Contemporary Perceptions of Language: Interdisciplinary Dimensions Heidi Byrnes Editor Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1982 Contemporary Perceptions of Language: Interdisciplinary Dimensions Heidi Byrnes Editor Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. 20057 BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTICE Since this series has been variously and confusingly cited as: Georgetown University Monographic Series on Languages and Linguistics, Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, Reports of the Annual Round Table Meetings on Linguistics and Language Study, etc., beginning with the 1973 volume, the title of the series was changed. The new title of the series includes the year of a Round Table and omits both the monograph number and the meeting number, thus: Georgetown University Round Table on Lan- guages and Linguistics 1982, with the regular abbreviation GURT 1982. Full bibliographic references should show the form: Ross, Haj. 1982. Human linguistics. In: Georgetown Uni- versity Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1982. Edited by Heidi Byrnes. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 1-30. Copyright © 1982 by Georgetown University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Number: 58-31607 ISBN 0-87840-117-2 ISSN 0196-7207 CONTENTS Welcoming Remarks James E. Alatis Dean, School of Languages and Linguistics v Introduction Heidi Byrnes Chair, Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1982 ix Haj Ross Human linguistics 1 Judith T. Irvine Language and affect: Some cross-cultural issues 31 Aaron V. Cicourel Language and belief in a medical setting 48 Lorand B. Szalay Psychological meanings: How much we share, how much we differ culturally 79 Michael Shapiro Remarks on the nature of the autotelic sign 101 Samuel R. Levin Are figures of thought figures of speech? 112 A. L. Becker Beyond translation: Esthetics and language description 124 Mary Louise Pratt Conventions of representation: Where discourse and ideology meet 139 in iv / Contents Benjamin Hrushovski Integrational semantics: An understander's theory of meaning in context 156 Helmut Gipper The language apriori: A contribution of Humboldtian linguistics to the theory of cognition 191 Christy L. Ludlow The brain bases for language functioning: New insights from penetrating head injuries 203 Felix Lobo, S.J. and Kensaku Yoshida The perceptual acquisition of English phonology by Japanese students 224 Susan Ervin-Tripp Ask and it shall be given unto you: Children's requests 235 WELCOMING REMARKS James E. AI at is Dean, School of Languages and Linguistics Georgetown University Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me a great pleasure indeed to welcome you on behalf of Georgetown Uni- versity and its School of Languages and Linguistics to the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Lin- guistics 1982. This is the thirty-third of these annual meet- ings, a not unimpressive series. The Chairman of this year's conference is Dr. Heidi Byrnes, who has chosen as the theme of GURT 82: 'Contemporary per- ceptions of language: Interdisciplinary dimensions' The program she has prepared is impressive, and the superb organization of all the conference details is her work and that of her able assistant, Joy Kreeft. This year I find presenting my customary welcome a somewhat bittersweet experience. For in addition to the deep pleasure of welcoming you, I must also inform you that Mr. Eugene Ionesco, who was to have graced the program, has been prevented by a high fever, flu, and a severe attack of bronchitis from address- ing you. Given his advanced age and the severity of his ill- ness, his doctors have forbidden him to fly here from France. However disappointed you might be, I am sure you will accept this last moment cancellation sympathetically, and will, I hope, be gladdened to learn that Professor Haj Ross of the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology has generously accepted the task of addressing us this evening in place of Mr. Ionesco. In reading the program I was pleased to note that once again the preconference sessions present as wide and as interesting a range of topics as the conference itself. This is a tribute to the energy and enthusiasm of Dr. Byrnes as well as an indi- cation of the widespread interest that the programs of George- town University Round Tables on Languages and Linguistics generate. vi / Welcoming Remarks I was especially pleased to note today's preconference session on testing oral proficiency because it marks a continuation of the joint efforts of Georgetown University and of the Inter- Agency Roundtable, a sign of further cooperation between government and the academic community. For testing oral proficiency is an activity which is a common interest of pro- fessionals engaged in language teaching, whether they are teaching foreign languages, English as a second language, English as a standard language, or are engaged in various bilingual programs. Moreover, the establishment of oral pro- ficiency achievement goals was one of the recommendations of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and Inter- national Studies. With reference to the President's Commission, it may interest you to learn that just today the National Council for Foreign Language and International Studies, a group which was estab- lished as a consequence of some of the recommendations of the President's Commission, sponsored in conjunction with the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies a one-day conference on the development and utiliza- tion of international skills. This conference brought together a small group of the country's leading academic specialists and experienced senior federal officials with foreign policy responsi- bilities in order to explore ways in which the international re- sources and skills of our universities can be more effectively and systematically coordinated with the research needs of the federal government. Most of you will already have noted, I am sure, the pleasant coincidence that the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1982 occurs this year during National Foreign Language Week. President Reagan has even issued a proclamation for National Foreign Language Week wherein he extols our profession, repeats his commitment to this type of scholarship, and wishes us all, both teachers and students, success in the coming year. Today it is important to know that the community of foreign language teachers is united and is developing coalitions en- gaged in political and public awareness activities which will eventually insure that the President's Commission report will be implemented and not remain a document collecting dust on a shelf. For your encouragement, let me mention one more item. You may not know that the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) meets here tomorrow and Saturday. This coalition of twenty-one of the most prominent language associations in this country is another instance of a lobby which works to make the public aware, forms networks, and promotes legislation and legislative activities to see to it that all the things that you and I believe in get the kinds of support that we know they deserve. Welcoming Remarks / vii Again, thank you one and all for the honor and pleasure of your presence. Now let us turn our attention to contemporary perceptions of language and its interdisciplinary dimensions. INTRODUCTION Professional gatherings characteristically have as their objec- tive the in-depth exploration of a clearly (and that usually means narrowly) defined topic of current interest in their respective fields. However, that does not exclude a concurrent, seemingly contradictory additional goal. Aside from providing a forium for presenting new, highly specific materials, they offer a meeting place where researchers, typically drawn into the limiting focus of specialization, can allow themselves to be opened up to other perspectives which lead to different tie-ins, support networks, and justifications and thus, ultimately, a deeper meaning for their limited endeavors. Over the past 32 years of its existence, the Georgetown Uni- versity Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, no matter what its topic, has always sought such fruitful expansion of each participant's professional base of operation by bringing together scholars from numerous disciplines. In that respect the theme for the 33rd annual Georgetown University Round Table gathering, 'Contemporary Perception of Language: Inter- disciplinary Dimensions', only gives official recognition to what, for this series, has implicitly been a preferred mode of conduct- ing the investigation of language. While an interdisciplinary orientation for language study is thus certainly not original, upgrading that aspect to be the focal point of an entire gathering is not without special diffi- culties. Even in its planning stages it invites the potential danger of diffuseness and vagueness, perhaps even inconclu- siveness, particularly when one considers the very real limi- tations of time. It must be expected from the outset that the formal plenary session papers and the more intimate interest sessions can at best address the matter at hand in a very modest fashion. Such deliberations notwithstanding, in the end what won out was the conviction that spotlighting interdisciplinarity could also spotlight what I see to be the latent challenge and, fortu- nately, the distinct opportunity, in our field today, namely, the call to a humanistic