scholarly journals Consistency in Motion Event Encoding Across Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Montero-Melis
Keyword(s):  
Motion Events ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Complex Events ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Syntactic Frames

Syntactic templates serve as schemas, allowing speakers to describe complex events in a systematic fashion. Motion events have long served as a prime example of how different languages favor different syntactic frames, in turn biasing their speakers toward different event conceptualizations. However, there is also variability in how motion events are syntactically framed within languages. Here, we measure the consistency in event encoding in two languages, Spanish and Swedish. We test a dominant account in the literature, namely that variability within a language can be explained by specific properties of the events. This event-properties account predicts that descriptions of one and the same event should be consistent within a language, even in languages where there is overall variability in the use of syntactic frames. Spanish and Swedish speakers (N = 84) described 32 caused motion events. While the most frequent syntactic framing in each language was as expected based on typology (Spanish: verb-framed, Swedish: satellite-framed, cf. Talmy, 2000), Swedish descriptions were substantially more consistent than Spanish descriptions. Swedish speakers almost invariably encoded all events with a single syntactic frame and systematically conveyed manner of motion. Spanish descriptions, in contrast, varied much more regarding syntactic framing and expression of manner. Crucially, variability in Spanish descriptions was not mainly a function of differences between events, as predicted by the event-properties account. Rather, Spanish variability in syntactic framing was driven by speaker biases. A similar picture arose for whether Spanish descriptions expressed manner information or not: Even after accounting for the effect of syntactic choice, a large portion of the variance in Spanish manner encoding remained attributable to differences among speakers. The results show that consistency in motion event encoding starkly differs across languages: Some languages (like Swedish) bias their speakers toward a particular linguistic event schema much more than others (like Spanish). Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the typology of event framing, theories on the relationship between language and thought, and speech planning. In addition, the tools employed here to quantify variability can be applied to other domains of language.

Language and thought in a multilingual context: The case of isiXhosa

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMANUEL BYLUND ◽  
PANOS ATHANASOPOULOS
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Event Cognition ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Motion Event

Situated within the grammatical aspect approach to motion event cognition, this study takes a first step in investigating language and thought in functional multilinguals by studying L1 isiXhosa speakers living in South Africa. IsiXhosa being a non-aspect language, the study investigates how the knowledge and use of additional languages with grammatical aspect influence cognition of endpoint-oriented motion events among L1 isiXhosa speakers. Results from a triads-matching task show that participants who often used aspect languages and had greater exposure to English in primary education were less prone to rely on endpoints when categorising motion events.

scholarly journals Metaphor in applied linguistics: four cognitive approaches

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (spe) ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Gerard Steen
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
The Core ◽  
System 2 ◽  
Cognitive Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

This article presents some considerations into metaphor in language and thought- 'the topic and title of the first conference of its kind in Brazil'. The paper focuses on the discussions presented in the round table, which were mostly directed to the empirical research on metaphor in Applied Linguistics. This integrative and retrospective reflection on the papers presented will be conducted from the perspective of the debate into the relationship between metaphor in language and in thought. This central issue is at the core of my proposal for four different approaches to metaphor, based on the interdependence between language and thought as system and as use:1) metaphor in language as system; 2) metaphor in thought as system; 3) metaphor in language as use and 4) metaphor in thought as use. It is within the framework of these categories that metaphors should be studied, with a certain degree of autonomy, so that their interdependence can be better understood.

scholarly journals Subjective value and decision entropy are jointly encoded by aligned gradients across the human brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Bobadilla-Suarez ◽  
Olivia Guest ◽  
Bradley C. Love
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Retrospective Evaluation ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Fmri Analysis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

AbstractRecent work has considered the relationship between value and confidence in both behavior and neural representation. Here we evaluated whether the brain organizes value and confidence signals in a systematic fashion that reflects the overall desirability of options. If so, regions that respond to either increases or decreases in both value and confidence should be widespread. We strongly confirmed these predictions through a model-based fMRI analysis of a mixed gambles task that assessed subjective value (SV) and inverse decision entropy (iDE), which is related to confidence. Purported value areas more strongly signalled iDE than SV, underscoring how intertwined value and confidence are. A gradient tied to the desirability of actions transitioned from positive SV and iDE in ventromedial prefrontal cortex to negative SV and iDE in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. This alignment of SV and iDE signals could support retrospective evaluation to guide learning and subsequent decisions.

Going beyond motion events typology: The case of Basque as a verb-framed language

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
High Tolerance ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
New Information ◽  
Different Types

AbstractThe concept of motion is present in all the world’s languages. However, the ways in which speakers of different languages codify motion do not seem to be so universal. Languages offer different types of structures to express motion, and speakers pay attention to different elements within the motion event. The goal of this paper is to examine in great detail how motion events are described and expressed in Basque oral and written narratives. This study focuses on three main areas: motion verbs, elaboration of Manner and elaboration of Path. Although Basque can be classified in Talmy’s terms as a verb-framed language, it is argued that it is not a prototypical example of this group with respect to the lexicalisation of Path. Unlike other verb-framed languages, the description of Path in Basque motion events is very frequent and detailed, not only in situations when it adds new information, but also in pleonastic cases. This characteristic seems to be related to Basque’s rich lexical resources for motion and space, as well as to its high tolerance for verb omission. On the basis of these data, the scope of Talmy’s binary typology is questioned. It is suggested that the verb- and satellite-framed language typology should be revised in order to account for these intra-typological differences.

scholarly journals From being there to being aware: Confronting geographical and sociological imaginations of copresence

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gernot Grabher ◽  
Alice Melchior ◽  
Benjamin Schiemer ◽  
Elke Schüßler ◽  
Jörg Sydow
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
Being There ◽  
Sociological Discourse ◽  
The Relationship

In economic geography, the notion of copresence has been at the very center of the research agenda for decades. The elaboration of the benefits of colocation and physical proximity was (and still is) a chief aim of the disciplinary project to demonstrate that “geography matters”. The geographical concern with colocation, proximity and distance, in fact, resonates with the sociological discourse on copresence. And yet, the relationship between copresence and its (distant) geographical relatives has rarely been explicated in a systematic fashion. By drawing on the seminal contributions by Goffman, Giddens and Knorr Cetina, amongst others, this account confronts the geographical conceptions of colocation, proximity and distance with sociological perceptions of copresence. By advancing from copresence as “being there” to copresence as “being aware” we seek to push beyond the prevailing physical perceptions of copresence towards a more socially constructivist understanding that accounts for the simultaneity and mutual conditioning of diverse modes of copresence and absence.

Speech Situation and Immanent Poetics

2020 ◽  
pp. 449-466
Author(s):  
Hans Blumenberg
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Speech Situation

This chapter looks at Hans Blumenberg's “Speech Situation and Immanent Poetics” (1966), which focuses on poetic language. The three basic ideas of the relationship between language and thought should help one gain a certain orientation to determine the function of poetic language. After all, an immanent poetics will by necessity depend on examining the function of a work's language. The explication of the immanent poetics of a work will therefore depend on asking the “right” questions with regard to this work's language. Of course, hints can be derived from the author's exogenous poetics, from his self-testimony and self-observation, if this is indeed what they are and not simply the “offshoot” of a normative theory of art. This methodical preliminary question deserves not to be passed over. Already the classification of a text by its author as “self-observation” during the process of aesthetic production expresses a certain aesthetic position. This position permits experience to provide relevant information about the process of a work's emergence.

Relationship between the Development of Language and Thought in Young Blind Children

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (8) ◽  
pp. 414-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bigelow
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Object Permanence ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between the development of object permanence and early words was studied in three young boys, two totally blind from birth and one severely visually impaired. Auditory and tactile tasks analogous to traditional visual object-permanence tasks were presented to the children at monthly intervals, and their first 50 words and the context in which the words were said were recorded by their mothers and collected monthly. All three boys acquired early words within the age range for sighted children, but their usage of the words was different. The two blind boys but not the visually impaired boy were delayed in their development of object permanence. The relationship between the acquisition of early words and the development of object permanence suggests that the emergence of language is not dependent on a stable understanding of the existence and permanence of objects.

Neo-aristotelian grammar in 17th-century England

1990 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Subbiondo
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Summary In his Herm’œlogium; or an Essay at the Rationality of Speaking of 1659 Basset Jones intended to supplement William Lily’s (c. 1468–1522) popular 16th-century grammar, which had received the endorsement of Edward VI. Written in English and Latin, Lily’s grammar through its many editions not only set the standard for Latin grammars, but it also established the style for the first and subsequent grammars of English. Jones realized that Lily’s grammatical model, with its emphasis solely on the classification and arrangement of material according to the classic paradigms for conjugation and declension, ignored the philosophy of grammar which was necessary for an understanding of the relationship of language and thought.

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