Volume 27, Issue 3 -

Judgments are often used in linguistic research. Not much is known, however, about the variation of such judgments within and between participants. From a usage-based perspective, variation might be expected: with judgments based in representations, and representations resulting from input and use, both inter- and intra-individual variation are likely. This study investigates the reliability of metalinguistic judgments, more specifically familiarity judgments, for Dutch prepositional phrases (e. g., op de bank , ‘on the couch’). Familiarity judgments for 44 PPs offered in isolation and in a sentential context were given by 86 participants in two identical test sessions, using Magnitude Estimation. Aggregated scores (averaged over participants) are remarkably consistent (Pearson’s r =.97), and in part predicted by corpus frequencies. At the same time, there is considerable variation between and within participants. Context does not reduce this variation. We interpret both the stability and instability to be real reflections of language: a relatively stable system in a speech community consisting of speakers who are variable and forever changing. The results suggest that judgment data are informative at different levels of granularity. They call for more attention to individual variation and its underlying dynamics.

Multimodal narrative can help us understand how conceptualizers schematize information when they create mental representations of films and may shed light on why some cinematic conventions are easier or harder for viewers to integrate. This study compares descriptions of a shot/reverse shot sequence (a sequence of camera shots from the viewpoints of different characters) across users of English and American Sign Language (ASL). We ask which gestural and linguistic resources participants use to narrate this event. Speakers and signers tended to represent the same characters via the same point of view and to show a single perspective rather than combining multiple perspectives simultaneously. Neither group explicitly mentioned the shift in cinematographic perspective. We argue that encoding multiple points of view might be a more accurate visual description, but is avoided because it does not create a better narrative.

This paper presents a usage-based, Cognitive Grammar analysis of Place as a symbolic structure in signed languages. We suggest that many signs are better viewed as constructions in which schematic or specific formal properties are extracted from usage events alongside specific or schematic meaning. We argue that pointing signs are complex constructions composed of a pointing device and a Place, each of which are symbolic structures having form and meaning. We extend our analysis to antecedent-anaphora constructions and directional verb constructions. Finally, we discuss how the usage-based approach suggests a new way of understanding the relationship between language and gesture.

Many aspects of language and cognition involve an asymmetry describable in terms of a baseline (B) and various dimensions and levels of elaboration (E). The baseline has some kind of priority – being already established, in place, or under control – and is generally more substantive than elaborating elements. B/E organization is reflected in the control cycle , a very general cognitive model with many manifestations in everyday experience. Since elaboration produces a higher-level baseline, B/E organization involves successive strata , each a substrate for the next, which draws on additional conceptual resources creating a wider range of potential. Seriality and hierarchy represent special cases of this layered organization: in a serial structure each element provides the substrate for interpreting the next; and in composition, component structures function as a dual baseline for apprehending the more elaborate composite structure. B/E organization is characteristic of both individual structures and systems of opposing elements. Recognizing it eliminates the need to posit “zero” elements, as the zero member of a system is simply the baseline structure.