Not All Indexical Cues Are Equal

Differential Sensitivity to Dimensions of Indexical Meaning in an Artificial Language

Bibliographic Data

ID7900538
AuthorsPéter Rácz (0000-0001-7896-4801, Central European University, corresponding author), J Hay (0000-0001-8127-0413, University of Canterbury), Jennifer B Hay (University of Canterbury), Janet B Pierrehumbert (0000-0002-5989-3574, University of Canterbury)
Year2020
Volume70
Issue3
Pages848-885
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Learning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lang.12402
OpenAlexW3028300062
LanguageCA
Citations received1
References cited66

In this study, we investigated the learning of indexical features by English‐speaking adults using a novel experimental paradigm. In a conceptual replication of Rácz, Hay, and Pierrehumbert (2017), participants learned an allomorphy pattern cued by a given social context. The social contexts were represented by conversation partners who differed by age, ethnicity, and/or gender and were positioned in various ways. The results showed that, after training, the participants were able to learn that different types of conversation partners prefer different types of allomorphs but that learning and generalization hinged on the social relevance of the cue represented by the conversation partner. These results suggest that the relevance of cues in an individual's past social experience influences their storage and learnability even at very early stages of learning a word pattern

Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology) · Conversation · Iconicity · Indexicality · Language acquisition · Learnability · Linguistics · Markedness · Sociolinguistics · Categorization, perception, and language · Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology

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