Language Sciences最新文献

{"title":"Large models of what? Mistaking engineering achievements for human linguistic agency","authors":"Abeba Birhane ,&nbsp;Marek McGann","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper we argue that key, often sensational and misleading, claims regarding linguistic capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) are based on at least two unfounded assumptions: the <em>assumption of language completeness</em> and the <em>assumption of data completeness</em>. Language completeness assumes that a distinct and complete thing such as “a natural language” exists, the essential characteristics of which can be effectively and comprehensively modelled by an LLM. The assumption of data completeness relies on the belief that a language can be quantified and wholly captured by data. Work within the enactive approach to cognitive science makes clear that, rather than a distinct and complete thing, language is a means or way of acting. Languaging is not the kind of thing that can admit of a complete or comprehensive modelling. From an enactive perspective we identify three key characteristics of enacted language; <em>embodiment</em>, <em>participation</em>, and <em>precariousness</em>, that are absent in LLMs, and likely incompatible in principle with current architectures. We argue that these absences imply that LLMs are not now and cannot in their present form be linguistic agents the way humans are. We illustrate the point in particular through the phenomenon of “algospeak”, a recently described pattern of high-stakes human language activity in heavily controlled online environments. On the basis of these points, we conclude that sensational and misleading claims about LLM agency and capabilities emerge from a deep misconception of both what human language is and what LLMs are.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101672"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000615/pdfft?md5=f7f3281a359df35af751aca63248e4e7&pid=1-s2.0-S0388000124000615-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142041034","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":"Sympathising with patients in historical China: an interaction ritual approach","authors":"He Cang ,&nbsp;Juliane House ,&nbsp;Fengguang Liu ,&nbsp;Dániel Z. Kádár","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101665","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101665","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this study, we examine how family members expressed sympathy when visiting patients in mid-eighteenth-century China, by studying a corpus of patient visits drawn from the renowned Chinese novel Hongloumeng 红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber). The study of such visits is methodologically challenging because these visits were less scripted than many other ritual interactions, operating with many seemingly ad hoc elements. We approach patient visits in our data as interaction rituals which – similar to any ritual – operate with a frame and a related cluster of conventionalized patterns of language use. We argue that the pragmatic dynamics of many interactional ritual phenomena such as patient visits can be reliably captured by bringing together ritual, speech acts and interaction.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101665"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000548/pdfft?md5=81ef46459088038a30a77cdd8ccb1664&pid=1-s2.0-S0388000124000548-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141962064","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":"Voices in reading literature","authors":"Dag-Tore Nordbø Kristiansen ,&nbsp;Karin Kukkonen ,&nbsp;Stefka G. Eriksen ,&nbsp;Sarah Bro Trasmundi","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101664","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101664","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Building upon recent studies of historical reading practices and their insights into the bodily and cognitive nature of reading, this article explores the impact of silent and voiced reading on the diverse bodily, cognitive, and emotional engagements with a text. Our starting point is that language is not merely a tool for translating mental content but emerges from and shapes embodied ways of interacting with the world, in this case, a reading-world. First, we present a phonetic analysis based on a pilot study of university students' voiced and silent reading. The overall cognitive act of articulating phonemes based on perception of graphemes is portrayed as an embodied process, particularly evident in instances where readers modify their pronunciation of unfamiliar words or grapheme clusters. Moreover, we observe how readers embody emotions and differentiate between narrators or voices in the text by creatively and dynamically modulating their oral cavity to produce subtle, yet cognitively significant changes in speech sounds. Second, drawing on interview data from the same study, we explore how the two reading conditions influence experiential factors, including perceptions of time, qualities of imagery, and the multiplicity of voices enacted by the reader. Together, these aspects provide insights into the function and value of readers' practices of reading silently and aloud. While, in our study, reading aloud helps modulating local sensitivity to prosodic features that are important for e.g. emotion regulation and comprehension, readers more easily orient themselves in a text when reading silently, strengthening the in-depth experience of settings, characters, and narrators. While the attributes of silent and voiced reading may vary based on expertise, norms, and personal preferences, each mode appears to offer distinctive advantages. We thus conclude by proposing that readers could benefit from alternating between both reading modes, adapting to the specific task at hand. This approach allows for the full realisation of the embodied potential in alignment with the requirements of the task. Additionally, historical practices of reading aloud can inform the study of reading modes, providing a repertoire of possibilities absent in today's reading ecologies dominated by silent reading.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101664"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000536/pdfft?md5=1c67bf83e1560d4480977e38135c0094&pid=1-s2.0-S0388000124000536-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141962065","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":"Deixis and dementia: Insights from phenomenological philosophy","authors":"Erik Norman Dzwiza-Ohlsen","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101663","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101663","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article provides an overview of the relevance of deixis in dementia from the perspective of phenomenological philosophy with an inter- and transdisciplinary scope. A key objective is to integrate existing approaches and develop hypotheses for future research. The paper seeks to explore the potential of deixis to enhance interaction and communication in the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease. The paper prepares the ground for three sub-goals: (1) Developing a general taxonomy of deixis, differentiating between verbal deixis (e.g., pronouns), corporeal deixis (e.g., pointing gestures), and medial deixis (e.g., arrows). (2) Investigating the diagnostic, therapeutic and care applications of deixis in Alzheimer's disease in the face of the progressive loss of higher cognitive skills. (3) Pinpointing the desiderata emerging from the relation between deixis and dementia at both conceptual and empirical levels. This paper argues for viewing deixis not solely as a deficit-indicator but also as a resource-indicator. Deixis in dementia can serve on two interconnected yet distinct levels: one for diagnosis, and another for therapy and care. On the one hand, verbal indexicals have a deficit-indicating function for the loss of higher cognitive skills, such as language, orientation and memory. This function is relevant for linguistically shaped dementia diagnosis and a holistic interpretation of key symptoms. On the other hand, all three kinds of deixis, the verbal, the corporeal, and the medial, do have a resource-indicating function. The threefold deixis helps us to advance orientation, communication and interaction in both private and institutional living environments. For example, the corporeal deixis is an important communicative resource, which helps to navigate and maintain attention, intention, and emotion. Finally, the paper proposes an index-ability scale to identify personalized communication resources for individuals with dementia.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101663"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000524/pdfft?md5=9f4f93c464156e4a3628db600a38b4a4&pid=1-s2.0-S0388000124000524-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141962066","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":"Remarks on Pāṇini's grammar","authors":"Esa Itkonen","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>First, Pāṇini's grammar <em>the Aṣṭādhyāyī</em> (= ‘Eight Chapters’) is introduced to the reader with the aid of a few representative quotations. After a brief overall characterization of the grammar, its last rule (= “<em>a a</em>”), known to be the shortest grammatical rule in the world, is shown to convey the following message: “Now that the descriptive work is done, language is given back to its speakers.” In philosophy of logic Gentzen's natural deduction is generally preferred over Frege's and Russell's axiomatic approach, but Pāṇini is shown to offer a partial caveat. Finally, his unique role in the annals of scientific thought is justified by the fact that he is both the oldest and the best in his own field.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101661"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141950778","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":"Mutual orientation in and through “skills”: Outline of a problem","authors":"Clemens Knobloch","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101660","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101660","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper is concerned with practical skills as a resource and as an object of deictic procedures in interaction and communication. It is well known that, as a rule, practical skills are not based on knowledge that is formulated—or that can be formulated—in language, nor that practical skills can be described completely and explicitly in language for purposes of learning and teaching. If we examine the activity of speaking, we see that it constitutes itself a practical skill, constrained by the same limits that apply to other practical skills: on the one hand, speaking serves the practical purpose of orienting participants in a discourse, drawing attention to and focussing on what it is used to refer to in the speaking situation, and, on the other hand, its representational function is based on the sub-skills of phonetic, grammatical and semantic articulation, the workings of which cannot be described completely and explicitly by the average speaker. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a broadly conceived notion of deixis and indexicality allows us, in accordance with the multiple reflexivity of language, to begin to make language tractable as a practical skill.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101660"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0388000124000494/pdfft?md5=8859282ce1eb7508965f03bf545ce2b5&pid=1-s2.0-S0388000124000494-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141637889","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":"Lost and found language: From fuzzy logic to yūgen","authors":"Anton Vladimirovich Sukhoverkhov ,&nbsp;Alla Gennadievna Karipidi","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101662","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101662","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the one side of the language studies, we have linguists who support the practical and theoretical autonomy of language and linguistics and argue that “linguistics must attempt to grasp language, not as a conglomerate of non-linguistic (e.g., physical, physio-logical, psychological, logical, sociological) phenomena, but as a self-sufficient totality, a structure &lt;em&gt;sui generis&lt;/em&gt;” (Hjelmslev, 1961, 5–6). On the other side, there are researchers who declare that ‘‘linguistics does not need to postulate the existence of languages as part of its theoretical apparatus’’ (Harris, 2003, 46) or “if you want to learn about language, forget about language!” (Steffensen, 2011, 204). By resorting to the methodology of fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets, ideas of Greek and Eastern philosophy, the research suggests moving away from theoretical binarisation and exploring gradients between extreme positions (autonomous vs heteronomous, universal vs situated, real vs constructed). First of all, the article extends further the ideas of Harris and Steffensen and introduces a new thesis: ‘if you want to lose the language, study it!’. Secondly, the research demonstrates the need for the &lt;em&gt;practical and aesthetical&lt;/em&gt; acknowledgment of the reality of language (e.g., in education). To prove the first statement, the emptiness of &lt;em&gt;theoretical&lt;/em&gt; efforts to find the entity of language, the research brings into play the ideas of fuzzy logic and critically revises realism, conceptualism and nominalism in language studies. The work provides evidences that neither ‘language’ nor ‘dialects’ or ‘idiolects’ can be found in practice due to the inherent fuzziness of the linguistic facts (systems) ‘described’ by these clear-cut categories. It is argued that theories and concepts designed for the description of the language-related phenomena are theoretical constructions that do not fully capture the stochastic and dynamic reality of language. Instead, they merely construct or declare it, similar to how we create star constellations (Steffensen and Fill, 2014). It resonates with the idea that can be found in Zen Buddhism and Taoism: “name it and you will lose it”. The research also holds that even if ‘language’ is an “ensemble of idiolects, sociolects, dialects and so on – rather than an entity per se” (Hazan, 2015, 11), we cannot find a token of its existence in either the entity or in the elements (ensemble) constituting that hypothetical entity. The article concludes that those researchers who focus on the particular nature of language lose its complexity; conversely, those who embrace all aspects (e.g., integrational approaches) lose its entity. However, if we are not able to grasp &lt;em&gt;theoretically&lt;/em&gt; the reality of language does it mean it has no reality whatsoever and researchers and learners cannot have any &lt;em&gt;positive knowledge&lt;/em&gt; about &lt;em&gt;the language&lt;/em&gt;? The article offers some analogies in favour of the reality of language (comparison with music, r","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 101662"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141607412","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":"Language awareness: On the semiotics of talk and text","authors":"Alexander V. Kravchenko","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The article argues for a necessity to increase human awareness of language as functional biological behavior rather than simply a tool in the service of communication, by emphasizing the difference between talk and text as ontologically different semiotic phenomena characteristic of the human cognitive domain. The established tradition to view written words as linguistic signs leads the studies of natural language astray, effectively hiding its nature as biologically functional orientational behavior in a consensual domain that evolved with the evolution of our species and was not a cultural invention. Because of the identification of text with talk in linguistic semiotics, the empirical validity of the core semiotic concept of natural linguistic sign, based on the so-called semiotic triangle, is undermined. While talk is a dynamic fact of nature, text is a static artifact; it is argued, therefore, that the analytical approach to linguistic signs as objects in the world is inadequate, and the notions of first- and second-order semiotics are introduced. It is concluded that awareness of the cognitive-semiotic difference between talk and text and their respective roles in the evolution of humans may facilitate further research into the nature and origin of humanness.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"105 ","pages":"Article 101659"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141478550","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":"Skills, language and indexicality – Determining a relationship","authors":"Janette Friedrich","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper investigates the concept of skills or abilities using the distinction between ‘knowing that’ and ‘knowing how', as put forward by Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 book <em>The Concept of Mind</em>. The assertion of two forms of knowledge suggests the possibility that skills can be represented in propositional language. However, in the analysis of activities it is frequently shown that skills cannot be described ‘in words', but at best can be indicated. On the other hand, speaking is itself a skill. If we accept Karl Bühler’s (1934) use of the concept of context we see that he describes representative language above all as a skill. The paper closes with a consideration of whether and, if so, to what extent it is possible to square these two conceptions of language.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"105 ","pages":"Article 101658"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141478654","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":"Forms and functions of self-repetition in Mandarin child-directed speech","authors":"Chiung-chih Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101644","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study aims to investigate how self-repetition is used to serve communicative purposes in Mandarin mother–child interaction, focusing particularly on mothers’ child-directed speech. The participants of this study consisted of 12 Mandarin-speaking children (4 two-year-olds, 4 three-year-olds, and 4 four-year-olds) and their mothers. Natural conversation from each mother–child dyad was collected for a total of 12 h. The occurrences of self-repetition in the data were analyzed in terms of their forms and functions. The results showed that the mothers of younger children tended to use self-repetition more frequently than the mothers of older children. The predominant form of self-repetition was expanded repetition, and the major functions were soliciting responses and emphasis. Detailed analyses showed how the mothers used the different forms of self-repetition to express various functions. It was concluded that self-repetition in child-directed speech plays an important role in facilitating mother–child interaction and that it may also reflect mothers’ sensitivity to the developing linguistic, cognitive, and communicative abilities of their children.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"105 ","pages":"Article 101644"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141438351","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}