Volume 30, Issue 4 -

Do children’s single words related to motion and change also encode aspects of environmental events highlighted by Talmy’s motion event analysis? If so, these meanings may predict children’s early verb meanings. Analyzing the kinds of meanings expressed in single “dynamic event words” through motion event semantics yields links between early true verbs in sentences and the semantics encoded in these single words. Dynamic event words (e.g., more, allgone, out, down) reflect the sense of temporal and spatial reversibility established in the late sensorimotor period. We propose that these dynamic meanings provide the semantic foundation for the most common verbs included in early sentences, and thus a bootstrap to full development of the verb repertoire. In this study, we followed the spoken language development (from single words to sentences) of five children. We identified dynamic event words as encoding dynamic change in the following dimensions: (1) spatial direction in relation to self; (2) vertical spatial direction; (3) figure/ground relationships; and (4) temporal event sequences. Verbs continuing the semantics previously identified in dynamic event words occurred early and dominated the verb repertoire through 24 months of age.

This paper presents a study of modality in Iranian Sign Language (ZEI) from a cognitive perspective, aimed at analyzing two linguistic channels: facial and manual. While facial markers and their grammatical functions have been studied in some sign languages, we have few detailed analyses of the facial channel in comparison with the manual channel in conveying modal concepts. This study focuses on the interaction between manual and facial markers. A description of manual modal signs is offered. Three facial markers and their modality values are also examined: squinted eyes, brow furrow, and downward movement of lip corners (horseshoe mouth). In addition to offering this first descriptive analysis of modality in ZEI, this paper also applies the Cognitive Grammar model of modality, the Control Cycle, and the Reality Model, classifying modals into two kinds, effective and epistemic. It is suggested that effective control, including effective modality, tends to be expressed on the hands, while facial markers play an important role in marking epistemic assessment, one manifestation of which is epistemic modality. ZEI, like some other sign languages, exhibits an asymmetry between the number of manual signs and facial markers expressing epistemic modality: while the face can be active in the expression of effective modality, it is commonly the only means of expressing epistemic modality. By positing an epistemic core in effective modality, Cognitive Grammar provides a theoretical basis for these findings.

Linguistic categories such as aspect are not identical across languages, and cross-linguistic differences can reveal differences in construal and conceptual categorization, which are key concepts in cognitive linguistics. Spanish-Russian parallel data diverge in situations where Spanish uses a Perfective Past tense form, while the Russian translation equivalent is an Imperfective Past tense form. We classify examples of aspectual mismatch according to grammatical constructions and language-specific facts. We find this mismatch in contexts with overt expression of time periods, as well as situations in which a final temporal boundary either is expressed or can be inferred. We interpret this in terms of a difference in conceptualization: Spanish has a tendency to view time periods from without, interpreting them as bounded and thus Perfective, whereas Russian has a tendency to view time periods from within, interpreting them on the basis of their duration without reference to their boundaries and thus Imperfective.

The idea that conventionalized general knowledge – sometimes referred to as a frame – guides the perception and interpretation of the world around us has long permeated various branches of cognitive science, including psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. In this paper we provide experimental evidence suggesting that frames also play a role in explaining certain long-distance dependency phenomena, as originally proposed by Deane (1991). We focus on a constraint that restricts the extraction of an NP from another NP, called subextraction , which Deane (1991) claims is ultimately a framing effect. In Experiment 1 we provide evidence showing that referents are extractable to the degree that they are deemed important for the proposition expressed by the utterance. This suggests that the world knowledge that the main verb evokes plays a key role in establishing which referents are extractable. In Experiment 2 we offer evidence suggesting that the acceptability of deep subextractions is correlated with the overall plausibility of the proposition, suggesting that complex structures can evoke complex frames as well, if sufficiently frequent and semantically coherent, and therefore more easily license deeper subextractions.

Frequently used linguistic structures become entrenched in memory; this is often assumed to make their consecutive parts more predictable, as well as fuse them into a single unit (chunking). High frequency moreover leads to a propensity for phonetic reduction. We present a word recognition experiment which tests how frequency information (string frequency, transitional probability) interacts with reduction in speech perception. Detection of the element to is tested in V- to- V inf sequences in English (e.g., need to V inf ), where to can undergo reduction (“needa”). Results show that reduction impedes recognition, but this can be mitigated by the predictability of the item. Recognition generally benefits from surface frequency, while a modest chunking effect is found in delayed responses to reduced forms of high-frequency items. Transitional probability shows a facilitating effect on reduced but not on full forms. Reduced forms also pose more difficulty when the phonological context obscures the onset of to . We conclude that listeners draw on frequency information in a predictive manner to cope with reduction. High-frequency structures are not inevitably perceived as chunks, but depend on cues in the phonetic form – reduction leads to perceptual prominence of the whole over the parts and thus promotes a holistic access.