Grammatical category influences lateralized imagery for sentences

Abstract

a b st r a c t Natural language syntax has previously been thought to reflect abstract processing rules independent of meaning construction. However, grammatical categories may serve a functional role by allocating attention towards recurrent topics in discourse. Here, we show that listeners incorporate grammatical category into imagery when producing stick figure drawings from heard sentences, supporting the latter view. Participants listened to sentences with transitive verbs that independently varied whether a male or a female character (1) was mentioned first, (2) was the agent or recipient of an action, and (3) was the grammatical subject or object of the sentence. Replicating previous findings, we show that the first named character as well as the agent of the sentence tends to be drawn to the left in the image, probably reflecting left-to-right reading direction. But we also find that the grammatical subject of the sentence has a propensity to be drawn to the left of the object. We interpret this to suggest that grammatical category carries discursive meaning as an

Grammar, Gender and Demonstratives in Lateralized Imagery for Sentences

“…The grammatical subject is more often placed to the left, regardless of whether it is the first mentioned grammatical element, which might be suggestive of a general left-ward bias for prominent features. Stroustrup and Wallentin (2018) interpreted these findings within an attentional framework. Word order and grammatical categories are known to play a role in the construction of discourse, and in turn in distributing attention over different parts of linguistic expressions crucial to discourse comprehension.…”

“…Exposure to language and linguistic structure, both written and spoken, modulates cognitive functions that have hitherto been considered non-linguistic (Athanasopoulos et al, 2015;Boiteau & Almor, 2017;Chatterjee, Southwood, & Basilico, 1999;Coventry, Griffiths, & Hamilton, 2014;Dobel, Diesendruck, & Bölte, 2007;Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010;Gudde, Coventry, & Engelhardt, 2016;Hendricks & Boroditsky, 2017;Kranjec, Lehet, Bromberger, & Chatterjee, 2010;Levinson, 2003;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Román, El Fathi, & Santiago, 2013;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018;Tylén, Weed, Wallentin, Roepstorff, & Frith, 2010;Winawer et al, 2007).…”

“…This bias has since been interpreted to be related to reading direction (Boiteau & Almor, 2017;Dobel et al, 2007;Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Anne Maass, Suitner, & Nadhmi, 2014;Román et al, 2013). A simple way to study this influence on imagery is to ask participants to make drawings of linguistic content (Dobel et al, 2007;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018). With this method, it has been found that people from cultures with left-to-right reading direction consistently depict the first named item and the agent of the sentence to the left in the drawing (Dobel et al, 2007;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Anne Maass et al, 2014;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018).…”

“…A simple way to study this influence on imagery is to ask participants to make drawings of linguistic content (Dobel et al, 2007;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018). With this method, it has been found that people from cultures with left-to-right reading direction consistently depict the first named item and the agent of the sentence to the left in the drawing (Dobel et al, 2007;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Anne Maass et al, 2014;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018). Recently, Stroustrup and Wallentin (2018) also found that grammatical category plays a role when Danish speakers make drawings of verbally depicted scenes.…”

“…With this method, it has been found that people from cultures with left-to-right reading direction consistently depict the first named item and the agent of the sentence to the left in the drawing (Dobel et al, 2007;A Maass & Russo, 2003;Anne Maass et al, 2014;Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018). Recently, Stroustrup and Wallentin (2018) also found that grammatical category plays a role when Danish speakers make drawings of verbally depicted scenes. The grammatical subject is more often placed to the left, regardless of whether it is the first mentioned grammatical element, which might be suggestive of a general left-ward bias for prominent features.…”