Processes of conceptualization in language production: language-specific perspectives and event construal

Stutterheim, Christiane von; Nüse, Ralf

doi:10.1515/ling.2003.028

Cited by 116 publications

(123 citation statements)

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“…Prior research has distinguished between conceptualization as independent of language (the universal view), language based (the Whorfian view), or language oriented (the thinking-for-speaking view; von Stutterheim and Nüse 2003). Our bilingual speakers oriented towards the different aspects of motion events based on the language in use, suggesting that conceptualization for production is oriented by language principles, supporting the intermediate thinking-for-speaking view.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Verb Representation and Thinking-for-Speaking Effects in Spanish–English Bilinguals

Lai

Narasimhan

2014

Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing

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Does the language we speak influence how we think about the events in our experience? If so, do bilingual speakers construe the same event in different ways, depending on the language they use to verbally encode that event? Or does one of the languages play a more dominant role in influencing event construal? The present study investigates whether bilingual speakers attend to different aspects of a motion event, depending on the language they use to first describe that event. Specifically, we explore whether language-specific verb representations used in encoding motion events influence subsequent performance in a nonlinguistic similarity judgment task in Spanish-English bilinguals.We will begin by looking at different perspectives on whether language influences thought, including views on linguistic relativity and "thinking-for-speaking." Then we will focus on the domain of motion. We will present linguistic accounts of the semantic representations of motion verbs and discuss the crosslinguistic difference between English and Spanish. Next, we will review empirical studies that examine how verbal encodings influence motion event construal in monolinguals. We will also review empirical studies that explore linguistic relativity versus thinking-forspeaking in bilinguals. We then go on describe the current study. In the final section of the chapter, we discuss our findings in light of thinking-for-speaking effects, how events are conceptualized for language production, and the nature of representations in the bilingual mind.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Verb Representation and Thinking-for-Speaking Effects in Spanish–English Bilinguals

Lai

Narasimhan

2014

Cognitive Science Perspectives on Verb Representation and Processing

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“…All in all, our results show that native speakers are influenced by the repertoire of lexical means and the grammaticized structures that are most readily available in a given language during the process of selection, encoding and organization of information (Slobin, 1996;von Stutterheim and Nüse, 2003). Due to cross-linguistic differences in these means, speakers tend to establish anaphoric linkage via different information units and at different layers of the utterance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 72%

Given claims about new topics. How Romance and Germanic speakers link changed and maintained information in narrative discourse

Dimroth

Cecilia

Benazzo

et al. 2010

Journal of Pragmatics

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“…Express-ability is more deeply rooted in the closely intertwined development of conceptualization and verbalization processes and touches upon many non-native speakers having to express complex L1 thoughts through restricted L2 resources. Sociocultural and psycholinguistic research that applies Slobin's Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts finds that the step from verbal thinking to externalized speech is strongly influenced by a speaker's L1 and that the organization of conceptual material for L2 expression is not only influenced, but may be hindered, by deeply entrenched L1 ways of viewing and expressing things (von Stutterheim and Nüse 2003). At the same time, there is evidence of a correlation of conceptualization patterns and proficiency with particular grammatical structures and with cognitive patterns specific to a context of communication and of a reverse L2 onto L1 transfer in early bilinguals (Bylund and Jarvis 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Express-ability in ELF communication

Albl-Mikasa¹

2013

Journal of English as a Lingua Franca

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Abstract:In ELF research, ample evidence has been collected to show that communication in (dialogic) ELF interactions works and that it does so in intriguingly creative ways. In a questionnaire survey and an in-depth interview study, simultaneous conference interpreters present a less optimistic view with regard to (monologic) mediated multilingual settings, which are increasingly shaped by a growing number of non-native English-speaking participants. Moreover, the interpreters put the adverse effects of ELF speaker output on their cognitive processing down to the speakers' restricted power of expression. This is paralleled by empirical evidence from ELF speakers in TELF (the Tübingen English as a Lingua Franca corpus and database), who put into perspective their general feeling that they can cope in ELF interactions (which is in line with the ELF study findings mentioned above) by voicing dissatisfaction with their restricted capacity of expressing what they want to convey with the required or desired degree of precision.In a theoretical discussion, the Express-ability Principle is introduced to capture the nature of the human effort for expression (complementary to Bartlett's effort after meaning). In the subsequent presentation, sociocultural and psycholinguistic research sheds light on express-ability in the context of ELF by applying Slobin's Thinking for Speaking (TFS) hypothesis to second-language contexts. It reveals the interface between verbal (L1) thinking and externalized (L2) speech and explains expression-related problems in terms of transfer effects in connection with age of acquisition and linguistic environment. This directs further ELF research into the nature of express-ability towards an examination of production processes, developmental and procedural aspects in early and late bilingual ELF speakers, a shared languages benefit to compensate for cross-linguistic transfer and the (relative) effectiveness of unmediated and mediated ELF communication.Keywords: English as a lingua franca (ELF); conference interpreters; expressability principle; Thinking-for-Speaking (TFS); early and late bilingual ELF speakers; shared languages benefit. * I should like to thank Robert DeKeyser, Kurt Kohn, Anna Mauranen, Tim McNamara, and Barbara Seidlhofer for mind-opening comments in personal communication and the two anonymous reviewers for comments that advanced my argument. Michaela Albl-Mikasa'Express-ability' in der ELF-Kommunikation Zusammenfassung: Eine Umfrage unter professionellen Konferenzdolmetschern sowie Interviews mit diesen Dolmetschern und mit ELF-Sprechern aus dem TELFKorpus verweisen auf einen Widerspruch zwischen dem allgemeinen Eindruck von ELF-Sprechern, dass sie in der Kommunikation zurechtkommen (was Forschungsergebnissen eines strategischen Funktionierens in ELF-Interaktionen entspricht) und ihrer Unzufriedenheit mit den eigenen eingeschränkten Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten (die Dolmetscher wiederum als Verarbeitungshindernisse erleben). Mit der Einführung des "express-ability principle" lässt s...

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Processes of conceptualization in language production: language-specific perspectives and event construal

Cited by 116 publications

References 1 publication

Verb Representation and Thinking-for-Speaking Effects in Spanish–English Bilinguals

Verb Representation and Thinking-for-Speaking Effects in Spanish–English Bilinguals

Given claims about new topics. How Romance and Germanic speakers link changed and maintained information in narrative discourse

Express-ability in ELF communication

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