Be happy when your stomach is

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
Dorothea Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
Noun Incorporation ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
River Region

Abstract In this paper I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and other semantic extensions in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Daly River area. Body-based expressions denote events, emotions, personality traits, significant places and people and are used to refer to times and number. Particularly central in the language are men ‘stomach’, pundu ‘head’ and tjewurr ‘ear’ associated respectively with basic emotions, states of mind and reason. The figurative extensions of these body parts are discussed systematically, and compared with what is known for other languages of the Daly River region. The article also explores the grammatical make up of body-based emotional collocations, and in particular the role of noun incorporation. In MalakMalak, noun incorporation is a central part of forming predicates with body parts, but uncommon in any other semantic domain of the language and only lexemes denoting basic emotions may also incorporate closed-class adjectives.

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