Agentive versus non-agentive motions immediately influence event apprehension and description

An eye-tracking study in a VOS language

Bibliographic Data

ID20394841
AuthorsManami Sato (0000-0002-2348-5683, Okinawa International University, corresponding author), Keiyu Niikuni (0000-0002-5043-7177, Niigata Seiryo University), Amy J Schafer (0000-0001-8800-7386, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa), Masatoshi Koizumi (0000-0003-0719-7128, Tohoku University)
Year2020
Volume29
Issue2
Pages211-236
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of East Asian Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0925-8558 • E-ISSN: 1572-8560
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10831-020-09205-9
OpenAlexW3010866680
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited44

The embodied cognition hypothesis postulates that human cognition is fundamentally grounded in our experience of interacting with the physical world (Barsalou in Behav Brain Sci 22:577–609, 1999). Research has shown bi-directional associations between physical action and the processes of understanding language: language comprehension seems to activate implied visual and motor components (Zwaan and Taylor in J Exp Psychol Gen 135(1):1–11, 2006), and action behavior seems to facilitate the comprehension of associated action-language (Beilock et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:13269–13273, 2008). Although numerous research studies have reported a link between action and language comprehension, the exact nature of their association remains subject to debate (Chatterjee in Lang Cognit 2:79–116, 2010). Moreover, the role of action in the production of language is under-explored, as are general language production processes in Austronesian languages. The endangered Austronesian language Truku provides typological patterns that are both under-examined in psycholinguistic research and informative for questions of language production. Truku allows flexibility in the relative location of verbs versus arguments in sentence production, and uses a symmetrical voice system that marks the prominence of different participants in an event. Working with native speakers of Truku, we tested whether performing physical motions immediately affects the conceptual saliency of the components represented in a to-be-described event in ways that guide speakers’ visual attention and shape their utterance formulation. More specifically, we investigated whether speakers’ engagement as an agent or patient in a non-speech physical action affects initial eye-fixations on agent versus patient participants in a visual scene, as well as word order and grammatical voice choices in the speakers’ descriptions of simple transitive events. The results revealed significant effects of physical action on the relative location and prominence of agents in subsequent sentence formulation, and on online patterns of eye fixations. These results provide further support for language-action connections in cognitive processing, and shed light on the cross-linguistic patterns of sentence production

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Comprehension · Embodied cognition · Language production · Linguistics · Psycholinguistics · Sentence · Action Observation and Synchronization · Computer Science · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology

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