刊讯｜SSCI 期刊《语言与认知》2024年第1-2期

Language and Cognition

Volume 16, Issue 1-2, 2024

Language and Cognition (SSCI二区, 2023 IF: 1.1, 排名: 99/194) 2024年第1-2期共发文22篇，其中2024年第1期共发文11篇，涉及多模态构造语法、隐喻、反馈、感知跨度、社会好奇心等主题。2024年第2期共发文11篇，涉及修饰语、认知、隐喻、性别概念、句法处理等主题。欢迎转发扩散！

往期推荐：

目录

ISSUE 1

ARTICLES

■ Multimodal-ish: prosodic and kinesic aspects of bounded and free uses of ish, by Claudia Lehmann, Meike Pentrel, Pages 1-31.

■ A usage-based approach to metaphor identification and analysis in child speech, by Dorota Gaskins, Marianna Falcone, Gabriella Rundblad, Pages 32-56.

■ List constructions in two signed languages, by Sherman Wilcox, André Nogueira Xavier, Satu Siltaloppi, Pages 57-92.

■ Sensory modality profiles of antonyms, by Joost van de Weijer, Ivana Bianchi, Carita Paradis, Pages 93-107.

■ Backchannels in conversations between autistic adults are less frequent and less diverse prosodically and lexically, by Simon Wehrle, Kai Vogeley, Martine Grice, Pages 108-133.

■ The perceptual span in traditional Chinese, by Jinger Pan, Ming Yan, Pages 134-147.

■ A few or several? Construal, quantity, and argumentativity, by Nicole Katzir, Mira Ariel, Pages 148-175.

■ Does reading about fictional minds make us more curious about real ones, by Lynn S. Eekhof, Raymond A. Mar, Pages 176-196.

■ Learning speaker-specific linguistic 'style' is mediated by deviance from common language use, by Nitzan Trainin, Einat Shetreet, Pages 197-219.

■ What the development of gesture with and without speech can tell us about the effect of language on thought, by Şeyda Özçalışkan, Ché Lucero, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Pages 220-241.

■ What makes an awfully good oxymoron, by Marianna M. Bolognesi, Claudia Roberta Combei, Marta La Pietra, Francesca Masini, Pages 242-262.

ISSUE 2

ARTICLES

■ Tracing thick and thin concepts through corpora, by Kevin Reuter, Lucien Baumgartner, Pascale Willemsen, Pages 263-282.

■ Matched or moved? Asymmetry in high- and low-level visual processing of motion events, by Xingyi Fu, Norbert Vanek, Leah Roberts, Pages 283-306.

■ Event integration as a driving force of language change: evidence from Chinese 使-shǐ-make, by Na Liu, Fuyin Thomas Li, Pages 307-328.

■ Metaphor use in depersonalization/derealization, by Jane Dilkes, Pages 329-352.

■ Gender is conceptualized in different ways across cultures, by Claudia Mazzuca, Anna M. Borghi, Saskia van Putten, Luisa Lugli, Roberto Nicoletti, Asifa Majid, Pages 353-379.

■ Functional priority of syntax over semantics in Chinese 'ba' construction: evidence from eye-tracking during natural reading, by Yanjun Wei, Yingjuan Tang, Adam John Privitera, Pages 380-400.

■ More than just ambivalence: the perception of emotionally ambiguous words on the spaces of origin and activation indexed by behavioural and webcam-based eye-tracking correlates, by Adrianna Wielgopolan, Kamil K. Imbir, Pages 401-424.

■ The many facets of inhibitory control and their role in syntactic selection, by Małgorzata Korko, Mark Coulson, Alexander Jones, Paul de Mornay Davies, Pages 425-451.

■ Conceptual metaphor in areal perspective: time, space, and contact in the Sinosphere, by Michael Fiddler, Pages 452-480.

■ The flexibility and representational nature of phonological prediction in listening comprehension: evidence from the visual world paradigm, by Zitong Zhao, Jinfeng Ding, Jiayu Wang, Yiya Chen, Xiaoqing Li, Pages 481-504.

■ Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation, by Margot Vancauwenbergh, Karlien Franco, Pages 505-535.

摘要

Multimodal-ish: prosodic and kinesic aspects of bounded and free uses of ish

Claudia Lehmann, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

Meike Pentrel, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

Abstract The article explores the prosodic and kinesic aspects of three different ish constructions using corpus data from the multimodal NewsScape Library of International Television News. The results reveal that bound -ish with 'approximate' meaning is longer in duration, higher in pitch, and shows more pitch variability than bound -ish with 'properties' meaning. Free Ish is also longer in duration and shows more pitch variability but is also prosodically set apart from its linguistic environment. Furthermore, the different ish constructions prove to be associated with different sets of kinesic features, although none of these reaches a significant level in the statistical model. It will be argued that the prosodic aspects mirror the constructional status of ish, whereas the kinesic aspects may be used to support their different functions.

Key words ish, multimodal construction grammar, prosody, gesture, quantitative corpus linguistics

A usage-based approach to metaphor identification and analysis in child speech

Dorota Gaskins, King’s College London, London, UK

Marianna Falcone, King’s College London, London, UK

Gabriella Rundblad, King’s College London, London, UK

Abstract This paper presents a usage-based method for investigating metaphor acquisition in the speech of children aged two and above. The method draws on the strengths of the established tools for metaphor identification such as Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP), and Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIP-VU), and adapts them for coding and analysing metaphors in the corpora of naturalistic interactions between children and their primary caregivers, such as those stored online in the CHILDES TalkBank. First, we discuss the premises underlying our methodological framework and provide a coding manual for working with child language. Second, we explain how to approach the challenges of coding transcripts of child speech and demonstrate how we reached high inter-annotator reliability scores of 0.97. We then show how the coding scheme works with a sample corpus of a child recorded between the ages of 2;0–3;1. To illustrate how the scheme can be applied to the study of metaphor acquisition, we analyse the coded metaphors for input–output frequencies. It is argued that our method can offer a unique lens for exploring metaphor production in very young children and it can help us to understand how children come to express their very first figurative meanings.

Key words Usage-based, metaphor, production, acquisition, children

List constructions in two signed languages

Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

André Nogueira Xavier, Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil

Satu Siltaloppi, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Abstract This paper examines how signers make lists. One way is to use the fingers on the signer's nondominant hand to enumerate items on a list. The signer points to these list-fingers with the dominant hand. Previous analyses considered lists to be nondominant, one-handed signs, and thus were called list buoys because the nondominant hand often remains in place during the production of the list. The pointing hand was largely ignored as a nonlinguistic gesture. We take a constructional approach based on Cognitive Grammar. In our approach, we analyze lists as a type of pointing construction consisting of two meaningful components: a pointing device (the pointing hand) used to direct attention; and a Place, also consisting of form and a meaning. Using data from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Finland–Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL), we examine the semantic role of each component, showing how the nondominant list-fingers identify and track discourse referents, and how the pointing hand is used to create higher-order entities by grouping list-fingers. We also examine the integration of list constructions and their components with other conventional constructions.

Key words List constructions, sign language, Cognitive Grammar

Sensory modality profiles of antonyms

Joost van de Weijer, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Ivana Bianchi, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

Carita Paradis, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Abstract Adjectives that are used to describe sensory experiences are often used to express more than one modality. The adjective sweet, for instance, may primarily be associated with taste (i.e., taste is the dominant modality of sweet), but it can also be used for smell, sound or sight, and possibly even for touch. It has also been shown that some sensory modalities combine more easily than others. Many adjectives that are used to describe taste, for instance, can also be used for smell, but, less likely, for sound. These associations between sensory modalities as they are expressed in language are the topic of this study. We looked at the distribution of the combinations of dominant modalities in pairs of antonymic sensory adjectives (e.g., sweet–sour), and how the dominant modality of the adjectives in these pairs differed from that of the adjectives in isolation. In our dataset, there was a sizeable number of pairs consisting of adjectives with differing dominant modalities. Within those pairs, we observed that adjectives with the dominant modality sight can also be used for touch and vice versa. Similarly, adjectives with the dominant modality of smell can also be used for taste and vice versa. Finally, adjectives with the dominant modalities sight and touch can both also be used for hearing and for taste, but not the other way around. These results contribute to our understanding of how language is used to describe sensory experiences, and, with that, how sensory experiences may be shaped by the words that we use to describe them.

Key words Antonymy, sensory adjectives, modality dominance

Backchannels in conversations between autistic adults are less frequent and less diverse prosodically and lexically

Simon Wehrle, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Kai Vogeley, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany

Martine Grice, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Abstract Backchannels (BCs; listener signals such as ‘mmhm’ or 'okay') are a ubiquitous and essential feature of spoken interaction. They are used by listeners predominantly to support the ongoing turn of their interlocutor and to signal understanding and agreement. Listeners seem to be highly sensitive to the exact realisations of BCs and to judge deviations from typical forms as negative. Very little is known about the use of BCs by speakers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In dialogue recordings of 28 German adults in two groups of disposition-matched dyads (i.e., both interlocutors were either autistic or non-autistic), we found that the ASD group was characterised by (1) a lower rate of BCs per minute (particularly in the early stages of conversation), (2) less diversity in the lexical realisation of BCs and (3) a less diverse and flexible mapping of different intonation contours to different BC types. We interpret these results as reflecting more general characteristics of autistic as compared to non-autistic individuals, namely different strategies in signalling attention towards an interlocutor and less flexible behaviour in social interaction.

Key words Autism spectrum disorder, conversation, backchannels, feedback, response tokens, intonation, prosody, entropy

The perceptual span in traditional Chinese

Jinger Pan, The Education University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong

Ming Yan, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

Abstract The present study aimed at examining the perceptual span, the visual field area for information extraction within a single fixation, during the reading of traditional Chinese sentences. Native traditional Chinese readers' eye-movements were recorded as they read sentences that were presented using a gaze-contingent technique, in which legible text was restricted within a window that moved in synchrony with the eyes, while characters outside the window were masked. Comparisons of the window conditions with a baseline condition in which no viewing constraint was applied showed that when the window revealed one previous character and three upcoming characters around the current fixation, reading speed and oculomotor activities reached peak performance. Compared to previous results with simplified Chinese reading, based on a similar set of materials, traditional Chinese exhibits a reduction of the perceptual span. We suggest that the visual complexity of a writing system likely influences the perceptual span during reading.

Key words eye-movement, perceptual span, traditional Chinese, reading

A few or several? Construal, quantity, and argumentativity

Nicole Katzir, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Mira Ariel, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Abstract This study examines two seemingly similar quantifiers, a few and several, and argues that the differences between them go beyond the (slightly) different quantities they each denote. Specifically, we argue that several construes its nominal complement as composed of individuated entities, which renders them more prominent, and thus a stronger basis in support of a conclusion the speaker is arguing for. We base our analysis on two experiments and a corpus study. The experiments show that there is indeed an argumentative difference between the quantifiers, and the corpus study points to the discourse factors behind it. In comparison with a few, several is associated with a higher discourse prominence for its complement (greater individuation, significance) and with greater argumentative strength. Based on this data, we characterize the quantifiers’ prototypical discourse profiles. A typical instance of several occurs in persuasive genres, refers to a not-so-small quantity, construes the plural entity as composed of individuated entities, and contributes to a strong argument. A typical instance of a few occurs in non-persuasive genres, denotes a small quantity, construes the entities composing the plural entity as un-individuated, and contributes to a weak or neutral argument.

Key words quantifiers, argumentation, distinctive collexeme analysis, discourse prominence, individuation

Does reading about fictional minds make us more curious about real ones?

Lynn S. Eekhof, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Raymond A. Mar, York University, Toronto, Canada

Abstract Although there is a large body of research assessing whether exposure to narratives boosts social cognition immediately afterward, not much research has investigated the underlying mechanism of this putative effect. This experiment investigates the possibility that reading a narrative increases social curiosity directly afterward, which might explain the short-term boosts in social cognition reported by some others. We developed a novel measure of state social curiosity and collected data from participants (N = 222) who were randomly assigned to read an excerpt of narrative fiction or expository nonfiction. Contrary to our expectations, we found that those who read a narrative exhibited less social curiosity afterward than those who read an expository text. This result was not moderated by trait social curiosity. An exploratory analysis uncovered that the degree to which texts present readers with social targets predicted less social curiosity. Our experiment demonstrates that reading narratives, or possibly texts with social content in general, may engage and fatigue social-cognitive abilities, causing a temporary decrease in social curiosity. Such texts might also temporarily satisfy the need for social connection, temporarily reducing social curiosity. Both accounts are in line with theories describing how narratives result in better social cognition over the long term.

Key words social curiosity, narrative fiction, expository texts, reading, social cognition

Learning speaker-specific linguistic ‘style’ is mediated by deviance from common

Nitzan Trainin, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Einat Shetreet, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Abstract Different speakers sometimes convey similar meanings differently. This study examined whether listeners could learn to associate a specific linguistic ‘style’ with a certain speaker, with no apparent difference in meaning, and the role of unnatural linguistic choices (or unexpectedness) in such learning. We created an inter-speaker variation in ‘style’ using the weak adjective ordering preferences in Hebrew. Participants were exposed to two different speakers, each producing a different adjective order, consistently. We manipulated the combinations of order pairings, based on their naturalness (with two natural orders, a natural and an unnatural order, and two unnatural orders), and examined participants’ ability to associate a unique order with a specific speaker. In two experiments, using different statistical analyses, we show that listeners can learn speaker-specific language use when it is irrelevant for meaning inferences, when deviance from natural or expected language use is involved. We further discuss whether learning may be facilitated by differences in naturalness or structural form. Our findings suggest that listeners are sensitive to inter-speaker variability in ‘style’, mostly when this ‘style’ is unexpected. This is in line with the predictions of Surprisal theory, and may suggest that surprisal plays a major role in learning speaker-specific language use.

Key words speaker-specific, reference, surprisal, communication efficiency, learning

What the development of gesture with and without speech can tell us about the effect of language on thought

Şeyda Özçalışkan, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Ché Lucero, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; SPARK Neuro, Inc, New York, NY, USA

Susan Goldin-Meadow, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Abstract Adults display cross-linguistic variability in their speech in how they package and order semantic elements of a motion event. These differences can also be found in speakers’ co-speech gestures (gesturing with speech), but not in their silent gestures (gesturing without speech). Here, we examine when in development children show the differences between co-speech gesture and silent gesture found in adults. We studied speech and gestures produced by 100 children learning English or Turkish (n = 50/language) – equally divided into 5 age-groups: 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10, and 11–12 years. Children were asked to describe three-dimensional spatial event scenes (e.g., a figure crawling across carpet) first with speech and then without speech using their hands. We focused on physical motion events that elicit, in adults, cross-linguistic differences in co-speech gesture and cross-linguistic similarities in silent gesture. We found the adult pattern even in the youngest children: (1) Language shaped co-speech gesture beginning at age 3 years, showing an early effect of language on thinking for speaking (as measured by gestures that occur during the speech act). (2) Language did not affect silent gesture at any age, highlighting early limits on the effects language has on thinking and revealing a language of gesture that shows similarities across languages.

Key words motion events, co-speech gesture, silent gesture, child language, crosslinguistic differences

What makes an awfully good oxymoron?

Marianna M. Bolognesi, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Claudia Roberta Combei, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Marta La Pietra, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain

Francesca Masini, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Abstract Oxymorons combine two opposite terms in a paradoxical manner. They are closely intertwined with antonymy, since the union of antonymous items creates the paradoxical effect of the oxymoron and generates a new meaning. Compared to other forms of figurative language, oxymorons are largely underinvestigated. We explored what makes good oxymorons through a crowdsourcing task in which we asked participants to judge the acceptability, comprehensibility, effectiveness/aptness, commonness, pleasantness, and humoristic connotation of Italian adjective–noun oxymorons. We hypothesized that oxymorons featuring morphologically related antonyms (felice infelicità ‘happy unhappiness’) may be perceived to be better than oxymorons featuring morphologically unrelated antonyms (felice tristezza ‘happy sadness’) and that oxymorons constructed by complementaries (esatta inesattezza ‘exact inexactness’) may be perceived to be better than oxymorons constructed by contraries (bella bruttezza ‘beautiful ugliness’). The results confirmed only partially our hypotheses: oxymorons with complementaries were perceived as more acceptable, comprehensible, effective/apt, common, whereas no strong trend was found for the other two dimensions. Surprisingly, our analyses revealed that oxymoronic constructions containing morphologically unrelated words were perceived as more acceptable, comprehensible, effective/apt, common, pleasant, contradicting our initial expectations.

Key words antonymy, crowdsourcing, figurative language, Italian, oxymoron

Tracing thick and thin concepts through corpora

Kevin Reuter, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Lucien Baumgartner, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Pascale Willemsen, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Tao Xiong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

Abstract Philosophers and linguists currently lack the means to reliably identify evaluative concepts and measure their evaluative intensity. Using a corpus-based approach, we present a new method to distinguish evaluatively thick and thin adjectives like 'courageous' and 'awful' from descriptive adjectives like 'narrow,' and from value-associated adjectives like 'sunny.' Our study suggests that the modifiers 'trul' and 'really' frequently highlight the evaluative dimension of thick and thin adjectives, allowing for them to be uniquely classified. Based on these results, we believe our operationalization may pave the way for a more quantitative approach to the study of thick and thin concepts.

Key words thick concepts, thin concepts, modifiers, truly, evaluation, sentiment, corpus studies

Matched or moved? Asymmetry in high- and low-level visual processing of motion events

Xingyi Fu, University of York, Department of Education, York, UK

Norbert Vanek, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; Charles University, Prague, Czechia

Leah Roberts, University of York, Department of Education, York, UK

Abstract Consensus on the extent to which cross-linguistic differences affect event cognition is currently absent. This is partly because cognitive influences of language have rarely been examined within speakers of different languages in tasks that manipulate the level of visual processing. This study presents a novel combination of a high-level approach upregulating the involvement of language, namely self-paced sentence-video verification, and a low-level visual detection method without language use, namely breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) (Yang et al., 2014). The results point to cross-linguistic effects on event cognition by revealing variations in visual processing patterns of manner and path by English versus Mandarin Chinese speakers. Language specificity was found on both levels of processing. An asymmetry in response speed across tasks highlights an important difference between facilitation of detecting contrasts when recruitment of verbal labels is automatic, versus facilitation of verifying correspondences when labels are overt.

Key words motion event cognition, manner and path, continuous flash suppression, sentence-video verification, low-level visual processing, linguistic relativity

Event integration as a driving force of language change: evidence from Chinese 使-shǐ-make

Na Liu, Beihang University, Beijing, China

Fuyin Thomas Li, Beihang University, Beijing, China

Abstract Talmy’s (1991; 2000a; 2000b) influential work on motion events provides a strong two-way typology that can examine and account for the typology of a language, but this framework is basically synchronic. It may not be equally valid to explain language change. In this paper, we apply the event integration theory and its latest development, The Macro-event Hypothesis (Li, 2020, 2023), to account for the development of the causative verb 使-shǐ-make (SHI for short) in Chinese. This study reveals that, firstly, the multi-functional behavior of SHI represents a typical case of grammaticalization, with a full verb acquiring the role of conjunction and expressing abstract meanings. Secondly, the semantic division of the causative and non-causative uses of SHI in Contemporary Chinese is the most clear-cut. Thirdly, causative SHI shows a greater level of semantic bleaching, and the construction profiles a single causal activity and has a higher degree of event integration when compared to its lexical verbal use. The constructional grammaticalization of SHI confirms that event integration is key to its development. This study verifies The Macro-event Hypothesis of a continuum of grammaticalization in language and uncovers the process of semantic gradation that takes place in Chinese.

Key words event typology, event integration, 使-shǐ-make, The Macro-event Hypothesis, grammaticalization continuum

Metaphor use in depersonalization/derealization

Jane Dilkes, The Open University, Milton Keynes, GB, UK

Abstract This study investigates the use of metaphor in the dissociative disorder depersonalization/derealization – the feeling of unreality or detachment from the senses or surrounding events. While the debilitating experience of depersonalization/derealization is prevalent, it is also under-acknowledged, such that it is often expressed through metaphor, with more typical metaphor described in diagnostic criteria. Using naturally occurring text from two prominent English language depersonalization/derealization support fora, in the current study a systematic survey is made of metaphor to communicate the experience of depersonalization/derealization in context. It is concluded that metaphor described in the formal diagnostic criteria for depersonalization/derealization does not completely represent metaphor use in the contexts investigated. A summary is made of metaphor for the experiences of depersonalization, and derealization, and depersonalization/derealization more generally, across both the contexts investigated, that may support vital understanding and diagnosis of this debilitating, under-recognized experience, across a wider demographic.

Key words metaphor, metaphor signalling, depersonalization/derealization, psychopathology, applied linguistics, computational linguistics

Gender is conceptualized in different ways across cultures

Claudia Mazzuca, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Anna M. Borghi, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy

Saskia van Putten, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Luisa Lugli, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Roberto Nicoletti, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Asifa Majid, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Abstract Gender can be considered an embodied social concept encompassing biological and cultural components. In this study, we explored whether the concept of gender varies as a function of different cultural and linguistic norms by comparing communities that vary in their social treatment of gender-related issues and linguistic encoding of gender. In Study 1, Italian, Dutch, and English-speaking participants completed a free-listing task, which showed Italians and Dutch were the most distinct in their conceptualization of gender: Italian participants focused more on socio-cultural features (e.g., discrimination, politics, and power), whereas Dutch participants focused more on the corporeal sphere (e.g., hormones, breasts, and genitals). Study 2 replicated this finding focusing on Italian and Dutch and using a typicality rating task: socio-cultural and abstract features were considered as more typical of “gender” by Italian than Dutch participants. Study 3 addressed Italian and Dutch participants’ explicit beliefs about gender with a questionnaire measuring essentialism and constructivism, and consolidated results from Studies 1 and 2 showing that Dutch participants endorsed more essentialist beliefs about gender than Italian participants. Consistent with socio-cultural constructivist accounts, our results provide evidence that gender is conceptualized differently by diverse groups and is adapted to specific cultural and linguistic environments.

Key words concepts, gender, cross-cultural variability, abstractness, gender/sex

Functional priority of syntax over semantics in Chinese ‘ba’ construction: evidence from eye-tracking during natural reading

Yanjun Wei, Key Laboratory of the Cognitive Science of Language (Beijing Language and Culture University), Ministry of Education, Beijing, China; Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China

Yingjuan Tang, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China

Adam John Privitera, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract Studies on sentence processing in inflectional languages support that syntactic structure building functionally precedes semantic processing. Conversely, most EEG studies of Chinese sentence processing do not support the priority of syntax. One possible explanation is that the Chinese language lacks morphological inflections. Another explanation may be that the presentation of separate sentence components on individual screens in EEG studies disrupts syntactic framework construction during sentence reading. The present study investigated this explanation using a self-paced reading experiment mimicking rapid serial visual presentation in EEG studies and an eye-tracking experiment reflecting natural reading. In both experiments, Chinese ‘ba’ sentences were presented to Chinese young adults in four conditions that differed across the dimensions of syntactic and semantic congruency. Evidence supporting the functional priority of syntax over semantics was limited to only the natural reading context, in which syntactic violations blocked the processing of semantics. Additionally, we observed a later stage of integrating plausible semantics with a failed syntax. Together, our findings extend the functional priority of syntax to the Chinese language and highlight the importance of adopting more ecologically valid methods when investigating sentence reading.

Key words syntactic processing, semantic processing, eye-tracking, self-paced reading, natural reading

More than just ambivalence: the perception of emotionally ambiguous words on the spaces of origin and activation indexed by behavioural and webcam-based eye-tracking correlates

Adrianna Wielgopolan, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Kamil K. Imbir, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract When we think about emotional ambiguity, we usually think about the feeling of ambivalence. However, in a recently proposed model, ambiguity might also be present in different emotional spaces, such as origin (dimensions of automaticity and reflectiveness) and activation (arousal and subjective significance) as proposed in the basics of dual-process theories. In two experiments, we checked for behavioural and psychophysical differences in processing words of origin and activation ambiguities while completing an emotionality rating task. In Experiment 1, we assessed emotionality ratings and reaction times; in Experiment 2, we used a webcam-based eye-tracking measurement to assess the number and mean duration of fixations. We found significant effects for words differing in origin and activation: the emotionality ratings increased within the intensity of origin ambiguity but decreased within the intensity of activation ambiguity; more and longer fixations were registered for words of higher origin ambiguity; and gradually fewer and shorter fixations were registered within increases in activation ambiguity. We found that the ambiguities on spaces of origin and activation produced their own main effects, but they also factored significantly into the interaction, modifying each other’s results. Our study is the first to show specifics of the perception of ambiguous stimuli on spaces other than valence.

Key words emotional ambiguity, origin, activation, webcam-based eye-tracking, emotional words

The many facets of inhibitory control and their role in syntactic selection

Małgorzata Korko, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warszawa, Poland

Mark Coulson, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Alexander Jones, Middlesex University, London, UK

Paul de Mornay Davies, Middlesex University, London, UK

Abstract There is accumulating evidence that distinct forms of domain-general inhibition underlie the selection of lexical candidates from among co-activated representations in single-word production. It is less clear whether similar control processes are engaged in the resolution of syntactic conflict in sentence production. This study assessed the relative contribution of three types of inhibitory control operating at different stages of information processing to syntactic interference resolution in an active-passive voice production task. Inhibition of response execution (the anti-saccade effect) and resolution of representational conflict (the flanker effect) were related to the occurrence of repairs and sentence onset latencies in passive voice trials. The results suggest not only that general-purpose mechanisms may be in place that resolve conflict regardless of whether it stems from syntactic or non-syntactic (non-verbal) representations, but also that they operate at dissociable processing stages.

Key words inhibition, cognitive control, syntactic production, structural competition

Conceptual metaphor in areal perspective: time, space, and contact in the Sinosphere

Michael Fiddler, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Abstract This paper discusses spatio-temporal metaphors in three regions in and around China from the perspective of language contact, looking for evidence of areal convergence or transfer of the conceptual metaphors. The approach fits broadly within the framework of Cognitive Contact Linguistics. After a review of spatio-temporal metaphors in the Sinitic languages, I sketch out the relevant metaphors in languages spoken in northwest China (Xinjiang and the Qinghai-Gansu Sprachbund), in and near northeast China, and in south China and Taiwan – many of which have not been discussed previously in the literature on conceptual metaphor. The study reveals evidence for metaphor transfer involving the up-down spatial dimension from Sinitic to Japanese and Korean, contact-facilitated extension of metaphor involving the front-back dimension in Tsou, and possible transfer of front-back metaphor to other languages of Taiwan. Several of the lexical items used in front-back metaphorical expressions in Santa, two Hmong varieties, Japanese, and Korean are borrowed from Sinitic, but these do not clearly represent transfer of the conceptual mapping.

Key words metaphor transfer, language contact, areal linguistics, spatio-temporal metaphor, Sinitic languages

The flexibility and representational nature of phonological prediction in listening comprehension: evidence from the visual world paradigm

Zitong Zhao, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Jinfeng Ding, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Jiayu Wang, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Yiya Chen, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, Netherlands

Xiaoqing Li, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Normal University, Xuzhou, China

Abstract Using the visual world paradigm with printed words, this study investigated the flexibility and representational nature of phonological prediction in real-time speech processing. Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese listened to spoken sentences containing highly predictable target words and viewed a visual array with a critical word and a distractor word on the screen. The critical word was manipulated in four ways: a highly predictable target word, a homophone competitor, a tonal competitor, or an unrelated word. Participants showed a preference for fixating on the homophone competitors before hearing the highly predictable target word. The predicted phonological information waned shortly but was re-activated later around the acoustic onset of the target word. Importantly, this homophone bias was observed only when participants were completing a ‘pronunciation judgement’ task, but not when they were completing a ‘word judgement’ task. No effect was found for the tonal competitors. The task modulation effect, combined with the temporal pattern of phonological pre-activation, indicates that phonological prediction can be flexibly generated by top-down mechanisms. The lack of tonal competitor effect suggests that phonological features such as lexical tone are not independently predicted for anticipatory speech processing.

Key words phonological prediction, visual world paradigm, eye-tracking, speech comprehension

Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation

Margot Vancauwenbergh, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

Karlien Franco, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Abstract This study examines a collection of expressions for the taboo topic of menstruation in Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. A model for the identification of conceptualization patterns in taboo verbalizations is set up, analyzing each expression according to the X-phemistic mechanisms and, if applicable, the metaphorical source domains or metonymic vehicles at its origin. The various conceptualizations of menstruation are approached from a socio-cultural perspective; variation in conceptualization is examined through a correspondence regression analysis with three speaker-related explanatory variables (L1 and associated cultural background, menstrual experience, and age group). The underlying interest is linguo-cultural as the study aims to verify whether dominant menstrual attitudes are reflected in the linguistic conceptualization of menstruation within each socio-cultural group. Such correlations are indeed found, although the youngest age-group shows some unexpected linguistic behavior.

Key words lexical semantics, menstruation, taboo, X-phemisms, metaphor and metonymy, conceptualization, speaker-related variation

期刊简介

Language and cognition is a venue for the publication of high-quality empirical research focusing on the interface between language and cognition. It is open to research from the full range of subject disciplines, theoretical backgrounds, and analytical frameworks that populate linguistics and the cognitive sciences. We aim to cover a wide range of interdisciplinary research focused on theoretical issues surrounding the language system.

《语言与认知》专注于语言和认知之间的界面。它对来自语言学和认知科学的所有学科、理论背景和分析框架的研究都是开放的。我们的目标是涵盖广泛的跨学科研究，重点是围绕语言系统的理论问题。

In addition to the traditional areas of cognitive linguistics (e.g., construction grammar, metaphor theory, linguistic relativity, sensorimotor simulation), we especially welcome research which considers theoretical linguistic questions within a broader cognitive context. We also strongly encourage submissions investigating iconicity, multimodality, signed languages, gesture, or language evolution. We generally do not consider applied work, such as classroom based research, or studies focused on education, language aptitude or language teaching.

除了认知语言学的传统领域(如结构语法、隐喻理论、语言相对论、感觉运动模拟)，我们特别欢迎在更广泛的认知背景下考虑理论语言学问题的研究。我们也强烈鼓励提交研究象似性、多模态、手语、手势或语言进化的作品。我们通常不考虑应用工作，例如基于课堂的研究，或专注于教育、语言能力或语言教学的研究。

官网地址：

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-and-cognition

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