Cognitive constraints on constituent order: Evidence from elicited pantomime

Hall, Matthew L.; Mayberry, Rachel I.; Ferreira, Victor S.

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.05.004

Cited by 87 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In support of that hypothesis, Hall et al (2013) find no decrease in OSV orders for reversible events. We also find that the usage of OSV order does not significantly correlate with reversibility in any language, though it is sometimes trending, with the effect in the direction such that reversible events are less likely to be expressed as OSV ( .…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 73%

“…In addition, we can use these data to test the hypothesis of Hall et al (2013), that gesturers resort to SVO order in order to prevent gesturing OV, which might result in the object being interpreted as the subject due to its adjacency to the verb. In support of that hypothesis, Hall et al (2013) find no decrease in OSV orders for reversible events.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When gesturing an action performed by a human, people might use their body to take the role of the agent. Since they are acting the role of the agent, they may be reluctant to gesture an animate object before gesturing the verb (Hall et al, 2013). This tendency does not have a direct analogue in vocal speech.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: A subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages

et al. 2015

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In communicating events by gesture, participants create codes that recapitulate the patterns of word order in the world's vocal languages (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2008;Hall et al., 2010;Langus and Nespor, 2010;Gibson et al, 2013; and others). Participants most often convey simple transitive events using gestures in the order Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), the most common word order in human languages. When there is a possibility of confusion between subject and object, participants use the order Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). This overall pattern has been explained by positing an underlying cognitive preference for subject-initial, verb-final orders, with the verb-medial order SVO order emerging to facilitate robust communication in a noisy channel (Gibson et al., 2013). However, whether the subject-initial and verb-final biases are innate or the result of languages that the particpants already know has been unclear, because participants in previous studies all spoke either SVO or SOV languages, which could induce a subject-initial, verb-late bias. Furthermore, the exact manner in which known languages influence gestural orders has been unclear. In this paper we demonstrate that there is a subject-initial and verb-final gesturing bias cross-linguistically by comparing gestures of speakers of SVO languages English and Russian to those of speakers of VSO languages Irish and Tagalog. The findings show that subject-initial and verb-final order emerges even in speakers of verb-initial languages, and that interference from these languages takes the form of occasionally gesturing in VSO order, without an additional bias toward other orders. The results provides further support for the idea that improvised gesture is a window into the pressures shaping language formation, independently of the languages that participants already know.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: A subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages

et al. 2015

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“…Another kind of linear grammar-that is, a system that relies on the linear order of the semantic roles being expressed to form conceptual relations-surfaces when people are asked to express actions or situations in a nonlinguistic task, such as in gesture or act-out tasks (Futrell et al, 2015;GoldinMeadow, So, Özyürek, & Mylander, 2008;Hall, Mayberry, & Ferreira, 2013). Overall, there is a vast preference to gesture, or act out, the agent first (e.g., girl), and then the patient (e.g., boy).…”

Section: Conceptual Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language

Jackendoff

Wittenberg

2016

Psychon Bull Rev

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We suggest that one way to approach the evolution of language is through reverse engineering: asking what components of the language faculty could have been useful in the absence of the full complement of components. We explore the possibilities offered by linear grammar, a form of language that lacks syntax and morphology altogether, and that structures its utterances through a direct mapping between semantics and phonology. A language with a linear grammar would have no syntactic categories or syntactic phrases, and therefore no syntactic recursion. It would also have no functional categories such as tense, agreement, and case inflection, and no derivational morphology. Such a language would still be capable of conveying certain semantic relations through word order-for instance by stipulating that agents should precede patients. However, many other semantic relations would have to be based on pragmatics and discourse context. We find evidence of linear grammar in a wide range of linguistic phenomena: pidgins, stages of late second language acquisition, home signs, village sign languages, language comprehension (even in fully syntactic languages), aphasia, and specific language impairment. We also find a full-blown language, Riau Indonesian, whose grammar is arguably close to a pure linear grammar. In addition, when subjects are asked to convey information through nonlinguistic gesture, their gestures make use of semantically based principles of linear ordering. Finally, some pockets of English grammar, notably compounds, can be characterized in terms of linear grammar. We conclude that linear grammar is a plausible evolutionary precursor of modern fully syntactic grammar, one that is still active in the human mind.

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“…Hall et al 2013). Importantly, all the major studies in this line of research rely on a seated design that keeps the participants stationary and prevents them from using their whole bodies (Goldin-Meadow et al 2008;Meir et al 2010;Gibson et al 2013;Hall et al 2013); in effect, the type of communication studied there is impromptu manual communication (see below ''silent gesture'').…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Pantomime for Language Evolution Research

Żywiczyński

Wacewicz

Sibierska

2016

Topoi

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Although pantomimic scenarios recur in the most important historical as well as current accounts of language origins, a serious problem is the lack of a commonly accepted definition of ''pantomime''. We scrutinise several areas of study, from theatre studies to semiotics to primatology, pointing to the differences in use that may give rise to misunderstandings, and working towards a set of definitional criteria of ''pantomime'' specifically useful for language evolution research. We arrive at a definition of pantomime as a communication mode that is mimetic; non-conventional and motivated; multimodal (primarily visual); improvised; using the whole body rather than exclusively manual; holistic; communicatively complex and self-sufficient; semantically complex; displaced, openended and universal. So conceived, ''pantomime'' is a near synonym of ''bodily-mimetic communication'' as envisaged by Donald and Zlatev. On a wider plane, our work may help organise some of the terminology and discussion in language evolution, e.g. by drawing a clear distinction between gestural and pantomimic scenarios or by specifying the relation between pantomimic and multimodal scenarios.

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Cognitive constraints on constituent order: Evidence from elicited pantomime

Cited by 87 publications

References 30 publications

Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: A subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages

Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: A subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages

Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language

Defining Pantomime for Language Evolution Research

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