Language Sciences最新文献

Linguistic synesthesia and embodiment: A study based on Mandarin modality exclusivity norms

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2025-02-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101715

Chu-Ren Huang , Qingqing Zhao , Kathleen Ahrens , Zhao Wang , Yunfei Long

This study aims to resolve the ongoing debate about sensory modality embodiment found in linguistic synesthesia by proposing an empirical model: Perceived Strength of Embodiment (PSE). The perceived strength of embodiment for sensory adjectives is measured based on the sensory ratings of the adjectives in the five sensory modalities, while the perceived strength of embodiment for each sensory modality is calculated based on the PSE of all adjectives according to their dominant modalities. PSE is designed to address a salient dilemma in the widely-accepted modality-based embodiment asymmetry: that is, such asymmetry fails to predict the directionality behaviors between sensory words because each sensory word is typically associated with more than one modality, and each may have different strengths of association. Based on an analysis of sensory adjectives, we find that a lexical concept-based embodiment asymmetry better explains the data than a modality-based embodiment asymmetry and, additionally, the lexical concept-based account is supported by Mandarin synesthetic compound adjective data. In sum, this paper argues that the PSE model is an empirical approach to measuring the degree of embodiment which furthers the understanding of the role of embodiment in the linguistic conceptualization of sensory perceptions.

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引用次数: 0

Participatory sense-making and knowing-in-connection in VR

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2025-01-07 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101705

Nara Miranda de Figueiredo , Giovanni Rolla , Guilherme Nunes de Vasconcelos

In this paper we discuss human interaction and connection in Virtual Reality (VR). We focus on knowing-in-connection (KiC), a form of participatory sense-making (PSM) in which individuals understand and influence each other's perspectives while managing their own normativities. We propose that, in humans, KiC involves existentially grasping what is at stake for others and oneself in a mutually caring relationship. Subsequently, we resort to the allusory nature of VR experiences to explore whether KiC can be fostered in VR. According to this view, there is a biological limit to VR experiences. We also draw on the enactive theory to emphasize the constitutive role of affection in cognitive processes and to consider how PSM in VR involves distributed affective qualities and body identities that modulate relationship norms and interactive asymmetries. We conclude that for linguistic bodies the existential dimension of PSM, which is proper of KiC, will most likely not be instantiated in virtual environments. For, the limitation of VR interactions is not only biological: in human interaction, the existential dimension is also affected and it cannot be fully engaged virtually.

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引用次数: 0

Rhythm as an integration principle for modeling speech-action intersemiosis in classroom interaction: a social semiotic perspective

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-12-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101704

Xiaoqin Wu

A continuing challenge for scholars working with multimodal educational research is to devise theoretical and methodological tools that can effectively navigate the complexity and emergent meaning when different semiotic resources interact. This paper demonstrates how rhythm, as an integration principle, coordinates the interaction of speech and embodied action in classroom settings at multi-scalar temporalities. Transcription designs are also devised to capture and visualize the patterns of multimodal rhythmic interaction. Drawing on a social semiotic theorization of rhythm, the paper conducts nuanced multimodal analyses of video data documenting teacher-student embodied interaction. The paper first reports four types of multimodal rhythmic patterns in classroom interaction, showcasing how rhythms coordinate across participants and semiotic resources. It then demonstrates how the tempo of the speech rhythmically structures the embodied actions at different time scales, resulting in multimodal synchronies that are semantically motivated. Finally, the paper reveals that the multiple actions in a pedagogic practice, while themselves rhythmical, may not always be rhythmically integrated with speech. The paper contributes to existing studies of speech-action interplay by developing theoretical and methodological tools to capture and visualize their interactions. Observations developed in this paper can also potentially inform pedagogic practices that involve the co-deployment of speech and embodied action.

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引用次数: 0

Linguistic relativity from an enactive perspective: the entanglement of language and cognition

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-12-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101702

Ulises Rodríguez Jordá , Ezequiel A. Di Paolo

We seek to relate the fields of linguistic relativity (LR) and the enactive approach in cognitive science. We distinguish contemporary research on LR, starting after the mid-1990s, from earlier approaches to the field. Current studies are characterised by a nuanced methodology rooted in the psycholinguistics tradition. While improving on earlier research, they also move away from philosophically oriented discussions about the relation between language and cognition and focus instead on experimentally testing relativistic effects for specific cognitive domains. We claim that this procedure retains some fundamental assumptions from classical cognitive science, precisely those that are challenged by an enactive perspective. These include a commitment to the modularity of mind and a computational understanding of the interactions between cognitive domains. We contend that contemporary LR research is, in fact, compatible with these classical cognitivist ideas, despite superficial points of tension. We then survey recent post-cognitivist approaches to language in cognitive science and explore ways in which LR and the enactive framework could be mutually enriched. Whereas the structural or categorial aspects of language are central for LR research, these are usually downplayed in post-cognitivist approaches, often influenced by the integrationist distinction between first-order linguistic practices and second-order constructs. We advance a specifically enactive perspective that seeks to preserve the systematic features of language while also integrating them within a dynamical understanding of the relation between language and cognition at multiple timescales.

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引用次数: 0

Unravelling the competing dynamics of Chinese causative markers shi 使, ling 令, jiao1 叫 and jiao2 教: A diachronic analysis

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-12-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101701

Xiaoyu Tian , Dirk Speelman , Weiwei Zhang

This study uses multinomial logistic regression models and mixed-effects binomial logistic models to examine the factors influencing the choice of Chinese causative markers shi 使 (‘make’), ling 令 (‘make’), jiao1 叫 (‘let’) and jiao2 教 (‘let’) from the 14th to the 20th century. The analyses uncover the complex competing dynamics among these alternative ways to express causation. Specifically, our examination reveals an overlap of contextual features between jiao1 and jiao2, which is likely to have contributed to the decline of the latter as a causative marker in contemporary Chinese. In contrast, ling exhibits a distinct usage pattern characterized by [ling + ren (‘people/person’) + emotion] constructions, presumably allowing it to maintain a stable presence despite its lower frequency compared to the widely used marker, shi. We address the challenges of model convergence and model selection by synthesizing consistent outcomes from multiple logistic regression models, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the examined data.

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引用次数: 0

More to gesture than meets the (analyst's) eye? Querying the problem of online gestural loss from applied linguistics and psychotherapy perspectives

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-12-07 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101692

Simon Harrison

When our social and professional spoken language activities become mediated by a screen technology, such as videoconferencing platforms, what happens to gesture? Out of the various research domains that have contended with this question, two are juxtaposed in this paper. Applied linguistics and psychotherapy differ as to the purpose of their field's speaking activities and the motivations of their practitioners, yet their professional activities share an emphasis on language, communication, participation, intersubjectivity, relational asymmetries, and ability or skill. Both domains are deeply concerned with the meaningful situation of being with others. They devote considerable attention to gesture, yet do so through different conceptual and methodological lenses, making their divergent conclusions about online gesture valuable to compare. Where applied linguists are finding gestural ‘loss’, ‘impossibility’, ‘absence’, and near ‘non-existence’, psychotherapists find not only negatives but also gestural ‘amplification’, ‘increase’, ‘closeness’, ‘enhancement’ and ‘overload’. This paper explores the different disciplinary lenses at play, asking what is meant by gesture and its criteria for online loss (or amplification) within and across these different domains of research.

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引用次数: 0

Naming multiplicity: Taíno ecolinguistics and naming conventions, and implications for language reclamation and decolonizing environmental relationalities

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-12-02 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101693

Jonathan James Fisk

After centuries of genocide and colonization, there is a burgeoning Taíno resurgence movement in Puerto Rico and the diaspora coinciding with mounting calls for the decolonization of the islands. Within the increasingly popular current of reconnecting with Taíno culture as an alternative to present colonial lifeways, there is considerable interest in learning Taíno language, although it remains unclear how to reclaim such a sleeping language in contemporary times. Likewise, people on the islands are recognizing the social-ecological importance of returning to more traditional, intimate relations with the lands. Addressing both of these interests within the Taíno resurgence movement, this study focuses on naming dynamics for the environment within Taíno language as a way to reveal details about ancestral relations with and conceptions of the environment (environmental relationalities). This project uses the recorded pre-colonial Taíno lexicon for the biotic environment to explore Taíno language ontologies and ideologies in relation to pre-colonial biocultural systems. By focusing on naming multiplicity – the degree to which individual taxa have multiple names associated with them – this paper explores how various aspects of Taíno biocultural systems relate to Taíno naming conventions, and what those trends reveal about the underlying language ontologies and ideologies. The Taíno lexicon shows an overall trend towards naming multiplicity when compared to Linnaean classifications, with greater biocultural intimacy and functionality being associated with higher naming multiplicity. These results indicate the importance of Taíno language reclamation efforts not just reviving the Taíno lexicon as it was recorded, but also operationalizing the language ideology of naming multiplicity and giving further name to the environment around us. Furthermore, cultivating intimate relations with the land will be integral for guiding naming practices within such efforts toward Taíno language reclamation and decolonizing our environmental relationalities.

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引用次数: 0

Grammaticalization of prosodic configurations? The case of evidential interrogative in Spanish 韵律结构的语法化？西班牙语证据疑问句的案例

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-11-28 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101691

Fernando Bermúdez

This study investigates how prosodic evidentials (i. e. evidential markers constituted solely by prosodic configurations, regardless of their lexical and grammatical content) can emerge and develop. This is exemplified by a type of interrogative intonation used to convey assertions presented as shared knowledge, a prosodic configuration that we call evidential interrogative. The conclusion drawn is that prosodic configurations marking evidential meaning develop analogously to lexical or morphological evidentials, thus undergoing a process comparable to grammaticalization (Traugott, 2003; Narrog and Heine, 2021). This entails a reconsideration of grammaticalization as a broader form of linguistic change, encompassing not only lexical items and constructions but also, for instance, prosodic configurations.

本研究探讨了韵律证据（即完全由韵律结构构成的证据标记，而不考虑其词汇和语法内容）是如何产生和发展的。例如，一种疑问句语调用于传达作为共享知识呈现的断言，我们称之为证据疑问句的韵律配置。由此得出的结论是，标记证据意义的韵律结构类似于词汇或形态证据的发展，因此经历了一个类似于语法化的过程(Traugott, 2003；narrow and Heine, 2021)。这需要重新考虑语法化，将其作为一种更广泛的语言变化形式，不仅包括词汇项目和结构，还包括韵律结构。

引用次数: 0

Dependency distance minimization in discourse structure: universality and individuality compared with that in syntactic structure 话语结构中的依存距离最小化：与句法结构中的依存距离最小化相比的普遍性和个性化

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-11-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101689

Wenhe Feng , Hanguang Zhang , Yi Yang

Dependency distance (DD) traditionally refers to the linear distance between two related words in the dependency structure of a sentence (i.e., syntactic-DD). Based on this concept, previous studies have found that language follows a universal rule of DD minimization (DDM), which states that short DDs occur more frequently than long DDs. But if the DDM as a structural rule is universal, does it extend to other levels of language structure? If so, are there any individualities at different levels? This paper proposes the concept of discourse-DD, i.e., the linear distance between two related clauses in a text, to investigate whether the DDM exists at the discourse level. We present a statistical study of discourse-DD using a discourse dependency corpus and compare the statistical results with the syntactic structure. The results show that discourse structure does indeed show the DDM tendency, and even more strongly than syntactic structure. The reasons for this may be that discourse patterns are more flexible than syntactic patterns and clause functions are more dynamic than word functions, and in this case, a stronger DDM is required for discourse comprehension. This paper also explores how linguistic factors such as discourse length, complex sentences, and connectives influence discourse-DDM. The paper deepens the research on DDM of language.

依存距离（DD）传统上是指句子依存结构中两个相关词之间的线性距离（即句法依存距离）。基于这一概念，以往的研究发现，语言遵循一种普遍的 DD 最小化规则（DDM），即短 DD 比长 DD 出现得更频繁。但是，如果作为一种结构规则的 DDM 是普遍的，那么它是否会延伸到语言结构的其他层面呢？如果是，不同层次的语言结构是否存在个性？本文提出了 "话语-DD "的概念，即文本中两个相关分句之间的线性距离，以研究 DDM 是否存在于话语层面。我们利用话语依存语料库对话语-DD 进行了统计研究，并将统计结果与句法结构进行了比较。结果表明，语篇结构确实存在 DDM 倾向，甚至比句法结构更为明显。究其原因，可能是话语模式比句法模式更灵活，句子功能比单词功能更动态，在这种情况下，话语理解需要更强的 DDM。本文还探讨了话语长度、复杂句和连接词等语言因素如何影响话语-DDM。本文深化了对语篇 DDM 的研究。

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引用次数: 0

The etymology of opaque place names based on a cognitive and interdisciplinary method 基于认知和跨学科方法的不透明地名词源学

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Sciences

Pub Date : 2024-10-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101688

Núria Garcia-Quera

The method to study the etymology of opaque place names (we don't know what they mean) has been the same since the nineteenth century and, according to our research, it presents some weak phases of research process. For that reason, we have designed and experimented with a different methodology, with a cognitive and geographical approach. The initial objective was not to know the language in which the opaque toponyms were created, but what they referred to.

Based on the principles of corpus linguistics, a corpus of 180 Pyrenean population toponyms was first constructed, along with quotations of them in medieval documents. In total there were 464 toponyms in the corpus. Next, each toponym was associated with its morphological (all possible segmentations of the place name) and geographic variables (the elements of the landscape where the settlement is located). Finally, the statistical filters made it possible to relate the 1179 segments of the opaque toponyms of the corpus to 133 elements of the landscape. Thanks to this, it was possible to reconstruct five prototypical (model from which there can be variations) old cognates (they served to form words in European languages from different affiliations) which show great antiquity because they refer to basic and versatile concepts: ‘something that is cut’, or ‘does not move’, or ‘is on top’, etc. Therefore, this linguistic archaeology research reveals that in the opaque European toponyms, considered linguistic fossils due to their permanence over time, prehistoric cognates from a common old language, possibly Proto-Indo-European, could endure.

自 19 世纪以来，研究不透明地名（我们不知道其含义）词源的方法一直沿用至今，根据我们的研究，这种方法在研究过程中存在一些薄弱环节。因此，我们设计并尝试了一种不同的方法，采用认知和地理方法。根据语料库语言学的原则，我们首先建立了一个包含 180 个比利牛斯人口地名的语料库，并在中世纪文献中引用了这些地名。语料库中共有 464 个地名。然后，将每个地名与其形态变量（地名的所有可能分段）和地理变量（聚落所在的景观要素）联系起来。最后，统计筛选器将语料库中不透明地名的 1179 个分段与 133 个景观要素联系起来。因此，有可能重建五个原型（可以从中产生变化的模型）古老同义词（它们在不同隶属关系的欧洲语言中构成词语），这些同义词显示出极大的古老性，因为它们指的是基本和通用的概念："被切割的东西 "或 "不动 "或 "在上面 "等。因此，这项语言考古学研究揭示，在不透明的欧洲地名（因其随着时间的推移而永恒存在而被视为语言化石）中，来自一种共同的古老语言（可能是原印欧语）的史前同源词可能持续存在。

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引用次数: 0