The Double Framing Effect of Emotive Metaphors in Argumentation

In argumentation, metaphors are often considered as ambiguous or deceptive uses of language leading to fallacies of reasoning. However, they can also provide useful insights into creative argumentation, leading to genuinely new knowledge. Metaphors entail a framing effect that implicitly provides a specific perspective to interpret the world, guiding reasoning and evaluation of arguments. In the same vein, emotions could be in sharp contrast with proper reasoning, but they can also be cognitive processes of affective framing, influencing our reasoning and behavior in different meaningful ways. Thus, a double (metaphorical and affective) framing effect might influence argumentation in the case of emotive metaphors, such as “Poverty is a disease” or “Your boss is a dictator,” where specific “emotive words” (disease, dictator) are used as vehicles. We present and discuss the results of two experimental studies designed to explore the role of emotive metaphors in argumentation. The studies investigated whether and to what extent the detection of a fallacious argument is influenced by the presence of a conventional vs. novel emotive metaphor. Participants evaluated a series of verbal arguments containing either “non-emotive” or “emotive” (positive or negative) metaphors as middle terms that “bridge” the premises of the argument. The results show that the affective coherence of the metaphor's vehicle and topic plays a crucial role in participants' reasoning style, leading to global heuristic vs. local analytical interpretive processes in the interplay of the metaphorical and the affective framing effects.

Eusociality and the evolution of aging in superorganisms

Eusocial insects ants, bees, wasps and termites are being recognized as model organisms to unravel the evolutionary paradox of aging for two reasons: (1) queens (and kings, in termites) of social insects outlive similar sized solitary insects by up to several orders of magnitude; (2) all eusocial taxa show a divergence of long queen and shorter worker lifespans, despite their shared genomes and even under risk-free laboratory environments. Traditionally, these observations have been explained by invoking classical evolutionary aging theory: well-protected inside their nests, queens are much less exposed to external hazards than foraging workers, and this provides natural selection the opportunity to favor queens that perform well at advanced ages. Although quite plausible, these verbal arguments have not been backed up by mathematical analysis. Here, for the first time, we provide quantitative models for the evolution of caste specific aging patterns. We show that caste-specific mortality risks are in general neither sufficient nor necessary to explain the evolutionary divergence in lifespan between queens and workers and the extraordinary queen lifespans. Reproductive monopolization and the delayed production of sexual offspring in highly social colonies lead natural selection to inherently favor queens that live much longer than workers, even when exposed to the same external hazards. Factors that reduce a colony's reproductive skew, such as polygyny and worker reproduction, tend to reduce the evolutionary divergence in lifespan between queens and workers. Caste-specific extrinsic hazards also affect lifespan divergence but to a much smaller extent than reproductive monopolization.

Cue coalitions and additivity in predictive processing: The interaction between case and prosody in L2 German

This article explores how multiple linguistic cues interact in predictive processing among second language (L2) learners. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, we investigated whether learners of German use case and prosody cues together to assign thematic roles and predict post-verbal arguments. During the experiment, participants listened to subject-first and object-first sentences that contained (1) case cues only, or (2) both case and prosody. The results showed that the learners successfully predicted post-verbal arguments on the basis of lexical-semantic information but were less successful in using case cues. However, prediction success increased when both case and prosody were present, suggesting that predictive processing is supported by prosodic cues. Additionally, results show that higher proficiency was associated with faster processing and a greater ability to generate predictions. We conclude that the presence of cue coalitions allows L2 learners to process information more efficiently, and that the L2 processor can exploit the additive use of cues for prediction.

Het persoonlijke in Thorbeckes Tweede Kamer

Remarks about the person in Thorbecke’s Second ChamberThere is always a risk in parliamentary politics that objective debate will change into personal debate and conflict. On the one hand, orators can choose to launch a personal verbal attack to their opponents. On the other hand, opponents can interpret verbal arguments as a personal attack, even if these words were not meant that way. In the most extreme cases personal honour is damaged and needs to be repaired through other means, including a physical duel. Compared to other young parliaments, the nineteenth century Dutch ‘Second Chamber’ (Tweede Kamer) had a quiet and calm reputation. How did Dutch Members of Parliament handle their emotions in confrontations that risked to become personal? How did the most influential politician, J.R. Thorbecke, deal with these confrontations? Which rules and rituals were at the disposal of MPs to protect themselves against personal politics? And what could contemporary parliamentary debate learn from these Dutch nineteenth-century examples? To find asnwers to these questions, this article explores personal politics in Thorbecke’s Second Chamber.

Breton a-marking of (internal) verbal arguments: A result of language contact?

We discuss a potential case of borrowing in this paper: Breton a- ‘of’, ‘from’ marking of (internal) verbal arguments, unique in Insular Celtic languages, and reminiscent of Gallo-Romance de/du- (and en-) arguments. Looking at potential Gallo-Romance parallels of three Middle Breton constructions analyzed in some detail (a with indefinite mass nominals in direct object position, a-marking of internal arguments under the scope of negation, a [allomorphs an(ez)-/ahan-] with personal pronouns for internal arguments, subjects (mainly of predicative constructions) and as expletive subjects of existential constructions), we demonstrate that even if there are some semantic parallels and one strong structural overlap (a and de under the scope of negation), the amount of divergences in morphology, syntax and semantics and the only partially fitting relative chronology of the different constructions do not allow to conclude with certainty that language-contact is an explanation of the Breton facts, which might have come into being also because of internal change (bound to restructuring of the pronominal system in Breton). More research is necessary to complete our knowledge of a-marking in Middle Breton and Modern Breton varieties and on the precise history of French en, in order to decide for one or the other explanation.

Radical analyticity and radical pro-drop scenarios of diachronic change in East and mainland Southeast Asia, West Africa and Pidgins and Creoles

The paucity or absence of inflectional morphology (radical analyticity) and the omission of verbal arguments with no concomitant agreement (radical pro-drop) are well-known characteristics of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages (EMSEA). Both of them have a special status in typology and linguistic theory. Radical analyticity is known under the term of ‘morphological isolation’ and has recently been described as ‘diachronically anomalous’ (McWhorter 2016), while radical pro-drop is a theoretical challenge since Rizzi (1986). The present paper offers an alternative view on these characteristics based on data from EMSEA languages, radically analytic West African languages and pidgins and creoles. It develops diachronic evolutionary scenarios combining the specific properties of languages in their diachronic and geographic situations with two different notions of complexity (hidden vs. overt complexity) and factors which tend to block the development of inflectional morphological paradigms. From such a perspective, radical analyticity and radical pro-drop are by no means extraordinary. Given the enormous size of the task, the paper is a thought experiment based on available data and discussions on the above languages for stimulating further research.

The Nominality of Tłı̨chǫ Classificatory Verb Stems and the Simplicity of Dene Verbal Morphology

This paper investigates the phenomenon of ‘classificatory verbs’, i.e., a set of verbs whose stems alternate to categorize the verbal arguments with regard to animacy, shape, material consistency, etc. Similar to equivalent verbs in other Dene languages, Tłı̨chǫ classificatory verbs are shown to belong to four semantic classes that do not have the same stem inventories or consistent patterns of stem selection. Based on various pieces of evidence, viz., optionality of the classified argument, argument saturation, verbal augmentation, verb-noun correspondence, referentiality, and noun incorporation, the paper argues against the maintenance of the notion that the so-called verb stem is a verbal element; instead, it is a root that merges with a nominalizer to form a nominal affix. In the light of this argument, the paper extends the analysis to non-classificatory verbs claiming a conceptually simpler and computationally more economical analysis of Tłı̨chǫ verbal morphology within the minimalist approach.

Características da variante moçambicana da língua portuguesa com base na análise morfossintática dos diálogos presentes nos romances e contos de Mia Couto

Portuguese is a native language of only a handful of people in Mozambique. However, it successfully plays the role of a common language of communication in the field of politics and economics. At the same time, it is a determinant of social status and, in the world of literature, it gives one the opportunity to break through to the readers around the Globe. Portuguese in Mozambique presents many differences from the European standard, and the specific characteristics of this variant can be found in the texts of Mia Couto. The purpose of this article is to present the differences between the variant of Mozambique and the European model of Portuguese, mainly in the field of morphosyntax, observed in the texts of Mia Couto. The marked differences can be seen, among others, in the use of prepositions, order of pronominal elements, in the structure of periphrastic and passive constructions, and the selection of verbal arguments. The features are highly repetitive, but at the same time, they occur quite irregularly, together with the structures accepted by the standard. It is, therefore, difficult to speak of a systematic language variant, but surely it is on its way to be established.