Abstracts of the LAUD-Symposium 1998 on Humboldt and Whorf Revisited: Universal and Culture-Specific Conceptualizations in Grammar and Lexis
Compiled by Cornelia Daheim Susanne Feld
Series A: General & Theoretical Papers ISSN 1435-6473 Essen: LAUD 1998 (2., unveränderte Auflage 2006) Paper No. 448
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Abstracts of the LAUD-Symposium 1998 on Humboldt and Whorf Revisited: Universal and Culture-Specific Conceptualizations in Grammar and Lexis Compiled by Cornelia Daheim & Susanne Feld
Working paper in preparation for the LAUD Symposium
Copyright by the authors Reproduced by LAUD 1998 (2., unveränderte Auflage 2006) Linguistic Agency Series A University of Duisburg-Essen General and Theoretical FBGeisteswissenschaften Paper No. 448 D-41117 Essen
Order LAUD-papers online: http://www.linse.uni-due.de/linse/laud/index.html Or contact: [email protected] Contents PAGE
Angeliki Athanasiadou ...... 4 From Temporality to Causality: A Universal or a Culture-Specific Process? ...... 4
Balthasar Bickel ...... 5 Grammar and Social Practice: On the Role of ‘Culture’ in Linguistic Relativity...... 5
Ocke-Schwen Bohn ...... 6 Linguistic Relativity in Speech Perception: An Overview of the Influence of Language Experience on the Perception of Speech Sounds from Infancy to Adulthood ...... 6
Wallace Chafe...... 7 Constrained Diversity in Thought and Language...... 7
Zhiyuan Chen...... 8 Lexical Cognition, Argument Structure and Culture. A Comparative Approach of Relocation Predication in Spanish, Chinese and English ...... 8
Rebekka Ehret...... 10 Language and Culture in a Creole Environment ...... 10
Cliff Goddard ...... 11 Universal Semantic Primes of Space - a Lost Cause? ...... 11
Gábor Györi ...... 12 Semantic Change, Semantic Theory and Linguistic Relativity...... 12
Bruce W. Hawkins ...... 13 Linguistic Relativity as a Function of Ideological Deixis ...... 13
Paul R. Hays ...... 14 From the Jurassic Dark: Linguistic Relativity as Evolutionary Necessity ...... 14
Rusandre Hendrikse ...... 15 Language as an Indexical Code to Phyletic, Cultural and Experiential Information in the Brain...... 15
Paul J. Hopper...... 16 Verbs and Their Whorfian Ways: The View from Discourse ...... 16
Juliane House ...... 17 Linguistic Relativity and Translation ...... 17
1 Contents PAGE
Carlos Inchaurralde...... 18 Is It in the Mind or Is It in the Language? Mental Modalities and Linguistic Expression...... 18
Olaf Jäkel...... 19 Linguistic Relativity Starts at Home: Denotational Incongruencies ...... 19
Kristine Jensen de Lopez & Chris Sinha...... 20 Corn Stomach Basket: Spatial Language Comprehension by Danish and Zapotec Acquiring Children ...... 20
John E. Joseph...... 22 Two Strands in Whorfian Thought and Their Neo-Whorfian Implications ...... 22
Demetra Katis & Michael Maratsos ...... 23
University of Thessaloniki, Greece & University of Minnesota, U.S.A ...... 23 Grammatical Structure and Conceptual Understandings of Experiencer-Agency Relations ...... 23
E.F.K. Koerner...... 24 Towards a 'Full Pedigree' of the 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis': From Locke to Lucy...... 24
David B. Kronenfeld ...... 25 Language and Thought: The Nature of the Animal...... 25
Sydney M. Lamb ...... 26 Neuro-Cognitive Structures in the Interplay of Language and Thought ...... 26
Penny Lee...... 27 The Operation of Linguistic Relativity in the Cognitive Domain ...... 27
John A. Lucy...... 28 Recent Research on Linguistic Relativity: A Typology and Critical Evaluation...... 28
Robert MacLaury ...... 29 Linguistic Relativity and the Plasticity of Categorization: Universalism in a New Key ...... 29
Susanne Niemeier...... 30
University of Bremen, Germany...... 30 Relativity in Language and Culture - a New Target in Foreign Language Teaching . 30
2 Contents PAGE
Gary B. Palmer...... 31 Ontological Classifiers as Heuristic Systems, as Seen in Shona Class 3 Nouns...... 31 “S`engager” vs “to Remain Noncommittal”: a Study of Two Culture-specific Values ...... 32
Günter Radden...... 33 Time is Space...... 33
Richard A. Rhodes...... 35 (Micro-)Categorization, Semantic Change, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis...... 35
Jan Schroten...... 36 Equivalence and Mismatch of Semantic Features: Collocations in English, Spanish, and Dutch...... 36
Gunter Senft ...... 37 Frames of Spatial Reference in Kilivila - Studies in Language, Cognition and the Conceptualization of Space ...... 37
Dan I. Slobin...... 38 Verbalized Events: A Dynamic Approach to Linguistic Relativity and Determinism 38
Elzbieta Tabakowska...... 39 Grammar and Ontology: A Case Study of Polish Religious Discourse ...... 39
Robin Taylor...... 40 Linguistic Relativity Theory in the Pacific...... 40
Linda L. Thornburg, Eötvös Loránd & Klaus-Uwe Panther...... 41 Why We Subject Incorporate (in English): A Post-Whorfian View ...... 41
Jürgen Trabant ...... 43 How Relativistic Are Humboldt’s 'Weltansichten'? ...... 43
Friedrich Ungerer ...... 44 Language, Thought and Conceptual Hierarchies...... 44
Marjolijn H. Verspoor...... 45 Colorful Bits of Experience That Count...... 45
3 Angeliki Athanasiadou Aristotle University, Greece
From Temporality to Causality: A Universal or a Culture-Specific Process?
Two languages could be identical with respect to a semantic domain, yet if they are used in distinct ways their categories may have a different impact on thought. The temporal domain, and some of the conjunctions that express it, is studied in English and Greek by referring to "the same" situations so as to reveal differences and similarities of each language's coding of the temporal domain. It is found that the temporal domain offers an indication of how the conjunctions belonging to it may go beyond the purely temporal dimension, but can extend and express contrast or causality or even a combination of the above, i.e. both time and contrast or both time and causality. The aim of the paper is to examine whether the link that the temporal conjunctions create with different domains is a systematic process of meaning extension in both languages or if the tendency from temporal to temporal/causal and from there to purely causal settings is a culture-specific process. For this purpose, the temporal domain is delineated and warrants are given for including or excluding particular forms and meanings of the two languages.
4 Balthasar Bickel University of Zürich, Switzerland & University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A.
Grammar and Social Practice: On the Role of ‘Culture’ in Linguistic Relativity
While ideas about linguistic relativity tend to include a link between language and ‘culture’, empirical studies in this domain are often problematic because they presuppose a monolithic view of ‘culture’ that is dubious from an anthropological perspective. In recent work, Slobin has shown that studies in linguistic relativity gain much from replacing the abstract notion of ‘thought’ by a context-sensitive and dynamic notion of ‘thinking’. In a similar vein, I propose to replace ‘culture’ by a context-sensitive notion of ‘social practice’ when looking at the third domain in the Whorfian triad. Two case studies on the grammar of deixis in Belhare (Sino-Tibetan, Nepal) support this proposal. The first study argues that the semantics of ‘up/down/across’ deixis relies heavily on culturally informed geographical knowledge and can only be understood against the social practices that routinely recreate this knowledge. The second study shows that spatial categories, in parallel with other categories of the language, are strongly biased towards conceptualizing space as a network of a relation between ego and environment rather than as a metaphorical mapping between body and regions (as is typical for European languages). This bias lends itself to a use of deixis for demarcating social identities and boundaries that differs from practices in Europe. Similarities between linguistic and cognitive patterns often attest to a uni-directional effect from public language to private thinking. Similarities between linguistic and cultural patterns, however, suggest mutual influence, since both speaking and social behaviour are publicly shared activities. Together, they construct a cognitive ground that has an important function in defining where people ‘feel at home’.
5 Ocke-Schwen Bohn University of Aarhus, Denmark
Linguistic Relativity in Speech Perception: An Overview of the Influence of Language Experience on the Perception of Speech Sounds from Infancy to Adulthood
Most of the research examining the relationship between language and thought has centered on lexical and morphosyntactic encoding, and this research has largely ignored the dynamics of this relationship in language acquisition. This contribution provides a review of recent psycholinguistic studies that have examined a) when and how the ambient language affects speech perception abilities in first language learning and b), whether and how the highly overlearned native-language perceptual patterns can be modified by experience with a non-native language. These studies have shown that human infants are born as universal perceivers, whose speech perception is shaped to a considerable extent by the ambient language before the end of the first year of life. Even though anyone above the age of one year is a language-specific perceiver, experience with a non-native language may lead to modifications of speech perception patterns even in adults. The extent to which these patterns are modifiable depends upon a number of interacting variables, the most important of which are amount of language experience and the perceived relation of native to non-native speech sounds at the concrete phonetic level.
6 Wallace Chafe University of California at Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
Constrained Diversity in Thought and Language
A language provides ways of associating sounds with meanings. Meanings are more difficult to observe than sounds, but it appears that every language organizes both sounds and meanings in its own unique ways, though under the influence of certain universal tendencies. It thus follows from the basic nature of language that different languages are responsible for partially different ways of thinking, at least to the extent that thinking involves linguistic meanings. Meanings can be assigned to three basic types, which I will call "focused meanings", "shadow meanings", and "orienting meanings". Focused meanings include the ideas on which people’s attention is focused as they talk. They may differ more or less from language to language, but they are susceptible to culture change and can often be transferred from one language to another. Shadow meanings are the literal meanings of metaphors, idioms, and other lexicalized phrases. Speakers attention is not focused on them, but they are likely to be present in semiactive consciousness to varying degrees. They differ considerably from language to language, and can have subtle effects on the ways people think. Finally, orienting meanings are those associated with inflectional elements like tense, aspect, and modality. They too differ considerably across languages. It is impossible to speak at all without using them constantly, they are often obligatory, and they are usually unconscious. For these reasons they are especially resistant to change and translation, and are especially important in influencing different ways of thinking. Examples and discussions of these three types will be based on data from Native American languages.
7 Zhiyuan Chen Appalachian State University, U.S.A.
Lexical Cognition, Argument Structure and Culture. A Comparative Approach of Relocation Predication in Spanish, Chinese and English
Two approaches have dominated the discussion about the relative contribution of syntactic and semantic rules to grammar and lexicon. One side sees syntax as being totally independent of semantics. Since syntax is the mental representation of "connected thought" (Emonds 1991), and since syntax and semantics are closely related in the formation of categories, a separate cognitive structure is deemed unnecessary in generative grammar (Syntactic Approach). The other side claims that an independent conceptual structure is indispensable in the organization of grammar and lexicon, because thinking involves more than linguistic processing due to the existence of non-linguistic abstract structured thoughts (Jackendoff, 1993), and even the linguistically relevant conceptual categories are not necessarily the same as the syntactic categories (Conceptual Approach). Jackendoff (1990) stipulates correspondence rules in order to relate conceptual structure and syntactic structure. The MIT lexicon project group claims that cognitive structure is restrictive to syntactic structure, and rely on semantic rules to specify predicate-argument relations and to explain the basic configuration of D-structure. Within this approach, there are also two separated viewpoints. The universalists represented by Chomsky claim that linguistic structures are determined not culturally but biologically. The cultural relativists represented by Humboldt (1903) and Whorf (1956) see different languages as bearers of different cognitive perspectives and worldviews, and see their structures as an agreement in organizing the (culturally oriented) "nature" into concepts. My research on rredicate argument structures (PAS) of relocation predication across the three languages: Spanish, English and Chinese provides strong support for the MLT version of conceptual theory, i.e., a formal treatment of semantic intuitions as semantic-to- syntax correspondences. PAS is mainly determined by certain cognitively oriented universal semantic elements, including theta-roles, Arg.-selectional features, and event features. However, culturally oriented language-specific morphological elements such as argument structure amplifiers are also indispensable in determining PAS. Although the cognitive structure is stable and decontextualized, the parameter setting of a particular language is constrained by morpho-syntactic tools due to the cultural types and historical varieties. In Chinese relocation predication, for example, the result concept may be unexpressed, or overt depending on what the speaker wants to express at the moment of utterance. This conclusion implies two important theoretical claims:
8 1) Since conceptual categories are not totally the same as syntactic categories, an independent cognitive structure does exist in the lexicon. 2) Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is not contradictory to conceptual theory at all. Language particularities in amplifying PAS depends on certain cultural elements.
9 Rebekka Ehret University of Basel, Switzerland
Language and Culture in a Creole Environment
Whorf’s "new principle of relativity" was formulated within the tradition of American linguistic anthropology. Franz Boas, the founding father of anthropology in America and teacher of Edward Sapir, challenged the unilinear evolutionists by postulating a description of 'an alien culture' without any preconceptions and prejudice. He established culture, in its specific historical development, as the key concept of his school, i.e. as something which guides human beings in their everyday activites. The fact that there are cultures is shown in the observation that they differ from each other. In this tradition language provides the primary access to 'an alien culture'. This classic concept of a coherent culture may have had its validity in those days, it is certainly not useful anymore. In our times of global territorialization and creolization which constitute a principle of culture we are in need of a different approach. In my opinion, Whorf’s ideas of calibration offers an interesting direction towards an understanding of the relationship between language and culture in a creole - and creolizing - society. Creole languages and cultures are characterized by processes of linguistic and cultural permeation. Members of a creole society are the product of several intertwined histories which have, indeed, been calibrated in some way. Creole societies, as extreme cases of contact situations, show that it is not culture but the access to the power of definition that prevents us from getting "to the same picture of the universe".
10 Cliff Goddard University of New England, Australia
Universal Semantic Primes of Space - a Lost Cause?
In recent years a "new wave" of research on language and space has uncovered surprising variation in the linguistic coding of spatial relationships. It is now known that some languages, e.g. Tzeltal, exhibit remarkable lexico-grammatical elaboration of spatial relationships; that in many languages of Africa and Oceania apparently simple spatial relationships such as inside and above are encoded by means of noun- like words, or by a combination of a preposition and a postposition, each of which may be independently meaningful. It has also been shown that children’s early acquisition of spatial terminology differs markedly between typologically different languages. In almost all this recent work, the emphasis has been on cross-linguistic variation in spatial semantics. My question is: Are there any semantic universals of space which are still viable in the light of the attested variation in formal realisation and lexico- grammatical elaboration? In particular, what of the semantic primes of space proposed within Anna Wierzbicka’s "natural semantic metalanguage" (NSM) framework, namely: where/place, here, above, below, inside, in (one) side, near, far? After an introduction, the body of the paper has three sections. In the first, I argue that three languages which exhibit markedly different spatial characteristics to English (Tzeltal, Longgu, Ewe) nevertheless still contain exponents of the NSM spatial primes. In the second, I take a fresh look at some of the new results on cross-linguistic variation in the acquisition of spatial semantics, with particular reference to Korean. In the third, I survey the grammaticalisation of spatial meaning in a typological perspective, concluding that the items on the NSM inventory of spatial primes are all found as recurrent dimensions of grammaticalized meaning in a range of languages. The overall conclusion is that the NSM spatial primes are both viable and necessary for the description of spatial meanings within and across languages.
11 Gábor Györi Jannus Pannonius University, Pecs, Hungary
Semantic Change, Semantic Theory and Linguistic Relativity
The most general cause usually given for semantic and lexical change is the arising of new communicative needs in a speech community. However, communication is also a cognitive activity: we communicate our mental states, the contents of our minds, etc. Communicative needs must go hand in hand with cognitive needs, since there is no linguistic communication without the underlying mental representations. Because of this, semantic change can only be accounted for by a semantic theory which takes into account human conceptualization as a product of our understanding of bodily experience, as does cognitive semantics. Semantic change exploits and utilizes the common understanding and interpretation of experience which exists on the basis of conventionalized conceptual structures shared by the members of a speech community. However, while the semantic structure of a language is the product of conceptualization processes, it is also true that the input for these conceptualization processes is at least partly the semantic structure of that language. Language is capable of influencing conceptualization and cognitive processes because it is always already existing words and expressions that serve as the basis for changing meanings and creating new expressions in order to express new thoughts. From the above it follows that the analysis of semantic change and lexicalization processes can give us a clear view of the interaction between language and thought. A cognitive semantic analysis will tell us about how the original expressions influence and constrain the possible directions of conceptual and semantic development and thus the way of expressing new ideas.
12 Bruce W. Hawkins Illinois State University, U.S.A.
Linguistic Relativity as a Function of Ideological Deixis
This paper argues that linguistic relativity results directly from the meaning-making process of deixis. A dynamic, processing perspective on language provides an understanding of deixis as a cognitive process through which meaning is derived necessarily by relating the semantic/referential features of a text to the experiential complex that constitutes the context in which that particular text is created and used. (This reinterpretation of "deixis" is influenced quite heavily by Langacker's (1991) notion of "grounding.") The central feature of this argument is that ideology, understood as "a systematically organized presentation of reality" (Hodge and Kress 1993:15), is akin to time and space in that it constitutes a major variable in the context in which any particular speech event is grounded and, as such, has a significant impact on how particular experiences are described and how particular texts are interpreted.
13 Paul R. Hays Sugiyama Jogykuen University, Japan
From the Jurassic Dark: Linguistic Relativity as Evolutionary Necessity
This paper discusses the concept of linguistic relativity as an evolutionary survival trait. The relationship which is manifest in the cultural relativity of language use arose out of the evolutionary necessity to pass on internal concepts for survival to our offspring. Following the work of Rosch, Lakoff, and others, it is argued that the development of concepts in the mind as a way of ordering the external experience is a dynamic process which is driven by and in turn drives the process of vocabulary, as well as linguistic, acquisition. These processes restrict and enhance each other in complex and dynamic manners. The physical structures of the mind arose as the internal processing of sensory input became more complex. Forced into a nocturnal niche, early mammals depended on an internally mediated model of the world, rather than direct response to visual stimulus. Gradually this internal model and the resultant cognitive skills became more and more complex. The reduction of the myriad sensory stimuli into concepts allowed the processing of sensory data to become as efficient as the earlier "hard-wired" behaviors which were a response to visual stimulus in other species. As the concepts became more abstract, the process by which they were passed to the young also became more complex. The development of abstract symbols to encode concepts became a survival trait. It allowed greater efficiency in training offspring successful ways to process and respond to external experience. Thus, linguistic relativity can be seen as an important evolutionary survival trait which leads to the development of language.
14 Rusandre Hendrikse University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Language as an Indexical Code to Phyletic, Cultural and Experiential Information in the Brain
In the ethnolinguistic tradition of Boas, Sapir and Whorf, the Kantian rationalist- empiricist question about the relation and dependencies between language, thought and experience gave a kind of primacy to linguistic systems that greatly underplays the role of the objective world with which humans interact and the role of evolution in cognitive and linguistic development. In this paper I would like to suggest that ecological factors play an equally determinative role in the development of "different fashions of speaking" (Whorf 1956), i.e. different language types. I would like to claim, following Whorf’s theory of "cognitive appropriation", that linguistic systems constitute kinds of metaphorical schemas guiding linguistic and conceptual actions. But, contrary to Whorf, I believe that these metaphorical schemas arise not in terms of the constraints inherent in different linguistic systems, hence linguistic relativity, but rather that they develop on the basis of bodily experience and interaction with the objective world. That is, I would like to take a rather more enactionist stance on linguistic relativity, in particular, the view that "biology [nature] proposes, but culture and language disposes" (Foley 1997:177). I also take the dipositional role of culture and language not to be deterministic, but rather to be a function of the nature of metaphorical schemas as epistemological schemas, which enable creative cognitive construals in the sense of Ross’ (1992) "contagions". I would like to propose that at least two language types have evolved in different ecological environments: an entity-orientated type of language and an event-orientated type of language. In my argument I shall allude to various linguistic phenomena in Southern Bantu languages constrated with similar phenomena in English. In particular, I shall be looking at directionality in the N---V continuum (viz constraints on N(oun)- V(erb) derivations), for example English derivations such as befriend, entomb, marginalise, containerise; the presence/absence of polysemous N/V pairings, for example hand, talbe, book (with noun and verb significances), and folk taxonomies such as plant names and seasonal names.
15 Paul J. Hopper Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, U.S.A.
Verbs and Their Whorfian Ways: The View from Discourse
In an important recent book on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, John Lucy (1992) has surveyed the history of the idea and the work of several exponents of it, and has called for renewed empirical investigation. In this paper I examine critically the general assumptions about language that such investigations usually presuppose. One of these assumptions is the separability of grammar and lexicon: many linguists insist on this dichotomy and assign grammar to a universal sphere of “language” and lexicon to a more particular sphere of “culture” (e.g. Mathiot). Another is the view of language as a stable, internally homogeneous system characterized by fixed structure and fixed semantic fields. These two assumptions of synchronicity are intrinsic to any attempt to match form/meaning dyads with cultural behaviour. The work of Humboldt, whose name is often associated with that of Whorf (as in the title of the present symposium), offers a more fluid perspective of structure that is similar to that presented by the current interest in grammaticalization and discourse studies. For example, Humboldt’s study of the verb (pp.187 ff in the English translation of “Ueber die Verschiedenheit ...” Cambridge 1988) points to a more flexible and more historical understanding of linguistic categories with forms moving between agglutination and inflection. Since both language and culture are temporal phenomena that will not stay still, it is apparent that any attempt to calibrate the two and demonstrate their interdependence must adopt a more ecological and less cognitive standpoint. In this paper, I examine the concept of the verb and try to show that the relationship between this category as a lexical class and as a behavioural class in discourse is quite problematic.
16 Juliane House University of Hamburg, Germany
Linguistic Relativity and Translation
The paper discusses the relevance of theories of linguistic relativity for translation. The first part of the paper gives a historical overview of how Humboldtian, Neo- Humboldtian and Whorfian views have influenced theories of translation. Such views conceive of language as mediating between objective reality and humans' conceptualizations of it, thus pre-forming human experience, as human beings unconsciously extrapolate from the conceptual expectations embodied in their native language. It follows that attempting to bridge the gap between different languages is fraught with difficulties. How can any translator rid herself of her own conceptual categories? At best translation becomes a kind of "spiritual metamorphosis". The second part of the paper develops another view of linguistic diversity. In line with more recent theories, this is linked to differences in historical, cultural and social background, rather than to cognito-perceptual differences of "Worldview". If languages are seen to be structured in divergent ways because they embody different experiences, interests, conventions and values, then a theory of linguistic-cultural relativity emerges, which implies a less negative stance on the issue of translatability. Inside this view, cultural knowledge - including knowledge of various "sub-cultures" - is of course indispensable for translation, as it is knowledge of the application of linguistic units in particular cultural contexts which makes translation possible. In principle, cultural gaps can be bridged via ethnographic insights. Further, any discussion of the relevance of linguistic-cultural relativity on translation theory must consider the impact increasingly global patterns of communication in specialist networks have on translation practice. It will be proposed in conclusion that while sociolinguistic theories of meaning, such as those available in the Prague, Firthian, and Russian traditions, continue to be relevant for translation, it is transdisciplinary perspectives on linguistic-cultural relativity, embracing both psychological and social views of meaning, which are most fruitful for developing valid models of translation and translation criticism.
17 Carlos Inchaurralde University of Zaragoza, Spain
Is It in the Mind or Is It in the Language? Mental Modalities and Linguistic Expression
Behind the assumption that language and culture influence each other we should not forget that cultures are made by human beings, and human beings have different ways of accessing and using knowledge and experience, according to the different mental modalities available. These modalities are mainly of two kinds: visual (images) and verbal (propositions). Although there may be other varieties according to the different possibilities of sensory input, psychological discussion has mainly centered on this distinction. In this respect, we can have the difference on several levels: interpersonal (different persons may favour different modalities, so that we may have distinctions between “visualisers” and “verbalisers”, along with the use of different cognitive styles) and intrapersonal (the same person may favour some modalities under certain circumstances and some others at other times). We may still ask another question: Do different cultures favour different modalities? If the answer is affirmative, since modalities affect language use, this should have implications for the culture-dependent perspective. The argument will be illustrated with many linguistic examples.
18 Olaf Jäkel University of Hamburg, Germany
Linguistic Relativity Starts at Home: Denotational Incongruencies
Linguistic relativity cannot be restricted to hold only between different languages, i.e. cross-culturally. Comparative investigations of semantic fields provide evidence that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis applies as well to different varieties of one and the same national language, e.g. one dialect vs. another, everyday language vs. scientific expert languages, and even to comparisons between the languages used by adherents to different theories or ideologies. If the comparison of appropriate semantic fields in different varieties or lects reveals that the same term is used without full synonymy, I speak of denotational incongruencies. This general and widespread phenomenon shows up in several subtypes. So far at least the following can be distinguished: alternative classification, granularity differential, zigzag incongruency, crosspiece incongruency, crosspiece, lexical gaps of various kinds, and contested concepts. These types of denotational incongruency will be introduced on the basis of typical English examples. The paper outlines a major research project (Jäkel 1997) attempting to combine traditional structural semantics and field theory with a cognitive linguistic approach in the investigation of alternative semantic construals within one and the same conceptual domain. One major aspect of this project might be construed as a sort of radicalization of Whorf`s hypothesis: Linguistic relativity starts at home.
References Jäkel, Olaf (1997) “Denotational Incongruencies; Fields for Applied Structural and Cognitive Semantics”. To appear in: C.LE.A.R. Cognitive Linguistics: Explorations, Applications, Research. No 16:1997. Universität Hamburg
19 Kristine Jensen de Lopez & Chris Sinha University of Aarhus, Denmark
Corn Stomach Basket: Spatial Language Comprehension by Danish and Zapotec Acquiring Children
Children’s comprehension of locative instructions, of the kind expressed in English by „put the car in the garage“, is well known to be highly labile and contextually variable. The dependence of children’s understanding of such expressions upon non-linguistic context has been analyzed in terms of perceptually-based "non-linguistic rules" (Clark), situation-specific "local rules" (Donaldson) and use-based "canonical rules" (Sinha, Toivonen). The employment of a terminology of "rules" in all these accounts emphasizes their common finding that while children’s responses in locative comprehension tasks are very much underdetermined by linguistic input, they are also far from random; rather, they are canalized by the child’s construal of the non- linguistic context of utterance. These and similar accounts of the development of children’s understanding of simple locative expressions are all based upon experimental data from children acquiring English or other Indo-European languages, in "Western" cultural settings. They further involve the implicit or explicit claim that (a) the cognitive content of "non-linguistic" contextual rules is independent of the target languages which the child is acquiring, and (b) this cognitive content is universal and invariant across cultures. Hitherto, these claims or assumptions have not been subject to empirical test. We present comparative experimental data on the comprehension strategies employed by young children monolingually acquiring, respectively, Danish and Zapotec languages. Zapotec is an indigenous Meso-American language branch of the Otomanguean group, spoken in rural area of the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Like a number of other meso-American languages, Zapotec employs body-part nouns to refer to spatial relations. Zapotec is distinguished by being highly consistent in such usage, both in terms of the regularity of the usage of body-part terms in spatial reference, and in terms of the grounding of such usage in a predominantly human (as opposed to mixed human and animal) image-schematic framework. We hypothesize that the different profiling of spatial relations in Zapotec and Danish may lead to different cognitive contents of non-linguistic contextual "rules" and hence to different response strategies in locative comprehension tests. We can call this hypothesized developmental difference a "Whorfian effect". The indigenous rural culture of Zapotec speakers also differs significantly from that of typical Western cultures such as the Danish one. In particular, we hypothesize that "canonical" object form-function-orientation correlations may vary between Danish
20 and Zapotec cultures, with a concomitant variation in the cognitive contents of non- linguistic contextual rules. We can call the hypothesized manifestation of such differences in Danish and Zapotec response strategies a "Vygotskian effect". We shall first outline the methodology of our study, emphasizing: (a) the importance of establishing the appropriate experimental instructions, and how we did this; (b) the importance of employing culturally appropriate test materials; (c) the importance of employing a task design which permits in principle the analytic separation of Whorfian from Vygotskian effects. We shall then present the results of the experiments (which are still under analysis).
21 John E. Joseph University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Two Strands in Whorfian Thought and Their Neo-Whorfian Implications
Recent work on the genesis of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has suggested that it combines two distinct strands of thought, which are interrelated through their common opposition to any notion that language is a 'mere garment' in which thought is dressed. One of these strands, the 'magic key' view of language, is tied to the German Romantic tradition of seeing language as embodying the national mind and unfolding historically along a route already determined at its origin. The other, the 'metaphysical garbage' view, is more closely related to Cambridge analytical philosophy and Viennese logical positivism, and envisions language developing within an evolutionary encounter with the latter view in 1923 significantly shaped his later ideas about language and thought, and through them those of Whorf, who only in the two years between Sapir’s death and his own attempted to reintegrate his earlier interests in the 'magic key' approach to language (connected to his background in Theosophy) into the Sapirian framework. The present paper sorts through what aspects of the Whorfian and neo-Whorfian approach to language belong to the 'magic key' and the 'metaphysical garbage' tradition. It then argues that part of the difficulty with attempts to test and apply Whorf’s views stem precisely from a failure to distinguish between these two strands. Finally, the paper suggests how future work might incorporate this distinction in such a way as to alleviate the conceptual confusion.
22 Demetra Katis & Michael Maratsos University of Thessaloniki, Greece & University of Minnesota, U.S.A
Grammatical Structure and Conceptual Understandings of Experiencer-Agency Relations
A specific Whorfian Hypothesis was tested, that grammatical differences in encoding of emotional experiencers as grammatical subjects or objects would affect speaker’s conceptualizations of how much control they (experiencers) have over emotional situations. Schlesinger (1991) finds evidence that within English, experiencers of emotion are seen as having more control when encoded by grammatical subjects (which have a high control agentive prototype) than by grammatical objects (which have a low-control non-agent prototype). This might reflect an effect of grammatical encoding on conceptual analysis. Across langages, this hypothesis could be tested specifically for the cases of likers and missers, which are encoded most commonly by grammatical subjects in English (“John likes Mary”) but by non-subject oblique objects in Italian and Greek: if the grammatical form affects conceptualization, Italians and Greeks should find likers and missers specifically to have less emotional control over events, relative to experiencers of other emotions. Emotional experiencer appears to be a promising domain for such effects, given the well-known “fuzziness” of emotional concepts. Cross-group comparisons show some cross-group differences; e.g., Italians generally rate experiencers in general as having less control; more unpleasant emotions (e.g. envy, hate) are more likely to show cross-group differences. But no specific difference between Italian and Greek vs. English for likers and missers, corresponding to the specific grammatical difference, was obtained; a very clear “no- difference” was found. Thus the results support the primacy of cultural-conceptual analysis in the determination of the semantics of basic grammatical forms of expression of emotion.
23 E.F.K. Koerner University of Ottawa, Canada
Towards a 'Full Pedigree' of the 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis': From Locke to Lucy
In traditional scholarschip concerning the origins of the so-called `Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis´, a term actually coined by the editor of Benjamin Lee Whorf´s (1897- 1941) papers, are traced largely, though not exclusively, to German language theory of the 17th (e.g., Leibniz) through the early 19th century, which, in Humboldt´s version, connects the `inner form´ of a language with the particularity of a world view of the nation that speaks it. This traditional view (surveyed in Koerner 1992) has recently been challenged by Joseph (1996) and, where Whorf´s own work is concerned, by Lee (1996). This paper attempts to bridge these positions by suggesting two distinct but at least loosely connected layers of influence discernible in the work of North American linguists and anthropologists from William Dwight Whitney (18237-1894) to Whorf and his followers in the second half of the 20th century that derives from this German philosophy of language, while at the same time acknowledging the more immediate sources of the idea that one´s native language determines individual and cultural patterns of thought which Joseph has documented so carefully, distinguishes these from the version of this idea held by Herder and Humboldt (Joseph dubs it the `magic key´ view), whereby language is seen as embodying the national mind and unfolding in line with the Romantic concept of history, with the other version (dubbed by him `metaphysical garbage´), which envisions language as developing within an evolutionary view of history and as in fact introducing obstacles to logical thought. This view appears to have been commonplace in Cambridge analytical philosophy (Whitehead & Russell) and Viennese logical positivism (notably Carnap). A key Cambridge-Vienna link was C.K.Ogden (1889-1957), whose influential book of 1923 The Meaning of Meaning (together with I.A.Richards) subtitled "The influence of language on thought and of the science of symbolism" synthesizes, Joseph holds, many of their positions. Edward Sapir´s (1984-1939) positive review of this book marks, according to Joseph, a turning point from his view of language as a cultural product (as in his book Language of 1921) to a sort of template around which the rest of culture is structured, e.g., in his "The Status of Linguistics as a Science“ (1929). This paper, like others of his writings from 1923 on, takes up the rhetoric of metaphysical garbage almost exclusively. Whorf, drawn by Sapir into the more technical side of linguistics from originally mystical interests in language, too took up the `garbage´ line, interweaving it with `magic key´ only in the final years of his life, in the papers for which he is famous.
24 David B. Kronenfeld University of California at Riverside, U.S.A.
Language and Thought: The Nature of the Animal
In my "extensionist“ view our understanding of words is tied to narrowly defined focal referents of contrasting words. For non-focal referents our understanding depends on a combination of context and communicative goals -- via which the intended referent is related to the focal referent which best isolates it or its relevant attributes; in figurative usage this process applies across domain boundaries. This new view of word semantics entails rethinking the Whorfian language- thought question. Not only can we think thoughts not already precisely coded in our language, but our semantic system presumes that most usage will be thus not coded. New referents are indeed assimilated to existing linguistic models, but the assimilation is only narrowly linguistic. A comparison of descriptive and behavioral attributes associated with kinterms with the attributes of kinsfolk labelled by the kinterms shows a match for focal referents but no systematic match for extended referents. Whatever connection exists between language categories and categories of thought must pertain to focal categories and means of semantic extension rather than to extended categories. The Whorfian question should shift from conceptualizations per se to conceptualizations within language. Language is a tool for communication, analysis, and memory, and it seems via these processed versions of thought, rather than through perception or conception per se, that language shapes thought. Such shaping seems more probabilistic -- pertaining to what comes easily to mind -- than absolute -- pertaining to what we can imagine or communicate.
25 Sydney M. Lamb Rice University, Houston, U.S.A.
Neuro-Cognitive Structures in the Interplay of Language and Thought
Although various kinds of evidence have been brought to arguments about the ideas of Humboldt and Whorf, the neurobiological basis of language and thought is usually not considered, despite its clearly apparent relevance. The reason for such neglect is plain: Until recently the neurological basis of language has not been understood well enough to provide plausible evidence. That situation is now changing, thanks to research in neurolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, neuropsychology, and neurology. A synthesis and development of findings from these fields is now providing a neurologically plausible theory of the formation of conceptual categories and of their operation in thinking. This paper describes such a theory, argues for its neurological plausibility, and applies it to an assessment of the ideas of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Any system of categories, it demonstrates, is necessarily at variance with properties of the world it intends to represent; the deviations are of two kinds: over-emphasis of certain properties, and neglect or under-emphasis of others. Also, there is variation not only among different cultures but among individuals of the same culture. Moreover, in the development of conceptual categories during childhood, language plays an enormous role, since a child normally gets much of the information used to build category structures through language rather than through direct experience. It follows that Whorf’s statement, "We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages" has a sound neuro-cognitive basis.
26 Penny Lee University of Western Australia, Australia
The Operation of Linguistic Relativity in the Cognitive Domain
Close study of Whorf´s discussions of linguistic relativity reveals the centrality of theoretical constructs he brought into linguistic science from Gestalt psychology. His theory about "isolates of experience“, and their operationalizations in languages as "isolates of meaning“, is the key to understanding the logic of the linguistic relativity principle as he defined it. Whorf considered that isolates of experience are abstracted from the ongoing flow of experiential data both in the external and the internal (or egoic) fields of experience. The isolate concept, including its limitations, will be discussed with particular application to the egoic field where the focus will be on what study of different languages can tell us about the way people of different cultural backgrounds conceptualize the mind and its activities. Linguistic relativity is a cognitive phenomenon; we also need to come to terms with its role in our conceptualizations of cognitive activity itself.
27 John A. Lucy Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Recent Research on Linguistic Relativity: A Typology and Critical Evaluation
The linguistic relativity hypothesis, the proposal that the particular language we speak influences the way we think about reality, forms one part of the broader question of how language influences thought. Despite long-standing historical interest in the hypothesis and widespread interest in the writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf on this topic, there has been relatively little empirical research directly addressing it. Existing empirical approaches can be classified into three types. Structure-centered approaches begin with language differences and ask about their implications for thought. Domain- centered approaches begin with experienced reality and ask how different languages encode it. Behavior-centered approaches begin with some practical concern and seek an explanation in language. These approaches are compared as to their strengths and weaknesses and recent methodological improvements highlighted. Despite empirical advances, a theoretical account needs to articulate exactly how languages interpret experiences and how those interpretations influence thought. This will entail integrating theory and data concerning both the general relation of language and thought and the shaping influence of specific discursive structures and practices. Although it is important to incorporate these additional perspectives, they cannot, as some have assumed, substitute for direct assessment of the hypothesis itself through rigorous comparative work on language and cognition in cultural context.
28 Robert MacLaury University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
Linguistic Relativity and the Plasticity of Categorization: Universalism in a New Key
Boas, Sapir, and Whorf together asserted that language influences thought, each expressing at different times strong and weak versions of this "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis." They attributed the influence to the putative capacity of lexical and grammatical categories to shape worldview. But subsequent tests of the hypothesis yielded negative results for the most part. Then discovery of perceptually based universals in the categories of color and folk biology thwarted further testing for the next twenty-five years. Finally, Gumperz and Levinson coordinated a renewed investigation of linguistic relativity among the effects of context and deixis on discourse meaning. With that performance still unfolding, we shall dissect the reasons for the early shortcomings through the lense of an equally recent development, vantage theory. This program of research has mainly produced an account of color categorization, although efforts are afoot to apply its tenets to categorization in general, including the contributions of categories to discourse. The vantage model ascribes categorization to the purposive agency of the people who categorize, allowing them to manipulate concepts according to their needs and within a framework of options. But the model also endows people with a genetically based and neurally expedited method by which to accomplish the task over and again as fast as they think and talk. The combination of infrastructure and flexibility makes it unlikely that any abstract force, including language, will shape the way people think. It is equally unlikely that discourse process will prove less flexible than the ability to construct categories. In posing such a method, vantage theory offers a new universalism that coordinates inborn imperative with productive cognition, which may antiquate the Sapir-Whrof hypothesis.
29 Susanne Niemeier University of Bremen, Germany
Relativity in Language and Culture - a New Target in Foreign Language Teaching
As the influence of Cognitive Linguistics in the thinking about foreign language learning is slowly but steadily increasing, especially in the fields of vocabulary and grammar training as well as in the learning objective of establishing the pupil´s intercultural competence, it is about time to re-evaluate Whorf´s theory of linguistic relativity for learners of a foreign language. Whorf is said to have put forward the claim that cultural patterns, e.g. the ahistoricity of the Hopi culture, and the langage patterns, e.g. the absence of English concept of time in Hopi (where expressions such as 7 days do not exist, but where expressions denoting the cycle of time, i.e. the 7th day, can be found) are interdependent. If we take this belief seriously, we should ask ourselves how it is feasible to teach a language which necessarily is rooted in a culture different from that of the learners without taking this culture into account. The logical conclusion imposing itself upon the observer is that language teaching has to put greater emphasis on the links between grammar and culture, which may have far-reaching consequences for the teaching methods used. Thus, first of all raising the learners´ intercultural awareness is a prerequisite for all successful teaching, and second we must relativise the dogma of translatability. Adhering to these principles, foreign language teaching should be rethought so as to stress the aspect of the foreign culture at least equally strongly as that of the lexical and grammatical structures themselves. Considering these aspects as inseparably connected and interrelated is one of the basic tenets of Cognitive Linguistics. Even if Cognitive Linguistics seems to be moving away from Whorf after an initial period of enthusiasm, this paper will claim that using a cognitive-linguistic approach in the foreign language classroom may be part of a Whorfian method of language teaching. This makes Whorf a forerunner of modern methods of language instruction.
30 Gary B. Palmer University of Nevada, U.S.A.
Ontological Classifiers as Heuristic Systems, as Seen in Shona Class 3 Nouns
For students of linguistic relativity, among the most perennially intriguing phenomena are the noun-classifiers. Varying widely from language to language in both grammar and semantics, they appear to grammaticize important dimensions of world view. Classifiers seem to some scholars to prototypically categorize such basic physical qualities as shape, texture, number, and animacy (Denny and Creider 1986, Hendrikse and Poulos 1994), while others point to important mythological and ritual constraints on class membership (Lakoff 1987, Spitulnik 1987, Palmer and Arin n.d.). Using data from Shona, this paper will show that constraints in each class involve physical qualities, mythical connections, and phonological shape, not just one or the other. Non-prototypical members relate to the class and subsystems relate to one another within a class by metaphor and metonymy. Thus, a noun class is more than a radial category centering on one or a few semantically prototypical members. It is more like a network of radial categories based on a cross-section of the cosmos, including physical experience, social structure, mythical events, and phonological constraints. For such systems of multiple interlocking and interlinked constraints, I propose the term "heuristic category“. The order displayed by heuristic categories is not mechanical or formal, but it is sufficient to facilitate learning and recall, and it is consistent with cognitive linguistic theory pertaining to symbols and neural networks. Heuristic categories may appall logicians, but they should appeal to humanists and naturalists. Further study of their outlines and contours may reveal the most essential cultural structures of human thought.
31 Bert Peeters University of Tasmania, Australia
“S`engager” vs “to Remain Noncommittal”: a Study of Two Culture-specific Values
My primary aim is to elaborate on some of the remarks found in Béal’s contribution to the May 1993 issue of Langue française on semantic primitives (vol. 98). I will present additional (independent) evidence for the reality of the cultural values mentioned in the title, and will replace with better alternatives the cultural scripts proposed in Béal’s pioneering paper. My secondary aim is to offer more “dependent” evidence as well. If it is true that ways of speaking are ultimately determined by the cultural values of a speech community, it must be possible to find, for every cultural value determined on the basis of independent evidence, examples of corresponding communicative patterns. Not to find any would cast serious doubt on the reality of the cultural values themselves, irrespective of the weight of the independent evidence adduced in their favour.
32 Günter Radden University of Hamburg, Germany
Time is Space
The nature of time as such is hardly accessible to us. We mainly understand time metonymically in terms of events and metaphorically in terms of space. This paper is concerned with the structure of the metaphor TIME IS SPACE. The domains of space and time differ in some important respects but also share a number of structural topologies: First, space is three-dimensional, whereas we generally think of time as a one- dimensional line. Second, both the spatial and temporal worlds have static and dynamic situations, i.e., movements. Third, space and time can both be conceived of subjectively and objectively, i.e., with or without the conceptualizer's being on stage. Space and time are similar and dissimilar in some more respects which, however, do not seem to have any major impact on the metaphorical mappings. The structure which we associate with time is culturally constructed. Since there are different possibilities of arranging elements in space, we also find different metaphorical models of time, each of which is characterized by its own internal logic. The following structural elements of space allow for conceptual variability in our metaphorical understanding of time: (i) The orientation of the time-line: The Western view of time takes a front-back orientation, while Chinese commonly applies the vertical axis in understanding time. In English, an up-down conceptualization of time is also found in expressions such as Our family records reach down to 1707. (ii) The form of the time-line: Only the "good" geometrical gestalts of a straight line and a full or partial circle are used as spatial metaphors of time. The circle is an appropriate form for representing recurrent, cyclic time as in Our shop is open round the clock. (iii) The position of time on the time-line: In conceptualizing time on a horizontal axis, we chiefly place the future in front and the past behind. In a number of languages, the future is, however, seen as lying behind and the past as lying in front, often combined with a circular model of time. (iv) The sequencing of time units relative to each other: Both in spatial and temporal sequencing, the observer may adopt two kinds of perspective: the face-to-face or in-tandem perspective. Western cultures take the former perspective as in the day after tomorrow, while Hausa is a language that takes the in-tandem perspective. (v) Our predominant folk model of time is that of "flowing time," which is also widely reflected in language. The direction of the flow of time is, however, reversed: time flows from the future to the past as in passing years. In its variant form, the 33 observer moves over stationary time. This model is consistent with the direction of time evolving from the past to the future, but it is inconsistent with the time- flow model. Strangely enough, the folk model of time flowing from the past to the future does not lead to a spatial metaphor of time.
34 Richard A. Rhodes University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A.
(Micro-)Categorization, Semantic Change, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis presupposes a one-to-one relationship between semantics and morphology. If two entities are labelled by a single morpheme, then morphological unity reflects membership in a single category. In this paper I will raise a cautionary note based on contemporary work in semantic theory, namely that the nature of categorization is more complex than Whorf realized (Lakoff, 1987). First I will discuss examples of semantic change in which categories are historically stable but the morphology used to label them is not. Second I will talk about specialization in lexical hierarchies (Rhodes, 1979, Berlin, 1992). Under semantic change I will discuss Indo-European horse terminology (Watkins, 1970) and the semantics of breaking and tearing in Algonquian languages (Rhodes, 1996). Under specialization and lexical hierarchies I will discuss the root semantics of verbs in Mixe-Zoquean (Rhodes, ms). In both these lines of argument the main factor is pragmatics. The semantic changes in question happen through the substitution of some pragmatically associated property for core semantics. The specialization of root semantics is also pragmatically based, picking out a prototype as the generic in a lexical hierarchy. In these latter cases the roots participate in categorization at two levels, in their general meaning covering all uses and in their specific meaning, which constitutes a microcategory. Finally, after giving further arguments for the reality of microcategories as distinct from the morphology used to label them, I will argue that many semantic changes arise through the salience of microcategorization.
35 Jan Schroten University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Equivalence and Mismatch of Semantic Features: Collocations in English, Spanish, and Dutch
Different languages have different forms expressing similar concepts. Still, lexical items expressing similar concepts can be structured differently. Pustejovsky´s theory of the "generative lexicon" suggests that semantic and conceptual primitives (which are universal) combine in lexical items in a dynamic fashion, producing different meanings for the same lexical item. It follows that conceptually similar items in different languages can have related but different meanings. This contribution is intended to show that collocations in English and Spanish can be analyzed in such a way as to give us access to the slightly different semantic structures that nouns expressing similar concepts can have. For example, English "kiss" and Spanish "beso" express a similar concept. Collocations are partly similar, partly different. Thus, Spanish, permits kisses to be "planted" or "printed", whereas English permits a kiss to be "stamped" (that is "printed"). Furthermore, kisses can be "blown" in English, but they are "thrown" in Spanish. Instead of simply taking these collocations to be idiomatic and frozen, they suggest that the English noun "kiss“ and the Spanish noun "beso", although conceptually very close, have slightly different semantic structures. Pustejovsky´s theory of the "generative lexicon" and his proposals that nouns have "qualia" structure as part of their semantic structure will be used to explore the hypothesis that collocations of this type must be understood as involving verbs which access parts of the "qualia structure" of the noun. Thus, collocations of this type permit us to get a closer look at the "qualia structure" of nouns, and to discover the differences in "qualia structure" between English nouns and their Spanish translation equivalents. Conceptual-lexical differences between Spanish and English will be approached in this contribution. It remains to be seen how parts of the conceptual-lexical differences can be related to cultural differences.
Reference James Pustejovsky (1995) "The Generative lexicon“, Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press
36 Gunter Senft Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics,Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Frames of Spatial Reference in Kilivila - Studies in Language, Cognition and the Conceptualization of Space
The Cognitive Anthropology Research Group is researching the interrelationship between language, cognition and the conceptualization of space in various languages. To gather data the group developed special elicitation methods and experiments. First research results show that we find three frames of spatial reference, the absolute, the relative, and the intrinsic frame of reference (FoR). The present study presents the results of this research for Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders, critically discusses concepts and methods, and describes Kilivila as a language that preferably uses different FoRs for different means and ends in verbal and nonverbal spatial tasks. A close analysis of the Kilivila data reveals that we have to ask what languages preferably use what frames of spatial reference in what contexts for what means and ends. The research of the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group so far has shown that there are languages that indeed may prefer one specific system of verbal codification of spatial configurations in a broad variety of contexts and for all kinds of spatial references. However, this does not hold for Kilivila: On the one hand, speakers of this language obviously prefer the intrinsic frame of reference for the location of objects with respect to each other in a given spatial configuration - especially if these objects themselves have inherent intrinsic features. On the other hand, Kilivila speakers clearly prefer the absolute ad-hoc landmark frame of reference system in referring to the spatial orientation of objects in a given spatial configuration. Moreover, speakers may also use the relative-deictic system for referring both to the location and the orientation of objects in space, however this is rather rarely done. We have previously referred to Kilivila as a "mixed language“ with respect to its preferences for certain frames of spatial reference. On the basis of my closer analyses of the data I think now that this is a somewhat misleading classification: Speakers of Kilivila show rather clear preferences for certain frames of spatial reference in certain contexts for certain means and ends.
37 Dan I. Slobin University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A.
Verbalized Events: A Dynamic Approach to Linguistic Relativity and Determinism
Specific language effects can be demonstrated in the online use of language--"thinking for speaking." This proposal is explored with regard to descriptions of motion events in discourse, with special attention to lexicalization patterns for manner of motion. Two types of languages are contrasted: (1) verb-framed languages, in which the preferred pattern for framing motion events is the use of a path verb with an optional manner adjunct (e.g., 'enter running'), and (2) satellite-framed languages, in which path is lexicalized in an element associated with the verb, leaving the verb free to encode manner (e.g., 'run in'). A number of lines of evidence indicate that manner of motion is more codable, and therefore more available, in satellite-framed languages. These languages have a larger and more differentiated lexicon of manner verbs, and use those verbs more frequently across a range of situations, in comparison with verb-framed languages. These differences are demonstrated, across a number of languages, in the contexts of picture-elicited narratives, literary fiction and translations, newspaper reports, natural conversations, and parent-child discourse. There is also evidence that speakers of the two types of languages have different gesture patterns while speaking, and different mental imagery and memory of descriptions of motion events. The codability and availability of manner-of-motion apparently leads users of satellite- framed languages to pay more attention to this dimension of motion events. It is suggested that the framework of thinking for speaking be expanded to include: thinking for talking and listening, thinking for writing and reading, thinking for translating, listening and reading for remembering. In all of these dynamic contexts, there is evidence for linguistic relativity (systematic differences between languages) and linguistic determinism (discourse and cognitive effects of those differences).
38 Elzbieta Tabakowska Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland
Grammar and Ontology: A Case Study of Polish Religious Discourse
As proved by some recent publications and scholarly debates, linguists (notably of cognitivist persuasion) tend to agree that the language of religion is largely - or, in more extreme opinions, entirely - metaphorical. In this connection, it might be interesting to observe that religious discourse (particularly if it involves reference to God) also employs special, language- and culture-specific lexical and grammatical means. Like metaphors, lexemes and structures reserved for this type of discourse are used to talk about things and relations that extend the limits of human cognition. Focusing on two examples of derivational structures taken from Polish (perfective Nomina Actionis and a particular case of the superlative degree of adjectives), the paper claims that – the grammar of Polish accounts for an "imagery of transcendence“ by motivated non-metaphorical extensions of derivational rules, which make it possible to express specific conceptual relations; – a comparative analysis (which in this case involves a comparison of sample data from English and Polish) suggests that grammatical categories coincide with (abstract) cultural categories; – the selected features of Polish religious discourse comply with other usages quoted as instances of the "Polish way of thinking“ and constitutive of a folk stereotype. Moreover, the study might provide evidence (however tentative) in favour of Whorf´s fundamental claim that conventional use of grammatical categories influences thought.
39 Robin Taylor University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Linguistic Relativity Theory in the Pacific
A replication of a previous study (Taylor & Yavalanavanua, 1997) looking at bilingual Fijian citizens, tried to demonstrate experimentally that the language in which a story is presented, affects the perception and values of a story which was specifically designed to engineer a social dilemma in indigenous Fijian culture. Unlike the previous study, this one had a superior experimental design using a double blind protocol. Despite the increase in experimental rigour, respondents generally gave opinions that tended to emphasize the idea of concerns more for the family, when the story was in Fijian, compared to the opinions expressed by the respondents who read the story and gave their opinions in English. It is concluded that this study is a conceptual replication of the Taylor & Yavalanavanua (1997) study, both of which provide support for Fishman's (1960) hypothesis, that Linguistic Relativity Theory appears to operate at higher orders of language construction such as more complex grammar constructions, rather than semantic or lexical levels of language construction. It is believed that this experimental protocol demonstrates an effect because it asks for opinions and values on a relatively straight forward story, rather than asking for comprehension of meaning in a story as previous studies have done.
40 Linda L. Thornburg, Eötvös Loránd & Klaus-Uwe Panther University, Budapest, Hungary & University of Hamburg, Germany
Why We Subject Incorporate (in English): A Post-Whorfian View
The primary objects of investigation in this paper are English subject incorporations, i.e., morphologically joined words like baby step, sunset, and nose-bleed that have sentential counterparts in which the first element of the compound functions as subject and the second element as predicate of a sentence. Subject incorporations contrast with the more extensively investigated object incorporations in that the latter have sentential counterparts in which the first element of the compound functions as direct object in a transitive sentence. Whereas object incorporation produces complex verb stems, e.g. (to) lion-tame, subject incorporation produces a complex noun stem. What has not been widely discussed with regard to subject incorporation is a possible motivation for the creation of such forms. In other words -- to put a good object incorporation to use -- Why do speakers subject incorporate at all? And why do languages appear to subject incorporate less than they object incorporate? This asymmetry of productivity holding between subject and object incorporation raises larger questions regarding morpho-syntactic patterning in languages, namely issues that are more usually defined within the domain of syntactic typology. Ultimately even larger questions arise related to contrasting views of language structure and change, views that are generally distinguished as being either diachronic or synchronic. In the course of our analysis of subject incorporation in English, all of the above questions and issues will be addressed. Specifically, this paper will: – undertake a cognitive, synchronic analysis of subject incorporation in English; – relate subject incorporated constructions to object incorporated constructions in terms of their contrasting meanings and usages and show that they form a covert category in the sense of Whorf (1945); – provide a motivation for these "fairly marginal constructions“ (Comrie 1978: 337) and attempt to explain their distributional pattern, i.e. the "less[er] natural“ness of subject incorporations (ibid.: 390); – attempt to explain the universal tendency of languages to manifest an ergative- absolutive pattern for these incorporations; – argue that ergative morphology is cognitively motivated, marking a (relatively) highly Transitive Agent, and that ergative typology can be 41 reconceptualized as stage(s) in a process of grammaticalization motivated by universal, inherent (unnoticed, marginal(ized)) ergative-absolutive patterns in language that come to light with a cognitivist approach and can be accounted for on a conceptual basis, and; – conclude that our findings compromise the doctrine of linguistic relativity.
References Comrie, Bernard. 1978. Ergativity. In Winfred P. Lehmann, ed., Syntactic Typology: Studies in the Phenomenology of Language. Austin and London: University of Texas Press. 329-394. Whorf, Bejamin Lee. 1945. Grammatical Categories. Language 21: 1-11.
42 Jürgen Trabant Free University of Berlin, Germany
How Relativistic Are Humboldt’s 'Weltansichten'?
Humboldt´s philosophy of language is constantly quoted as one of the sources of linguistic relativism. Different languages are conceptualized as different "world views“ (Weltansichten), and Humboldt seems to exaggerate his enthusiasm of these different world views when he states that there should be as many languages as there are human beings. On the other side, philosophers as well as universalistic linguists tend to present Humboldt as a universalistic philosopher. Who is right? I will argue that both are right and both are wrong since both refer only to one aspect of Humboldt´s thought. Universalism and "relativism“ come together in a very special "marriage“ of philosophy and empirical linguistic research.
43 Friedrich Ungerer University of Rostock, Germany
Language, Thought and Conceptual Hierarchies
The paper approaches the topic in three stages. In the first stage conceptual (lexical) folk hierarchies are characterized against the background of scientific or expert taxonomies based on the linguistic evidence mainly taken from English. The discussion covers the limited depth of folk hierarchies, hierarchical gaps, alternative hierarchical paths and 'split labelling', i.e. the phenomenon that the same linguistic term is used on different hierarchical levels (animal for mammals and also for non- plants, food for solid food and also for nourishment including drink). Further aspects discussed are the frequency of multiple hierarchies (e.g. vehicle and toy for bus) and the integration of partonymies, i.e. part-whole relationships, into class-inclusion taxonomies (e.g. the integration of the courses of a meal into the taxonomic hierarchy of meals). The second stage tries to establish the link between language and thought by investigating the possible conceptual functions of hierarchy-building. The major distinction proposed is between the collecting or organising function (on which expert taxonomies are primarily based) and the highlighting function (more important for folk taxonomies). Considering the role of scientific thinking in our societies, we must not expect to find discrete folk taxonomies, strictly separated from the expert taxonomies, but a cline from scientific hierarchies to hierarchies geared to the demands of highligthing in communication. The paper will propose ways of eliciting these different types of folk hierarchies from informants. With the ground prepared by the first two stages, the third stage deals with the essential Whorfian question about the relationship between linguistic realization and the conceptual qualities of hierarchies in different languages. It introduces a pilot study in which hierarchies in the food and meal domains in English, German and French are compared (The analysis of other domains is envisaged). Although much less apart from each other than Tzeltal and English, these languages nevertheless do show slight differences in the ease with which superordinate terms are used (often supported by suitable morphology, e.g. German Geschirr, Besteck, French charcuterie, patisserie), but also with regard to the other features of folk hierarchies mentioned above. A problem which complicates the analysis is, of course, the influence which French cultural models of food and meals have exerted on the English and German situation, but this is just a special case of a general phenomenon of intercultural influence which is difficult to avoid.
44 Marjolijn H. Verspoor University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Colorful Bits of Experience That Count
One of the elements of "Whorf´s Theory Complex“ is the idea that "making meaning“ processes are agreed upon (usually implicitly) by a given speech community according to a "cognitively entrenched matrix for making meaning“. With this he means that people must tacitly agree about "which `bits of experience´ count and which bits don´t in a particular picture of the universe and how these bits are logically related“ when they make meaning (Lee 1996: 32). The aim of this paper is to discover `bits of experience´ that count in making meaning by closely examining English words and expressions that contain the colour terms red, blue, green, and black. By analyzing these words and expressions in terms of cognitive linguistic principles and constructs such as prototype effects, radial category, metaphor and metonymy, I hope to show that various principles apply at different levels for even a simple word like bluebell : the colour, in this case "blue“, refers to its most salient and distinctive part, but in most cases the colour is a peripheral member of the colour category (I will refer to this phenomenon as colour relativity), "bell“ refers to the shape of the bloom and is a metaphor. The composite expression "bluebell“ is again a reference to the most salient and distinctive part of the flower and therefore an instance of metonymy. Further analysis shows that commonly used, conventionalized metonymies such as bluestocking, redneck, and so on refer mostly to humans and as one would expect, to their most salient parts: the face (redface), the skin (blue-blooded), head (redhead) or head wear (red cap), or coat (bluecoats) and sometimes legs (redleg, bluestocking). Other frequently used and conventionalized metaphoric and metonymic expressions that came into existence refer to salient aspects of rituals or traditions (red carpet) or to salient things associated with salient events or periods in history (blue ribbon, red tape and blue laws). Their histories help explain their subtle connotations. For example, red tape refers to the tape British governmental aids put around the stacks of papers they were told to process after the French took over the government. Not surprisingly, these were not the first stacks to be dealt with! I will conclude by listing the more frequent `bits of experience´ encountered that play a role in making meaning.
References Lee, Penny. 1996. The Whorf Theory Complex: A critical reconstruction. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 45