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Word Order and Perspective in a VOS Language

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Word Order and Perspective in a VOS Language Agent versus Non-Agent Motions Influence Language Production: Word Order and Perspective in a VOS language Manami Sato ([email protected]) Department of British and American Language and Culture, Okinawa International University 2-6-1 Ginowan, Ginowan City, Okinawa 901-2701 JAPAN Keiyu Niikuni ([email protected]) Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University Aramaki aza Aoba 6-3-09, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579 JAPAN Amy J. Schafer ([email protected]) Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaii 1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 569, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA Masatoshi Koizumi ([email protected]) Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University Kawauchi 27-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8576 JAPAN Abstract Truku, a language that allows flexibility in these options. More specifically, we examined how Truku speakers Is language production isolated from our experiences of physical events, or can physical motion affect the conceptual conceptually interpret and linguistically describe transitive saliency of the components of a to-be-described event, in events in their selections of voice (Actor voice, Goal voice) ways that affect its linguistic description? This study and word order (Verb-Object-Subject versus Subject-Verb- examined the influence of physical motion on the Object) in a picture-description task. interpretation and description of simple transitive events. More specifically, we investigated whether engagement in Conceptual Saliency in Sentence Production non-speech physical actions affects the relative location of verbs versus arguments in sentence production, and the When people linguistically describe transitive events, they relative location and prominence of Agents, by testing native must apprehend who-did-what-to-whom information, assign speakers of Truku, a language that allows flexibility in each appropriate semantic roles to each entity, align the relevant of these options and presents under-studied typological phrases in a linear order, and produce an utterance (Bock & patterns. Loebell, 1990; Ferreira & Slevc, 2007). For a transitive Keywords: embodiment; conceptual saliency; sentence event in which a girl is kicking a boy, active and passive production; motion; endangered language; Verb-initial expressions (i.e., A girl kicked the boy, and A boy was language kicked by the girl, respectively) are both grammatical, so what makes speakers select one particular expression over Introduction another? Previous studies have shown that one of the factors Everyday conversations are often conducted when the that influences the selection of active/passive voice and interlocutors are simultaneously engaged in another physical word order in describing or recalling transitive events is activity. We often talk while cooking, cleaning, exercising, conceptual accessibility (Japanese: Tanaka, Branigan, and so on. Does such activity influence how language is McLean, & Pickering, 2011; Spanish: Prat-Sala & Branigan, produced and perceived? While there are long-standing 2000; Tzeltal: Norcliffe et al., 2015). arguments for connections between the comprehension of More specifically, more conceptually salient entities such language about motion and actual motion production as animate nouns tend to be mentioned earlier in a sentence (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; Zwaan & Taylor, 2006), this than less conceptually salient ones such as inanimate nouns. question remains underexplored. Moreover, experimental They also tend to be realized with higher grammatical studies of language processing have been heavily dominated functions, affecting voice alternations. For example, when by studies of a small sample of the world’s languages (i.e., Spanish speakers describe the event depicting A train ran languages in which Subject precedes Object and Verb over the woman, the conceptually salient entity the woman appears in the medial or final position), under-representing tends to be mentioned earlier in the utterance, triggering a important typological patterns. Here, we evaluated whether word order alteration from SVO to OVS (e.g., A la mujer la engagement in non-speech physical actions affects the atropello el tren, literal translation: woman-ran over-train, relative location of verbs versus arguments in sentence ‘The woman, the train ran her over’) or the selection of the production, and the relative location and prominence of animate entity, the woman, as the sentential Subject, phrases that refer to Agents, by testing native speakers of resulting in a passive voice construction (e.g., La mujer fue atropellada por el tren, literal translation: woman-be run refers to the Patient, as shown in (1a) and (2a). However, in over-by train, ‘The woman was run over by the train’) (Prat- Goal voice (GV) sentences, assignments of grammatical Sala & Branigan, 2000). functions and semantic roles are switched – the Subject is Animacy is well-known as a factor that influences the now linked to the Patient and the Object to the Agent as form of utterances, but what determines relative saliency shown in (1b) and (2b). Notice that this means that the when the agent and patient entities are both animate? Here, Agent precedes the Patient in Goal voice VOS and Agent we tested the claim that there are embodiment effects in voice SVO sentences (1b, 2a), while the Patient is language production – e.g. voice and word order are mentioned before the Agent in Agent voice VOS and Goal affected by conceptual salience/perspective, which are voice SVO sentences (1a, 2b). themselves affected by physical motion. To test this idea, we placed participants in a situation where they were the “The girl kicks the boy” agent of a pulling motion, the patient of one, or not involved (1a) VAV OPatient SAgent in motion, to evaluate whether this differential physical qmqah snaw niyi ka kuyuh niyi involvement affected the speakers’ internal attention to kick.AV [boy DET] [NOM girl DET] actions, agents, or patients, and their subsequent production of sentences that described transitive events with two human (1b) VGV OAgent SPatient animate participants. We first provide background about the qqahan kuyuh niyi ka snaw niyi grammar of Truku, the language used for our study, and kick.GV [girl DET] [NOM boy DET] then turn to the predictions of our experiment. (2a) SAgent VAV OPatient Truku language kuyuh niyi o qmqah snaw niyi Truku is a Formosan Austronesian language spoken in an [girl DET FOC] kick.AV [boy DET] area north-east of Puli in Central Taiwan. Truku is recognized as an endangered language, with approximately (2b) SPatient VGV OAgent 20,000 native speakers. Importantly for this study, Truku snaw niyi o qqahan kuyuh niyi allows both verb-object-subject (VOS) word order as shown [boy DET FOC] kick.GV [girl DET] in (1), and subject-verb-object (SVO) order, as shown in (2). The VOS order is considered the basic word order (Tsukida, Predictions 2009), while the SVO order is derived by preposing the If physical involvement by a speaker affects the conceptual subject to the sentence initial position. Recent experimental saliency they establish for elements represented in transitive studies have provided empirical evidence supporting the events, we can make two predictions regarding verbal analysis of VOS as the basic word order in Truku. For responses of Truku. First, we predict that irrespective of example, using a sensibility judgment task, Ono, Kim, Tang, agentivity in motions, physical involvement cognitively & Koizumi (2016) have shown that Truku speakers highlights the action component of an event (versus the processed VOS sentences faster than SVO. In an event- participants in it), making participants more likely to related potential (ERP) experiment, comprehending SVO produce the verb as the initial element in their utterances. sentences elicited a larger P600 effect compared to VOS This predicts that motion engagement triggers more VOS ones, indicating that processing VOS sentences required a responses compared to when participants are not involved in lower cognitive load compared to SVO sentences (Yano, motion. Niikuni, Ono, Kiyama, Sato, Tang, Yasunaga, & Koizumi, Second, if motions modulate the perspective from which 2017). participants perceive the transitive event, then their In addition to VSO versus SVO word order flexibility, performance as the agent of a pulling motion (our Pull- Truku has a symmetrical voice system, allowing alternations Agent condition) may stimulate or generate a tendency to in which argument is made syntactically salient. In Tagalog, adopt the perspective of the agent for subsequent events, another verb-initial language that has a symmetrical voice and thus we predict it will increase their use of the Agent system, the argument associated with the selected voice is voice (versus the Goal voice) in their linguistic descriptions known to be more prominent (Sauppe, Norcliffe, Konopka, of those events. On the other hand, the experience of being Van Valin, & Levinson, 2013; Sauppe, 2016). pulled (our Pull-Patient condition) may decrease or hinder Here, we consider the alternation between what we will their sense of agency, and favor the patient perspective. We refer to as Agent voice (AV) and Goal voice (GV). Each of predict this will increase responses using a Goal voice to these is marked morphologically on the verb, as indicated in describe transitive events.2 (1) and (2). Both (1a) and (1b) are non-derived transitive events, that is, they are both unmarked and equally transitive. 2 One could also predict a preference
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