Language Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Collateral signals and conversation quality","authors":"Andrew J. Guydish ,&nbsp;Jean E. Fox Tree","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101716","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101716","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When we think of the quality of a conversation, what comes to mind? Generally, it is the content that was discussed during the conversation, with uplifting topics leading to positive experiences, and dispiriting topics leading to negative experiences. However, there is also a great deal of information that is exchanged in the process of conveying conversational content, such as how communicators get their words out, how they produce those words, and how they manage the conversations that support the exchange of content information. In this paper, we explore the possible influence of collateral signals on judgements of conversational quality. Specifically, we examine how juxtapositions, concomitants, inserts, and modifications may influence conversational quality. We provide examples of each type of collateral signal from a variety of sources, and we discuss the possible impact each signal may have on conversational quality. Based on our analysis of the examples included, we propose that collateral signals may have a direct influence on conversational quality judgements that are independent of conversational content. That is, the subjective evaluation of conversations by interlocutors may not end simply at what is said, but how it was said.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 101716"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143550892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Frege's triangle and Austin's square: the meaning and use of no-predicates in English","authors":"Rachel Szekely","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101714","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101714","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents an analysis of <em>no</em> and <em>not</em> in English nominal copular sentences, couched in the speech-act theoretical framework original to J. L. Austin's “How to talk—Some simple ways” (1953/1989). I show that these negators differ in their speech act potential in this environment, and offer an explanation for the difference in meaning found in copular sentences containing them: the combination of the predicate nominal, analyzed as a Fregean concept, with <em>no</em>, results in a meaning that is distinct from nominal copular sentences occurring with <em>not</em>, and also different from the meaning found in sentences in which <em>no</em> combines with a nominal argument or in the postverbal position of the existential <em>there</em>-sentence. This work contributes to our understanding of the relationship between predication and negation and the interpretation and use of nominal predicates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 101714"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143444845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linguistic synesthesia and embodiment: A study based on Mandarin modality exclusivity norms","authors":"Chu-Ren Huang ,&nbsp;Qingqing Zhao ,&nbsp;Kathleen Ahrens ,&nbsp;Zhao Wang ,&nbsp;Yunfei Long","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101715","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101715","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"109 ","pages":"Article 101715"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143422351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Participatory sense-making and knowing-in-connection in VR","authors":"Nara Miranda de Figueiredo ,&nbsp;Giovanni Rolla ,&nbsp;Guilherme Nunes de Vasconcelos","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101705","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101705","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we discuss human interaction and connection in Virtual Reality (VR). We focus on <em>knowing-in-connection (KiC)</em>, a form of <em>participatory sense-making (PSM)</em> 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 <em>allusory</em> 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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101705"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The use of please in the expression of (im)politeness in the language of London teenagers and adults","authors":"Paloma Núñez Pertejo,&nbsp;Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101703","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101703","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the expression of (im)politeness in the language of teenagers and adults, looking specifically at cases of so-called ‘pragmatic reversal’ (Mazzon, 2017; Fedriani, 2019), in which a politeness marker is used with a confrontational meaning to threaten face. We focus on the use of <em>please</em>, traditionally a courtesy marker, in contexts where it expresses either positive or negative (im)politeness (Culpeper, 2011; Leech, 2014; Aijmer, 2015; Taylor, 2016), drawing on data from the <em>London English Corpus</em> and the spoken component of the <em>British National Corpus 2014</em>. Our analysis of teen talk suggests that <em>please</em> is sometimes used by adolescent speakers when there is a clear mismatch between polite and impolite formulae (e.g., ‘What's that shitty thing <em>please</em>?’). Such processes of pragmatic reversal seem to contribute to harmonious relationships among teenagers, consolidating mutual bonds, which is of key importance during the teen years, in that the discourse of these young speakers is governed by socio-pragmatic norms which differ markedly from those of adults. The paper concludes by noting the significant role of speaker age in the study of (im)politeness, and hence the need to address this issue both in terms of definitions of (im)politeness theory and in the application of these to real data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101703"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rhythm as an integration principle for modeling speech-action intersemiosis in classroom interaction: a social semiotic perspective","authors":"Xiaoqin Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101704"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linguistic relativity from an enactive perspective: the entanglement of language and cognition","authors":"Ulises Rodríguez Jordá ,&nbsp;Ezequiel A. Di Paolo","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101702","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101702","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101702"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unravelling the competing dynamics of Chinese causative markers shi 使, ling 令, jiao1 叫 and jiao2 教: A diachronic analysis","authors":"Xiaoyu Tian ,&nbsp;Dirk Speelman ,&nbsp;Weiwei Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101701","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101701","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses multinomial logistic regression models and mixed-effects binomial logistic models to examine the factors influencing the choice of Chinese causative markers <em>shi</em> 使 (‘make’), <em>ling</em> 令 (‘make’), <em>jiao1</em> 叫 (‘let’) and <em>jiao2</em> 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 <em>jiao1</em> and <em>jiao2</em>, which is likely to have contributed to the decline of the latter as a causative marker in contemporary Chinese. In contrast, <em>ling</em> exhibits a distinct usage pattern characterized by [<em>ling</em> + <em>ren</em> (‘people/person’) + emotion] constructions, presumably allowing it to maintain a stable presence despite its lower frequency compared to the widely used marker, <em>shi</em>. 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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101701"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"More to gesture than meets the (analyst's) eye? Querying the problem of online gestural loss from applied linguistics and psychotherapy perspectives","authors":"Simon Harrison","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101692","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101692","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101692"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Naming multiplicity: Taíno ecolinguistics and naming conventions, and implications for language reclamation and decolonizing environmental relationalities","authors":"Jonathan James Fisk","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101693","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101693","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 101693"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143171005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}