Shiri Lev-Ari
Biographic Data
| ID | 3821571 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shiri Lev-Ari |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shiri |
| FAMILY NAME | Lev-Ari |
| SIGNATURE | LEV-ARI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Sound symbolism highlights relative distinctiveness
There is robust evidence that people associate certain sounds with meanings, yet the prevalence and importance of sound symbolism in natural language remains debated. This paper proposes that some failures to detect sound symbolic patterns stem from mischaracterizing how sound symbolism operates. Many studies examine whether words with similar meanings have similar sounds. Yet if words shared sounds with lexical competitors, sound symbolism could…
The sound of swearing
Why do swear words sound the way they do? Swear words are often thought to have sounds that render them especially fit for purpose, facilitating the expression of emotion and attitude. To date, however, there has been no systematic cross-linguistic investigation of phonetic patterns in profanity. In an initial, pilot study we explored statistical regularities in the sounds of swear words across a range of typologically distant languages. The best…
The emergence of word order from a social network perspective
The distribution of word order across languages is skewed with SOV order (e.g., researchers sentences write) and SVO order (e.g., researchers write sentences) being >100 times more common than OSV order (sentences researchers write). It is commonly assumed that cross-linguistic preferences reflect cognitive biases, but it is unknown why some languages exhibit dispreferred patterns, or why languages settle on a specific pattern out of several pref…
Studying individual differences in the social environment to better understand language learning and processing
People learn language from their social environment. Therefore, individual differences in the input that their social environment provides could influence their linguistic performance. Nevertheless, investigation of the role of individual differences in input on performance has been mostly restricted to first and second language acquisition. In this paper I argue that individual differences in input can influence linguistic performance even in ad…
Selective Grammatical Convergence
Models of language learning often assume that we learn from all the input we receive. This assumption is particularly strong in the domain of short-term and long-term grammatical convergence, where researchers argue that grammatical convergence is mostly an automatic process insulated from social factors. This article shows that the degree to which individuals learn from grammatical input is modulated by social and contextual factors, such as the…
An experimental study of the role of social factors in language change
There is great variation in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted or retained. Importantly, the retention of foreign sounds can lead to a sound change in the language. We propose that social factors influence the likelihood of loanword sound adaptation, and use this case to introduce a novel experimental paradigm for studying language change that captures the role of social factors. Specifically, we show that the relative prestige of th…
The influence of inhibitory skill on phonological representations in production and perception☆
Low inhibitory skill leads to non-native perception and production in bilinguals' native language
Less-Detailed Representation of Non-Native Language
The language of non-native speakers is less reliable than the language of native speakers in conveying the speaker's intentions. We propose that listeners expect such reduced reliability and that this leads them to adjust the manner in which they process and represent non-native language by representing non-native language in less detail. Experiment 1 shows that when people listen to a story, they are less able to detect a word change with a non-…
Why don't we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility
Why don't we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility
Low inhibitory skill leads to non-native perception and production in bilinguals' native language
Less-Detailed Representation of Non-Native Language
The language of non-native speakers is less reliable than the language of native speakers in conveying the speaker's intentions. We propose that listeners expect such reduced reliability and that this leads them to adjust the manner in which they process and represent non-native language by representing non-native language in less detail. Experiment 1 shows that when people listen to a story, they are less able to detect a word change with a non-…
The influence of inhibitory skill on phonological representations in production and perception☆
Selective Grammatical Convergence
Models of language learning often assume that we learn from all the input we receive. This assumption is particularly strong in the domain of short-term and long-term grammatical convergence, where researchers argue that grammatical convergence is mostly an automatic process insulated from social factors. This article shows that the degree to which individuals learn from grammatical input is modulated by social and contextual factors, such as the…
Why don't we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility
Less-Detailed Representation of Non-Native Language
The language of non-native speakers is less reliable than the language of native speakers in conveying the speaker's intentions. We propose that listeners expect such reduced reliability and that this leads them to adjust the manner in which they process and represent non-native language by representing non-native language in less detail. Experiment 1 shows that when people listen to a story, they are less able to detect a word change with a non-…
Low inhibitory skill leads to non-native perception and production in bilinguals' native language
An experimental study of the role of social factors in language change
There is great variation in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted or retained. Importantly, the retention of foreign sounds can lead to a sound change in the language. We propose that social factors influence the likelihood of loanword sound adaptation, and use this case to introduce a novel experimental paradigm for studying language change that captures the role of social factors. Specifically, we show that the relative prestige of th…
The influence of inhibitory skill on phonological representations in production and perception☆
Studying individual differences in the social environment to better understand language learning and processing
People learn language from their social environment. Therefore, individual differences in the input that their social environment provides could influence their linguistic performance. Nevertheless, investigation of the role of individual differences in input on performance has been mostly restricted to first and second language acquisition. In this paper I argue that individual differences in input can influence linguistic performance even in ad…
Selective Grammatical Convergence
Models of language learning often assume that we learn from all the input we receive. This assumption is particularly strong in the domain of short-term and long-term grammatical convergence, where researchers argue that grammatical convergence is mostly an automatic process insulated from social factors. This article shows that the degree to which individuals learn from grammatical input is modulated by social and contextual factors, such as the…
The sound of swearing
Why do swear words sound the way they do? Swear words are often thought to have sounds that render them especially fit for purpose, facilitating the expression of emotion and attitude. To date, however, there has been no systematic cross-linguistic investigation of phonetic patterns in profanity. In an initial, pilot study we explored statistical regularities in the sounds of swear words across a range of typologically distant languages. The best…
The emergence of word order from a social network perspective
The distribution of word order across languages is skewed with SOV order (e.g., researchers sentences write) and SVO order (e.g., researchers write sentences) being >100 times more common than OSV order (sentences researchers write). It is commonly assumed that cross-linguistic preferences reflect cognitive biases, but it is unknown why some languages exhibit dispreferred patterns, or why languages settle on a specific pattern out of several pref…
Sound symbolism highlights relative distinctiveness
There is robust evidence that people associate certain sounds with meanings, yet the prevalence and importance of sound symbolism in natural language remains debated. This paper proposes that some failures to detect sound symbolic patterns stem from mischaracterizing how sound symbolism operates. Many studies examine whether words with similar meanings have similar sounds. Yet if words shared sounds with lexical competitors, sound symbolism could…
Linguistics (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (4 works) · Categorization, perception, and language (3 works) · Communication (3 works) · First language (3 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (3 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (3 works)