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Bögels S, Levinson SC. Ultrasound measurements of interactive turn-taking in question-answer sequences: Articulatory preparation is delayed but not tied to the response. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0276470. [PMID: 37405982 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276470] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
We know that speech planning in conversational turn-taking can happen in overlap with the previous turn and research suggests that it starts as early as possible, that is, as soon as the gist of the previous turn becomes clear. The present study aimed to investigate whether planning proceeds all the way up to the last stage of articulatory preparation (i.e., putting the articulators in place for the first phoneme of the response) and what the timing of this process is. Participants answered pre-recorded quiz questions (being under the illusion that they were asked live), while their tongue movements were measured using ultrasound. Planning could start early for some quiz questions (i.e., midway during the question), but late for others (i.e., only at the end of the question). The results showed no evidence for a difference between tongue movements in these two types of questions for at least two seconds after planning could start in early-planning questions, suggesting that speech planning in overlap with the current turn proceeds more slowly than in the clear. On the other hand, when time-locking to speech onset, tongue movements differed between the two conditions from up to two seconds before this point. This suggests that articulatory preparation can occur in advance and is not fully tied to the overt response itself.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Bögels
- Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Levinson SC. Gesture, spatial cognition and the evolution of language. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210481. [PMID: 36871589 PMCID: PMC9985965 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/03/2022] [Indexed: 03/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Human communication displays a striking contrast between the diversity of languages and the universality of the principles underlying their use in conversation. Despite the importance of this interactional base, it is not obvious that it heavily imprints the structure of languages. However, a deep-time perspective suggests that early hominin communication was gestural, in line with all the other Hominidae. This gestural phase of early language development seems to have left its traces in the way in which spatial concepts, implemented in the hippocampus, provide organizing principles at the heart of grammar. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C. Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 6525XD, The Netherlands
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Kendrick KH, Holler J, Levinson SC. Turn-taking in human face-to-face interaction is multimodal: gaze direction and manual gestures aid the coordination of turn transitions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210473. [PMID: 36871587 PMCID: PMC9985971 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Human communicative interaction is characterized by rapid and precise turn-taking. This is achieved by an intricate system that has been elucidated in the field of conversation analysis, based largely on the study of the auditory signal. This model suggests that transitions occur at points of possible completion identified in terms of linguistic units. Despite this, considerable evidence exists that visible bodily actions including gaze and gestures also play a role. To reconcile disparate models and observations in the literature, we combine qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse turn-taking in a corpus of multimodal interaction using eye-trackers and multiple cameras. We show that transitions seem to be inhibited when a speaker averts their gaze at a point of possible turn completion, or when a speaker produces gestures which are beginning or unfinished at such points. We further show that while the direction of a speaker's gaze does not affect the speed of transitions, the production of manual gestures does: turns with gestures have faster transitions. Our findings suggest that the coordination of transitions involves not only linguistic resources but also visual gestural ones and that the transition-relevance places in turns are multimodal in nature. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kobin H. Kendrick
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Judith Holler
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
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4
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Skirgård H, Haynie HJ, Blasi DE, Hammarström H, Collins J, Latarche JJ, Lesage J, Weber T, Witzlack-Makarevich A, Passmore S, Chira A, Maurits L, Dinnage R, Dunn M, Reesink G, Singer R, Bowern C, Epps P, Hill J, Vesakoski O, Robbeets M, Abbas NK, Auer D, Bakker NA, Barbos G, Borges RD, Danielsen S, Dorenbusch L, Dorn E, Elliott J, Falcone G, Fischer J, Ghanggo Ate Y, Gibson H, Göbel HP, Goodall JA, Gruner V, Harvey A, Hayes R, Heer L, Herrera Miranda RE, Hübler N, Huntington-Rainey B, Ivani JK, Johns M, Just E, Kashima E, Kipf C, Klingenberg JV, König N, Koti A, Kowalik RG, Krasnoukhova O, Lindvall NL, Lorenzen M, Lutzenberger H, Martins TR, Mata German C, van der Meer S, Montoya Samamé J, Müller M, Muradoglu S, Neely K, Nickel J, Norvik M, Oluoch CA, Peacock J, Pearey IO, Peck N, Petit S, Pieper S, Poblete M, Prestipino D, Raabe L, Raja A, Reimringer J, Rey SC, Rizaew J, Ruppert E, Salmon KK, Sammet J, Schembri R, Schlabbach L, Schmidt FW, Skilton A, Smith WD, de Sousa H, Sverredal K, Valle D, Vera J, Voß J, Witte T, Wu H, Yam S, Ye J, Yong M, Yuditha T, Zariquiey R, Forkel R, Evans N, Levinson SC, Haspelmath M, Greenhill SJ, Atkinson QD, Gray RD. Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss. Sci Adv 2023; 9:eadg6175. [PMID: 37075104 PMCID: PMC10115409 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg6175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here, we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world's languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world's most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition, and culture will be seriously fragmented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hedvig Skirgård
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Department of Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Corresponding author. (H.S.); (R.D.G.)
| | - Hannah J. Haynie
- Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Damián E. Blasi
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Human Relation Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Harald Hammarström
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jeremy Collins
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jay J. Latarche
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Jakob Lesage
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique (LLACAN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Villejuif, France
- Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France
- Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Tobias Weber
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Sam Passmore
- Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus), Tokyo, Japan
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Angela Chira
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Luke Maurits
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Russell Dinnage
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Michael Dunn
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Ger Reesink
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Ruth Singer
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Research Unit for Indigenous Language, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Claire Bowern
- Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Patience Epps
- Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Jane Hill
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Outi Vesakoski
- Department of Biology, Turku University, Turku, Finland
- Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric languages, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Martine Robbeets
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Noor Karolin Abbas
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Daniel Auer
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nancy A. Bakker
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Giulia Barbos
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Robert D. Borges
- Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Swintha Danielsen
- Zentrum für Kleine und Regionale Sprachen, Friesisches Seminar, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany
- Centro de Investigaciones Históricas y Antropológicas (CIHA), Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
- Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF), Flensburg, Germany
| | - Luise Dorenbusch
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Linguistics, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ella Dorn
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - John Elliott
- Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
| | - Giada Falcone
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jana Fischer
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Yustinus Ghanggo Ate
- Department of Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Universitas Katolik Weetebula, Sumba Island, Indonesia
| | - Hannah Gibson
- Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Essex, Essex, UK
| | - Hans-Philipp Göbel
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Jemima A. Goodall
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Victoria Gruner
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Andrew Harvey
- Faculty of Languages and Literatures, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Rebekah Hayes
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Leonard Heer
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Roberto E. Herrera Miranda
- Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France
- Institute of Linguistics, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Structure et Dynamique des Langues (SeDyl), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Villejuif, France
- Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nataliia Hübler
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Biu Huntington-Rainey
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London (UCL), University of London, London, UK
- Institutt for Filosofi, ide- og Kunsthistorie og Klassiske Språk (IFIKK), Det Humanistisk Fakultet, Universitet i Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jessica K. Ivani
- Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Marilen Johns
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Erika Just
- Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Eri Kashima
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Department of Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Carolina Kipf
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Janina V. Klingenberg
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Nikita König
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Department of Linguistics, European University Viadrina, Frankfur an der Oder, Germany
| | - Aikaterina Koti
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | - Olga Krasnoukhova
- Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium
| | - Nora L. M. Lindvall
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Mandy Lorenzen
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Hannah Lutzenberger
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Tânia R. A. Martins
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Celia Mata German
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Suzanne van der Meer
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jaime Montoya Samamé
- Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
| | - Michael Müller
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Saliha Muradoglu
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Kelsey Neely
- Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Johanna Nickel
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Miina Norvik
- Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- Department of Modern Languages, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Cheryl Akinyi Oluoch
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Jesse Peacock
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - India O. C. Pearey
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Naomi Peck
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Stephanie Petit
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Sören Pieper
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Mariana Poblete
- Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
- Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Daniel Prestipino
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Linda Raabe
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Amna Raja
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Janis Reimringer
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sydney C. Rey
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
- The Language Conservancy, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Julia Rizaew
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Eloisa Ruppert
- Department of Linguistics, Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kim K. Salmon
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jill Sammet
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Rhiannon Schembri
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Lars Schlabbach
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | | | - Amalia Skilton
- Department of Linguistics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | | | - Hilário de Sousa
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale (CRLAO), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Aubervilliers, France
| | - Kristin Sverredal
- Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Daniel Valle
- Department of Modern Languages, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA
| | - Javier Vera
- Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
| | - Judith Voß
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Tim Witte
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
| | - Henry Wu
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Stephanie Yam
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Institute for General Linguistics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Jingting Ye
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Maisie Yong
- Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK
| | - Tessa Yuditha
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
| | - Roberto Zariquiey
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
| | - Robert Forkel
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nicholas Evans
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Department of Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Martin Haspelmath
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Simon J. Greenhill
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | | | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Corresponding author. (H.S.); (R.D.G.)
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Garrido Rodriguez G, Norcliffe E, Brown P, Huettig F, Levinson SC. Anticipatory Processing in a Verb-Initial Mayan Language: Eye-Tracking Evidence During Sentence Comprehension in Tseltal. Cogn Sci 2023; 47:e13292. [PMID: 36652288 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
We present a visual world eye-tracking study on Tseltal (a Mayan language) and investigate whether verbal information can be used to anticipate an upcoming referent. Basic word order in transitive sentences in Tseltal is Verb-Object-Subject (VOS). The verb is usually encountered first, making argument structure and syntactic information available at the outset, which should facilitate anticipation of the post-verbal arguments. Tseltal speakers listened to verb-initial sentences with either an object-predictive verb (e.g., "eat") or a general verb (e.g., "look for") (e.g., "Ya slo'/sle ta stukel on te kereme," Is eating/is looking (for) by himself the avocado the boy/ "The boy is eating/is looking (for) an avocado by himself") while seeing a visual display showing one potential referent (e.g., avocado) and three distractors (e.g., bag, toy car, coffee grinder). We manipulated verb type (predictive vs. general) and recorded participants' eye movements while they listened and inspected the visual scene. Participants' fixations to the target referent were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models. Shortly after hearing the predictive verb, participants fixated the target object before it was mentioned. In contrast, when the verb was general, fixations to the target only started to increase once the object was heard. Our results suggest that Tseltal hearers pre-activate semantic features of the grammatical object prior to its linguistic expression. This provides evidence from a verb-initial language for online incremental semantic interpretation and anticipatory processing during language comprehension. These processes are comparable to the ones identified in subject-initial languages, which is consistent with the notion that different languages follow similar universal processing principles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne.,ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, The University of Melbourne
| | | | - Penelope Brown
- Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Falk Huettig
- Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen.,Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen
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6
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Wnuk E, Verkerk A, Levinson SC, Majid A. Color technology is not necessary for rich and efficient color language. Cognition 2022; 229:105223. [PMID: 36113197 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of basic color terms in language is claimed to be stimulated by technological development, involving technological control of color or exposure to artificially colored objects. Accordingly, technologically "simple" non-industrialized societies are expected to have poor lexicalization of color, i.e., only rudimentary lexica of 2, 3 or 4 basic color terms, with unnamed gaps in the color space. While it may indeed be the case that technology stimulates lexical growth of color terms, it is sometimes considered a sine qua non for color salience and lexicalization. We provide novel evidence that this overlooks the role of the natural environment, and people's engagement with the environment, in the evolution of color vocabulary. We introduce the Maniq-nomadic hunter-gatherers with no color technology, but who have a basic color lexicon of 6 or 7 terms, thus of the same order as large languages like Vietnamese and Hausa, and who routinely talk about color. We examine color language in Maniq and compare it to available data in other languages to demonstrate it has remarkably high consensual color term usage, on a par with English, and high coding efficiency. This shows colors can matter even for non-industrialized societies, suggesting technology is not necessary for color language. Instead, factors such as perceptual prominence of color in natural environments, its practical usefulness across communicative contexts, and symbolic importance can all stimulate elaboration of color language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ewelina Wnuk
- Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland; Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom.
| | - Annemarie Verkerk
- Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Radboud University, 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Asifa Majid
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom.
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7
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Levinson SC. The interaction engine: cuteness selection and the evolution of the interactional base for language. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210108. [PMID: 35876196 PMCID: PMC9310178 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 01/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The deep structural diversity of languages suggests that our language capacities are not based on any single template but rather on an underlying ability and motivation for infants to acquire a culturally transmitted system. The hypothesis is that this ability has an interactional base that has discernable precursors in other primates. In this paper, I explore a specific evolutionary route for the most puzzling aspect of this interactional base in humans, namely the development of an empathetic intentional stance. The route involves a generalization of mother-infant interaction patterns to all adults via a process (cuteness selection) analogous to, but distinct from, RA Fisher's runaway sexual selection. This provides a cornerstone for the carrying capacity for language. This article is part of the theme issue 'Revisiting the human 'interaction engine': comparative approaches to social action coordination'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
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8
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Trujillo JP, Levinson SC, Holler J. A multi-scale investigation of the human communication system's response to visual disruption. R Soc Open Sci 2022; 9:211489. [PMID: 35425638 PMCID: PMC9006025 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
In human communication, when the speech is disrupted, the visual channel (e.g. manual gestures) can compensate to ensure successful communication. Whether speech also compensates when the visual channel is disrupted is an open question, and one that significantly bears on the status of the gestural modality. We test whether gesture and speech are dynamically co-adapted to meet communicative needs. To this end, we parametrically reduce visibility during casual conversational interaction and measure the effects on speakers' communicative behaviour using motion tracking and manual annotation for kinematic and acoustic analyses. We found that visual signalling effort was flexibly adapted in response to a decrease in visual quality (especially motion energy, gesture rate, size, velocity and hold-time). Interestingly, speech was also affected: speech intensity increased in response to reduced visual quality (particularly in speech-gesture utterances, but independently of kinematics). Our findings highlight that multi-modal communicative behaviours are flexibly adapted at multiple scales of measurement and question the notion that gesture plays an inferior role to speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- James P. Trujillo
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Judith Holler
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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9
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Abstract
The rate at which young children are directly spoken to varies due to many factors, including (a) caregiver ideas about children as conversational partners and (b) the organization of everyday life. Prior work suggests cross-cultural variation in rates of child-directed speech is due to the former factor, but has been fraught with confounds in comparing postindustrial and subsistence farming communities. We investigate the daylong language environments of children (0;0-3;0) on Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea, a small-scale traditional community where prior ethnographic study demonstrated contingency-seeking child interaction styles. In fact, children were infrequently directly addressed and linguistic input rate was primarily affected by situational factors, though children's vocalization maturity showed no developmental delay. We compare the input characteristics between this community and a Tseltal Mayan one in which near-parallel methods produced comparable results, then briefly discuss the models and mechanisms for learning best supported by our findings.
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10
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Abstract
Daylong at-home audio recordings from 10 Tseltal Mayan children (0;2-3;0; Southern Mexico) were analyzed for how often children engaged in verbal interaction with others and whether their speech environment changed with age, time of day, household size, and number of speakers present. Children were infrequently directly spoken to, with most directed speech coming from adults, and no increase with age. Most directed speech came in the mornings, and interactional peaks contained nearly four times the baseline rate of directed speech. Coarse indicators of children's language development (babbling, first words, first word combinations) suggest that Tseltal children manage to extract the linguistic information they need despite minimal directed speech. Multiple proposals for how they might do so are discussed.
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11
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Holler J, Levinson SC. Multimodal Language Processing in Human Communication. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:639-652. [PMID: 31235320 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 05/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The natural ecology of human language is face-to-face interaction comprising the exchange of a plethora of multimodal signals. Trying to understand the psycholinguistic processing of language in its natural niche raises new issues, first and foremost the binding of multiple, temporally offset signals under tight time constraints posed by a turn-taking system. This might be expected to overload and slow our cognitive system, but the reverse is in fact the case. We propose cognitive mechanisms that may explain this phenomenon and call for a multimodal, situated psycholinguistic framework to unravel the full complexities of human language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Holler
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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12
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Abstract
In face-to-face communication, recurring intervals of mutual gaze allow listeners to provide speakers with visual feedback (e.g. nodding). Here, we investigate the potential feedback function of one of the subtlest of human movements—eye blinking. While blinking tends to be subliminal, the significance of mutual gaze in human interaction raises the question whether the interruption of mutual gaze through blinking may also be communicative. To answer this question, we developed a novel, virtual reality-based experimental paradigm, which enabled us to selectively manipulate blinking in a virtual listener, creating small differences in blink duration resulting in ‘short’ (208 ms) and ‘long’ (607 ms) blinks. We found that speakers unconsciously took into account the subtle differences in listeners’ blink duration, producing substantially shorter answers in response to long listener blinks. Our findings suggest that, in addition to physiological, perceptual and cognitive functions, listener blinks are also perceived as communicative signals, directly influencing speakers’ communicative behavior in face-to-face communication. More generally, these findings may be interpreted as shedding new light on the evolutionary origins of mental-state signaling, which is a crucial ingredient for achieving mutual understanding in everyday social interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Hömke
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Judith Holler
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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13
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Majid A, Roberts SG, Cilissen L, Emmorey K, Nicodemus B, O'Grady L, Woll B, LeLan B, de Sousa H, Cansler BL, Shayan S, de Vos C, Senft G, Enfield NJ, Razak RA, Fedden S, Tufvesson S, Dingemanse M, Ozturk O, Brown P, Hill C, Le Guen O, Hirtzel V, van Gijn R, Sicoli MA, Levinson SC. Differential coding of perception in the world's languages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:11369-11376. [PMID: 30397135 PMCID: PMC6233065 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1720419115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Is there a universal hierarchy of the senses, such that some senses (e.g., vision) are more accessible to consciousness and linguistic description than others (e.g., smell)? The long-standing presumption in Western thought has been that vision and audition are more objective than the other senses, serving as the basis of knowledge and understanding, whereas touch, taste, and smell are crude and of little value. This predicts that humans ought to be better at communicating about sight and hearing than the other senses, and decades of work based on English and related languages certainly suggests this is true. However, how well does this reflect the diversity of languages and communities worldwide? To test whether there is a universal hierarchy of the senses, stimuli from the five basic senses were used to elicit descriptions in 20 diverse languages, including 3 unrelated sign languages. We found that languages differ fundamentally in which sensory domains they linguistically code systematically, and how they do so. The tendency for better coding in some domains can be explained in part by cultural preoccupations. Although languages seem free to elaborate specific sensory domains, some general tendencies emerge: for example, with some exceptions, smell is poorly coded. The surprise is that, despite the gradual phylogenetic accumulation of the senses, and the imbalances in the neural tissue dedicated to them, no single hierarchy of the senses imposes itself upon language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asifa Majid
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, 6525 HP Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Seán G Roberts
- Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TH, United Kingdom
| | - Ludy Cilissen
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Karen Emmorey
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182
| | - Brenda Nicodemus
- Department of Interpretation & Translation, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC 20002
| | - Lucinda O'Grady
- School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182
| | - Bencie Woll
- Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Barbara LeLan
- English Studies, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Hilário de Sousa
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Brian L Cansler
- Department of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
| | - Shakila Shayan
- Education & Pedagogy, Utrecht University, 3512 JE Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Connie de Vos
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, 6525 HP Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Gunter Senft
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - N J Enfield
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Rogayah A Razak
- Centre for Rehabilitation and Specials Needs, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Sebastian Fedden
- Institute of General and Applied Linguistics and Phonetics, Université Paris 3 (Sorbonne-Nouvelle), 75005 Paris, France
| | - Sylvia Tufvesson
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mark Dingemanse
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ozge Ozturk
- Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, United Kingdom
| | - Penelope Brown
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Clair Hill
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
| | - Olivier Le Guen
- Linguistics Department, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 14000 Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Vincent Hirtzel
- Laboratory of Ethnology and Comparative Sociology, CNRS/Paris Nanterre University, 92000 Nanterre, France
| | - Rik van Gijn
- Center for Linguistics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Mark A Sicoli
- Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, 6525 HP Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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14
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15
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Gisladottir RS, Bögels S, Levinson SC. Oscillatory Brain Responses Reflect Anticipation during Comprehension of Speech Acts in Spoken Dialog. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:34. [PMID: 29467635 PMCID: PMC5808328 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2017] [Accepted: 01/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Everyday conversation requires listeners to quickly recognize verbal actions, so-called speech acts, from the underspecified linguistic code and prepare a relevant response within the tight time constraints of turn-taking. The goal of this study was to determine the time-course of speech act recognition by investigating oscillatory EEG activity during comprehension of spoken dialog. Participants listened to short, spoken dialogs with target utterances that delivered three distinct speech acts (Answers, Declinations, Pre-offers). The targets were identical across conditions at lexico-syntactic and phonetic/prosodic levels but differed in the pragmatic interpretation of the speech act performed. Speech act comprehension was associated with reduced power in the alpha/beta bands just prior to Declination speech acts, relative to Answers and Pre-offers. In addition, we observed reduced power in the theta band during the beginning of Declinations, relative to Answers. Based on the role of alpha and beta desynchronization in anticipatory processes, the results are taken to indicate that anticipation plays a role in speech act recognition. Anticipation of speech acts could be critical for efficient turn-taking, allowing interactants to quickly recognize speech acts and respond within the tight time frame characteristic of conversation. The results show that anticipatory processes can be triggered by the characteristics of the interaction, including the speech act type.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sara Bögels
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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16
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Byun KS, de Vos C, Bradford A, Zeshan U, Levinson SC. First Encounters: Repair Sequences in Cross-Signing. Top Cogn Sci 2017; 10:314-334. [PMID: 29105308 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2015] [Revised: 10/28/2016] [Accepted: 10/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Most human communication is between people who speak or sign the same languages. Nevertheless, communication is to some extent possible where there is no language in common, as every tourist knows. How this works is of some theoretical interest (Levinson, ). A nice arena to explore this capacity is when deaf signers of different languages meet for the first time and are able to use the iconic affordances of sign to begin communication. Here we focus on other-initiated repair (OIR), that is, where one signer makes clear he or she does not understand, thus initiating repair of the prior conversational turn. OIR sequences are typically of a three-turn structure (Schegloff ), including the problem source turn (T-1), the initiation of repair (T0), and the turn offering a problem solution (T+1). These sequences seem to have a universal structure (Dingemanse et al. 2013). We find that in most cases where such OIR occur, the signer of the troublesome turn (T-1) foresees potential difficulty and marks the utterance with "try markers" (Moerman, ; Sacks & Schegloff, ) which pause to invite recognition. The signers use repetition, gestural holds, prosodic lengthening, and eyegaze at the addressee as such try-markers. Moreover, when T-1 is try-marked this allows for faster response times of T+1 with respect to T0. This finding suggests that signers in these "first encounter" situations actively anticipate potential trouble and, through try-marking, mobilize and facilitate OIRs. The suggestion is that heightened meta-linguistic awareness can be utilized to deal with these problems at the limits of our communicational ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kang-Suk Byun
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
| | - Connie de Vos
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Center for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen
| | - Anastasia Bradford
- International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies, University of Central Lancashire
| | - Ulrike Zeshan
- International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies, University of Central Lancashire
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.,Center for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen
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17
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Abstract
In conversation, turn-taking is usually fluid, with next speakers taking their turn right after the end of the previous turn. Most, but not all, previous studies show that next speakers start to plan their turn early, if possible already during the incoming turn. The present study makes use of the list-completion paradigm (Barthel et al., 2016), analyzing speech onset latencies and eye-movements of participants in a task-oriented dialogue with a confederate. The measures are used to disentangle the contributions to the timing of turn-taking of early planning of content on the one hand and initiation of articulation as a reaction to the upcoming turn-end on the other hand. Participants named objects visible on their computer screen in response to utterances that did, or did not, contain lexical and prosodic cues to the end of the incoming turn. In the presence of an early lexical cue, participants showed earlier gaze shifts toward the target objects and responded faster than in its absence, whereas the presence of a late intonational cue only led to faster response times and did not affect the timing of participants' eye movements. The results show that with a combination of eye-movement and turn-transition time measures it is possible to tease apart the effects of early planning and response initiation on turn timing. They are consistent with models of turn-taking that assume that next speakers (a) start planning their response as soon as the incoming turn's message can be understood and (b) monitor the incoming turn for cues to turn-completion so as to initiate their response when turn-transition becomes relevant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathias Barthel
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Antje S Meyer
- Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
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18
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Abstract
In every-day conversations, the gap between turns of conversational partners is most frequently between 0 and 200 ms. We were interested how speakers achieve such fast transitions. We designed an experiment in which participants listened to pre-recorded questions about images presented on a screen and were asked to answer these questions. We tested whether speakers already prepare their answers while they listen to questions and whether they can prepare for the time of articulation by anticipating when questions end. In the experiment, it was possible to guess the answer at the beginning of the questions in half of the experimental trials. We also manipulated whether it was possible to predict the length of the last word of the questions. The results suggest when listeners know the answer early they start speech production already during the questions. Speakers can also time when to speak by predicting the duration of turns. These temporal predictions can be based on the length of anticipated words and on the overall probability of turn durations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lilla Magyari
- Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University Budapest, Hungary
| | - Jan P De Ruiter
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University, Medford MA, USA
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
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19
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Barthel M, Sauppe S, Levinson SC, Meyer AS. The Timing of Utterance Planning in Task-Oriented Dialogue: Evidence from a Novel List-Completion Paradigm. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1858. [PMID: 27990127 PMCID: PMC5131015 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2016] [Accepted: 11/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In conversation, interlocutors rarely leave long gaps between turns, suggesting that next speakers begin to plan their turns while listening to the previous speaker. The present experiment used analyses of speech onset latencies and eye-movements in a task-oriented dialogue paradigm to investigate when speakers start planning their responses. German speakers heard a confederate describe sets of objects in utterances that either ended in a noun [e.g., Ich habe eine Tür und ein Fahrrad ("I have a door and a bicycle")] or a verb form [e.g., Ich habe eine Tür und ein Fahrrad besorgt ("I have gotten a door and a bicycle")], while the presence or absence of the final verb either was or was not predictable from the preceding sentence structure. In response, participants had to name any unnamed objects they could see in their own displays with utterances such as Ich habe ein Ei ("I have an egg"). The results show that speakers begin to plan their turns as soon as sufficient information is available to do so, irrespective of further incoming words.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathias Barthel
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Sebastian Sauppe
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands; Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of ZurichZurich, Switzerland
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Antje S Meyer
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands; Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
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20
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Abstract
In conversation, negative responses to invitations, requests, offers, and the like are more likely to occur with a delay–conversation analysts talk of them as dispreferred. Here we examine the contrastive cognitive load ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses make, either when relatively fast (300 ms after question offset) or delayed (1000 ms). Participants heard short dialogues contrasting in speed and valence of response while having their EEG recorded. We found that a fast ‘no’ evokes an N400-effect relative to a fast ‘yes’; however, this contrast disappeared in the delayed responses. 'No' responses, however, elicited a late frontal positivity both if they were fast and if they were delayed. We interpret these results as follows: a fast ‘no’ evoked an N400 because an immediate response is expected to be positive–this effect disappears as the response time lengthens because now in ordinary conversation the probability of a ‘no’ has increased. However, regardless of the latency of response, a ‘no’ response is associated with a late positivity, since a negative response is always dispreferred. Together these results show that negative responses to social actions exact a higher cognitive load, but especially when least expected, in immediate response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Bögels
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Kobin H. Kendrick
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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21
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Holler J, Kendrick KH, Casillas M, Levinson SC. Editorial: Turn-Taking in Human Communicative Interaction. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1919. [PMID: 26733910 PMCID: PMC4685262 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2015] [Accepted: 11/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Judith Holler
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Kobin H Kendrick
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Marisa Casillas
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
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22
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Levinson SC. Turn-taking in Human Communication--Origins and Implications for Language Processing. Trends Cogn Sci 2015; 20:6-14. [PMID: 26651245 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 231] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2015] [Revised: 10/26/2015] [Accepted: 10/28/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Most language usage is interactive, involving rapid turn-taking. The turn-taking system has a number of striking properties: turns are short and responses are remarkably rapid, but turns are of varying length and often of very complex construction such that the underlying cognitive processing is highly compressed. Although neglected in cognitive science, the system has deep implications for language processing and acquisition that are only now becoming clear. Appearing earlier in ontogeny than linguistic competence, it is also found across all the major primate clades. This suggests a possible phylogenetic continuity, which may provide key insights into language evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, NL-6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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23
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Hilbrink EE, Gattis M, Levinson SC. Early developmental changes in the timing of turn-taking: a longitudinal study of mother-infant interaction. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1492. [PMID: 26483741 PMCID: PMC4586330 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2014] [Accepted: 09/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
To accomplish a smooth transition in conversation from one speaker to the next, a tight coordination of interaction between speakers is required. Recent studies of adult conversation suggest that this close timing of interaction may well be a universal feature of conversation. In the present paper, we set out to assess the development of this close timing of turns in infancy in vocal exchanges between mothers and infants. Previous research has demonstrated an early sensitivity to timing in interactions (e.g., Murray and Trevarthen, 1985). In contrast, less is known about infants’ abilities to produce turns in a timely manner and existing findings are rather patchy. We conducted a longitudinal study of 12 mother–infant dyads in free-play interactions at the ages of 3, 4, 5, 9, 12, and 18 months. Based on existing work and the predictions made by the Interaction Engine Hypothesis (Levinson, 2006), we expected that infants would begin to develop the temporal properties of turn-taking early in infancy but that their timing of turns would slow down at 12 months, which is around the time when infants start to produce their first words. Findings were consistent with our predictions: infants were relatively fast at timing their turn early in infancy but slowed down toward the end of the first year. Furthermore, the changes observed in infants’ turn-timing skills were not caused by changes in maternal timing, which remained stable across the 3–18 months period. However, the slowing down of turn-timing started somewhat earlier than predicted: at 9 months.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elma E Hilbrink
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | | | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
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24
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Dingemanse M, Roberts SG, Baranova J, Blythe J, Drew P, Floyd S, Gisladottir RS, Kendrick KH, Levinson SC, Manrique E, Rossi G, Enfield NJ. Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0136100. [PMID: 26375483 PMCID: PMC4573759 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2015] [Accepted: 07/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
There would be little adaptive value in a complex communication system like human language if there were no ways to detect and correct problems. A systematic comparison of conversation in a broad sample of the world’s languages reveals a universal system for the real-time resolution of frequent breakdowns in communication. In a sample of 12 languages of 8 language families of varied typological profiles we find a system of ‘other-initiated repair’, where the recipient of an unclear message can signal trouble and the sender can repair the original message. We find that this system is frequently used (on average about once per 1.4 minutes in any language), and that it has detailed common properties, contrary to assumptions of radical cultural variation. Unrelated languages share the same three functionally distinct types of repair initiator for signalling problems and use them in the same kinds of contexts. People prefer to choose the type that is the most specific possible, a principle that minimizes cost both for the sender being asked to fix the problem and for the dyad as a social unit. Disruption to the conversation is kept to a minimum, with the two-utterance repair sequence being on average no longer that the single utterance which is being fixed. The findings, controlled for historical relationships, situation types and other dependencies, reveal the fundamentally cooperative nature of human communication and offer support for the pragmatic universals hypothesis: while languages may vary in the organization of grammar and meaning, key systems of language use may be largely similar across cultural groups. They also provide a fresh perspective on controversies about the core properties of language, by revealing a common infrastructure for social interaction which may be the universal bedrock upon which linguistic diversity rests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Dingemanse
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- * E-mail: (MD): (NJE)
| | - Seán G. Roberts
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Julija Baranova
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Joe Blythe
- School of Language and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Paul Drew
- Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom
| | - Simeon Floyd
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Rosa S. Gisladottir
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Kobin H. Kendrick
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute, PB 9104, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Elizabeth Manrique
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Giovanni Rossi
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - N. J. Enfield
- Language & Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute, PB 9104, Nijmegen, Netherlands
- Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- * E-mail: (MD): (NJE)
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25
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Bögels S, Magyari L, Levinson SC. Neural signatures of response planning occur midway through an incoming question in conversation. Sci Rep 2015; 5:12881. [PMID: 26242909 PMCID: PMC4525376 DOI: 10.1038/srep12881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2015] [Accepted: 07/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
A striking puzzle about language use in everyday conversation is that turn-taking latencies are usually very short, whereas planning language production takes much longer. This implies overlap between language comprehension and production processes, but the nature and extent of such overlap has never been studied directly. Combining an interactive quiz paradigm with EEG measurements in an innovative way, we show that production planning processes start as soon as possible, that is, within half a second after the answer to a question can be retrieved (up to several seconds before the end of the question). Localization of ERP data shows early activation even of brain areas related to late stages of production planning (e.g., syllabification). Finally, oscillation results suggest an attention switch from comprehension to production around the same time frame. This perspective from interactive language use throws new light on the performance characteristics that language competence involves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Bögels
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Lilla Magyari
- 1] Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands [2] Pazmany Peter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of General Psychology, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- 1] Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands [2] Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, The Netherlands
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26
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Abstract
The core niche for language use is in verbal interaction, involving the rapid exchange of turns at talking. This paper reviews the extensive literature about this system, adding new statistical analyses of behavioral data where they have been missing, demonstrating that turn-taking has the systematic properties originally noted by Sacks et al. (1974; hereafter SSJ). This system poses some significant puzzles for current theories of language processing: the gaps between turns are short (of the order of 200 ms), but the latencies involved in language production are much longer (over 600 ms). This seems to imply that participants in conversation must predict (or 'project' as SSJ have it) the end of the current speaker's turn in order to prepare their response in advance. This in turn implies some overlap between production and comprehension despite their use of common processing resources. Collecting together what is known behaviorally and experimentally about the system, the space for systematic explanations of language processing for conversation can be significantly narrowed, and we sketch some first model of the mental processes involved for the participant preparing to speak next.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Francisco Torreira
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
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27
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Abstract
In conversation, the initial pitch of an utterance can provide an early phonetic cue of the communicative function, the speech act, or the social action being implemented. We conducted quantitative acoustic measurements and statistical analyses of pitch in over 10,000 utterances, including 2512 questions, their responses, and about 5000 other utterances by 180 total speakers from a corpus of 70 natural conversations in 10 languages. We measured pitch at first prominence in a speaker's utterance and discriminated utterances by language, speaker, gender, question form, and what social action is achieved by the speaker's turn. Through applying multivariate logistic regression we found that initial pitch that significantly deviated from the speaker's median pitch level was predictive of the social action of the question. In questions designed to solicit agreement with an evaluation rather than information, pitch was divergent from a speaker's median predictably in the top 10% of a speakers range. This latter finding reveals a kind of iconicity in the relationship between prosody and social action in which a marked pitch correlates with a marked social action. Thus, we argue that speakers rely on pitch to provide an early signal for recipients that the question is not to be interpreted through its literal semantics but rather through an inference.
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28
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Roberts SG, Torreira F, Levinson SC. The effects of processing and sequence organization on the timing of turn taking: a corpus study. Front Psychol 2015; 6:509. [PMID: 26029125 PMCID: PMC4429583 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2015] [Accepted: 04/10/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The timing of turn taking in conversation is extremely rapid given the cognitive demands on speakers to comprehend, plan and execute turns in real time. Findings from psycholinguistics predict that the timing of turn taking is influenced by demands on processing, such as word frequency or syntactic complexity. An alternative view comes from the field of conversation analysis, which predicts that the rules of turn-taking and sequence organization may dictate the variation in gap durations (e.g., the functional role of each turn in communication). In this paper, we estimate the role of these two different kinds of factors in determining the speed of turn-taking in conversation. We use the Switchboard corpus of English telephone conversation, already richly annotated for syntactic structure speech act sequences, and segmental alignment. To this we add further information including Floor Transfer Offset (the amount of time between the end of one turn and the beginning of the next), word frequency, concreteness, and surprisal values. We then apply a novel statistical framework ("random forests") to show that these two dimensions are interwoven together with indexical properties of the speakers as explanatory factors determining the speed of response. We conclude that an explanation of the of the timing of turn taking will require insights from both processing and sequence organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seán G. Roberts
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
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29
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de Vos C, Torreira F, Levinson SC. Turn-timing in signed conversations: coordinating stroke-to-stroke turn boundaries. Front Psychol 2015; 6:268. [PMID: 25852593 PMCID: PMC4371657 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2014] [Accepted: 02/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In spoken interactions, interlocutors carefully plan, and time their utterances, minimizing gaps and overlaps between consecutive turns. Cross-linguistic comparison has indicated that spoken languages vary only minimally in terms of turn-timing, and language acquisition research has shown pre-linguistic vocal turn-taking in the first half year of life. These observations suggest that the turn-taking system may provide a fundamental basis for our linguistic capacities. The question remains, however, to what extent our capacity for rapid turn-taking is determined by modality constraints. The avoidance of overlapping turns could be motivated by the difficulty of hearing and speaking at the same time. If so, turn-taking in sign might show greater toleration for overlap. Alternatively, signed conversations may show a similar distribution of turn-timing as spoken languages, thus avoiding both gaps and overlaps. To address this question we look at turn-timing in question-answer sequences in spontaneous conversations of Sign Language of the Netherlands. The findings indicate that although there is considerable overlap in two or more signers' articulators in conversation, when proper allowance is made for onset preparation, post-utterance retraction and the intentional holding of signs for response, turn-taking latencies in sign look remarkably like those reported for spoken language. This is consistent with the possibility that, at least with regard to responses to questions, speakers and signers follow similar time courses in planning and producing their utterances in on-going conversation. This suggests that turn-taking systems may well be a shared cognitive infrastructure underlying all modern human languages, both spoken and signed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connie de Vos
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen Netherlands
| | - Francisco Torreira
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen Netherlands
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen Netherlands ; Radboud University, Nijmegen Netherlands
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30
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Gisladottir RS, Chwilla DJ, Levinson SC. Conversation electrified: ERP correlates of speech act recognition in underspecified utterances. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0120068. [PMID: 25793289 PMCID: PMC4368040 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2014] [Accepted: 01/20/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to recognize speech acts (verbal actions) in conversation is critical for everyday interaction. However, utterances are often underspecified for the speech act they perform, requiring listeners to rely on the context to recognize the action. The goal of this study was to investigate the time-course of auditory speech act recognition in action-underspecified utterances and explore how sequential context (the prior action) impacts this process. We hypothesized that speech acts are recognized early in the utterance to allow for quick transitions between turns in conversation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants listened to spoken dialogues and performed an action categorization task. The dialogues contained target utterances that each of which could deliver three distinct speech acts depending on the prior turn. The targets were identical across conditions, but differed in the type of speech act performed and how it fit into the larger action sequence. The ERP results show an early effect of action type, reflected by frontal positivities as early as 200 ms after target utterance onset. This indicates that speech act recognition begins early in the turn when the utterance has only been partially processed. Providing further support for early speech act recognition, actions in highly constraining contexts did not elicit an ERP effect to the utterance-final word. We take this to show that listeners can recognize the action before the final word through predictions at the speech act level. However, additional processing based on the complete utterance is required in more complex actions, as reflected by a posterior negativity at the final word when the speech act is in a less constraining context and a new action sequence is initiated. These findings demonstrate that sentence comprehension in conversational contexts crucially involves recognition of verbal action which begins as soon as it can.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa S. Gisladottir
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
- * E-mail:
| | - Dorothee J. Chwilla
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands
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31
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Torreira F, Bögels S, Levinson SC. Breathing for answering: the time course of response planning in conversation. Front Psychol 2015; 6:284. [PMID: 25814976 PMCID: PMC4357202 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2014] [Accepted: 02/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigate the timing of pre-answer inbreaths in order to shed light on the time course of response planning and execution in conversational turn-taking. Using acoustic and inductive plethysmography recordings of seven dyadic conversations in Dutch, we show that pre-answer inbreaths in conversation typically begin briefly after the end of questions. We also show that the presence of a pre-answer inbreath usually co-occurs with substantially delayed answers, with a modal latency of 576 vs. 100 ms for answers not preceded by an inbreath. Based on previously reported minimal latencies for internal intercostal activation and the production of speech sounds, we propose that vocal responses, either in the form of a pre-utterance inbreath or of speech proper when an inbreath is not produced, are typically launched in reaction to information present in the last portion of the interlocutor's turn. We also show that short responses are usually made on residual breath, while longer responses are more often preceded by an inbreath. This relation of inbreaths to answer length suggests that by the time an inbreath is launched, typically during the last few hundred milliseconds of the question, the length of the answer is often prepared to some extent. Together, our findings are consistent with a two-stage model of response planning in conversational turn-taking: early planning of content often carried out in overlap with the incoming turn, and late launching of articulation based on the identification of turn-final cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Torreira
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Sara Bögels
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands ; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
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32
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics; 6500 AH Nijmegen The Netherlands
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33
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Abstract
One reason for the apparent gulf between animal and human communication systems is that the focus has been on the presence or the absence of language as a complex expressive system built on speech. But language normally occurs embedded within an interactional exchange of multi-modal signals. If this larger perspective takes central focus, then it becomes apparent that human communication has a layered structure, where the layers may be plausibly assigned different phylogenetic and evolutionary origins--especially in the light of recent thoughts on the emergence of voluntary breathing and spoken language. This perspective helps us to appreciate the different roles that the different modalities play in human communication, as well as how they function as one integrated system despite their different roles and origins. It also offers possibilities for reconciling the 'gesture-first hypothesis' with that of gesture and speech having evolved together, hand in hand--or hand in mouth, rather--as one system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands Linguistics Department, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Judith Holler
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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34
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Abstract
RTs in conversation, with average gaps of 200 msec and often less, beat standard RTs, despite the complexity of response and the lag in speech production (600 msec or more). This can only be achieved by anticipation of timing and content of turns in conversation, about which little is known. Using EEG and an experimental task with conversational stimuli, we show that estimation of turn durations are based on anticipating the way the turn would be completed. We found a neuronal correlate of turn-end anticipation localized in ACC and inferior parietal lobule, namely a beta-frequency desynchronization as early as 1250 msec, before the end of the turn. We suggest that anticipation of the other's utterance leads to accurately timed transitions in everyday conversations.
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35
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Dediu D, Levinson SC. On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Front Psychol 2013; 4:397. [PMID: 23847571 PMCID: PMC3701805 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 166] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2013] [Accepted: 06/12/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
It is usually assumed that modern language is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with the emergence of modern humans themselves. Many assume as well that this is the result of a single, sudden mutation giving rise to the full "modern package." However, we argue here that recognizably modern language is likely an ancient feature of our genus pre-dating at least the common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals about half a million years ago. To this end, we adduce a broad range of evidence from linguistics, genetics, paleontology, and archaeology clearly suggesting that Neandertals shared with us something like modern speech and language. This reassessment of the antiquity of modern language, from the usually quoted 50,000-100,000 years to half a million years, has profound consequences for our understanding of our own evolution in general and especially for the sciences of speech and language. As such, it argues against a saltationist scenario for the evolution of language, and toward a gradual process of culture-gene co-evolution extending to the present day. Another consequence is that the present-day linguistic diversity might better reflect the properties of the design space for language and not just the vagaries of history, and could also contain traces of the languages spoken by other human forms such as the Neandertals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Dediu
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University NijmegenNijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University NijmegenNijmegen, Netherlands
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
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36
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Abstract
This paper describes the linguistic description of time, the accompanying gestural system, and the “mental time lines” found in the speakers of Yélî Dnye, an isolate language spoken offshore from Papua New Guinea. Like many indigenous languages, Yélî Dnye has no fixed anchoring of time and thus no calendrical time. Instead, time in Yélî Dnye linguistic description is primarily anchored to the time of speaking, with six diurnal tenses and special nominals for n days from coding time; this is supplemented with special constructions for overlapping events. Consequently there is relatively little cross-over or metaphor from space to time. The gesture system, on the other hand, uses pointing to sun position to indicate time of day and may make use of systematic time lines. Experimental evidence fails to show a single robust axis used for mapping time to space. This suggests that there may not be a strong, universal tendency for systematic space-time mappings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Netherlands ; Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
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37
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Dediu D, Levinson SC. Abstract profiles of structural stability point to universal tendencies, family-specific factors, and ancient connections between languages. PLoS One 2012; 7:e45198. [PMID: 23028843 PMCID: PMC3447929 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2011] [Accepted: 08/17/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Language is the best example of a cultural evolutionary system, able to retain a phylogenetic signal over many thousands of years. The temporal stability (conservatism) of basic vocabulary is relatively well understood, but the stability of the structural properties of language (phonology, morphology, syntax) is still unclear. Here we report an extensive Bayesian phylogenetic investigation of the structural stability of numerous features across many language families and we introduce a novel method for analyzing the relationships between the "stability profiles" of language families. We found that there is a strong universal component across language families, suggesting the existence of universal linguistic, cognitive and genetic constraints. Against this background, however, each language family has a distinct stability profile, and these profiles cluster by geographic area and likely deep genealogical relationships. These stability profiles seem to show, for example, the ancient historical relationships between the Siberian and American language families, presumed to be separated by at least 12,000 years, and possible connections between the Eurasian families. We also found preliminary support for the punctuated evolution of structural features of language across families, types of features and geographic areas. Thus, such higher-level properties of language seen as an evolutionary system might allow the investigation of ancient connections between languages and shed light on the peopling of the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Dediu
- Language and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C. Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, PB 310 Nijmegen 6500AH, and Donders Institute, PB 9104 Nijmegen 6500 HE, Netherlands
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Abstract
Classical cognitive science was launched on the premise that the architecture of human cognition is uniform and universal across the species. This premise is biologically impossible and is being actively undermined by, for example, imaging genomics. Anthropology (including archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology) is, in contrast, largely concerned with the diversification of human culture, language, and biology across time and space-it belongs fundamentally to the evolutionary sciences. The new cognitive sciences that will emerge from the interactions with the biological sciences will focus on variation and diversity, opening the door for rapprochement with anthropology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen C Levinson
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherland.
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Janzen G, Haun DBM, Levinson SC. Tracking down abstract linguistic meaning: neural correlates of spatial frame of reference ambiguities in language. PLoS One 2012; 7:e30657. [PMID: 22363462 PMCID: PMC3281860 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2011] [Accepted: 12/26/2011] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigates a crucial parameter in spatial description, namely variants in the frame of reference chosen. Two frames of reference are available in European languages for the description of small-scale assemblages, namely the intrinsic (or object-oriented) frame and the relative (or egocentric) frame. We showed participants a sentence such as “the ball is in front of the man”, ambiguous between the two frames, and then a picture of a scene with a ball and a man – participants had to respond by indicating whether the picture did or did not match the sentence. There were two blocks, in which we induced each frame of reference by feedback. Thus for the crucial test items, participants saw exactly the same sentence and the same picture but now from one perspective, now the other. Using this method, we were able to precisely pinpoint the pattern of neural activation associated with each linguistic interpretation of the ambiguity, while holding the perceptual stimuli constant. Increased brain activity in bilateral parahippocampal gyrus was associated with the intrinsic frame of reference whereas increased activity in the right superior frontal gyrus and in the parietal lobe was observed for the relative frame of reference. The study is among the few to show a distinctive pattern of neural activation for an abstract yet specific semantic parameter in language. It shows with special clarity the nature of the neural substrate supporting each frame of spatial reference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Janzen
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Dunn M, Greenhill SJ, Levinson SC, Gray RD. Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals. Nature 2011; 473:79-82. [PMID: 21490599 DOI: 10.1038/nature09923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 263] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2009] [Accepted: 02/08/2011] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Languages vary widely but not without limit. The central goal of linguistics is to describe the diversity of human languages and explain the constraints on that diversity. Generative linguists following Chomsky have claimed that linguistic diversity must be constrained by innate parameters that are set as a child learns a language. In contrast, other linguists following Greenberg have claimed that there are statistical tendencies for co-occurrence of traits reflecting universal systems biases, rather than absolute constraints or parametric variation. Here we use computational phylogenetic methods to address the nature of constraints on linguistic diversity in an evolutionary framework. First, contrary to the generative account of parameter setting, we show that the evolution of only a few word-order features of languages are strongly correlated. Second, contrary to the Greenbergian generalizations, we show that most observed functional dependencies between traits are lineage-specific rather than universal tendencies. These findings support the view that-at least with respect to word order-cultural evolution is the primary factor that determines linguistic structure, with the current state of a linguistic system shaping and constraining future states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Dunn
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Post Office Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Haun DBM, Rapold CJ, Janzen G, Levinson SC. Plasticity of human spatial cognition: spatial language and cognition covary across cultures. Cognition 2011; 119:70-80. [PMID: 21238953 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2007] [Revised: 12/17/2010] [Accepted: 12/20/2010] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
The present paper explores cross-cultural variation in spatial cognition by comparing spatial reconstruction tasks by Dutch and Namibian elementary school children. These two communities differ in the way they predominantly express spatial relations in language. Four experiments investigate cognitive strategy preferences across different levels of task-complexity and instruction. Data show a correlation between dominant linguistic spatial frames of reference and performance patterns in non-linguistic spatial memory tasks. This correlation is shown to be stable across an increase of complexity in the spatial array. When instructed to use their respective non-habitual cognitive strategy, participants were not easily able to switch between strategies and their attempts to do so impaired their performance. These results indicate a difference not only in preference but also in competence and suggest that spatial language and non-linguistic preferences and competences in spatial cognition are systematically aligned across human populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B M Haun
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Majid A, Evans N, Gaby A, Levinson SC. The Grammar of Exchange: A Comparative Study of Reciprocal Constructions Across Languages. Front Psychol 2011; 2:34. [PMID: 21713188 PMCID: PMC3110972 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2010] [Accepted: 02/17/2011] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Asifa Majid
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
- *Correspondence: Asifa Majid, Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Postbus 310, 6500AH Nijmegen, Netherlands. e-mail:
| | - Nicholas Evans
- Department of Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National UniversityCanberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Alice Gaby
- School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash UniversityMelbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Stephen C. Levinson
- Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud UniversityNijmegen, Netherlands
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Noordzij ML, Newman-Norlund SE, de Ruiter JP, Hagoort P, Levinson SC, Toni I. Neural correlates of intentional communication. Front Neurosci 2010; 4:188. [PMID: 21151781 PMCID: PMC2999989 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2010.00188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2010] [Accepted: 10/19/2010] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We know a great deal about the neurophysiological mechanisms supporting instrumental actions, i.e., actions designed to alter the physical state of the environment. In contrast, little is known about our ability to select communicative actions, i.e., actions directly designed to modify the mental state of another agent. We have recently provided novel empirical evidence for a mechanism in which a communicator selects his actions on the basis of a prediction of the communicative intentions that an addressee is most likely to attribute to those actions. The main novelty of those findings was that this prediction of intention recognition is cerebrally implemented within the intention recognition system of the communicator, is modulated by the ambiguity in meaning of the communicative acts, and not by their sensorimotor complexity. The characteristics of this predictive mechanism support the notion that human communicative abilities are distinct from both sensorimotor and linguistic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthijs L Noordzij
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
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45
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46
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Noordzij ML, Newman-Norlund SE, de Ruiter JP, Hagoort P, Levinson SC, Toni I. Brain mechanisms underlying human communication. Front Hum Neurosci 2009; 3:14. [PMID: 19668699 PMCID: PMC2722906 DOI: 10.3389/neuro.09.014.2009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2009] [Accepted: 07/08/2009] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Human communication has been described as involving the coding-decoding of a conventional symbol system, which could be supported by parts of the human motor system (i.e. the “mirror neurons system”). However, this view does not explain how these conventions could develop in the first place. Here we target the neglected but crucial issue of how people organize their non-verbal behavior to communicate a given intention without pre-established conventions. We have measured behavioral and brain responses in pairs of subjects during communicative exchanges occurring in a real, interactive, on-line social context. In two fMRI studies, we found robust evidence that planning new communicative actions (by a sender) and recognizing the communicative intention of the same actions (by a receiver) relied on spatially overlapping portions of their brains (the right posterior superior temporal sulcus). The response of this region was lateralized to the right hemisphere, modulated by the ambiguity in meaning of the communicative acts, but not by their sensorimotor complexity. These results indicate that the sender of a communicative signal uses his own intention recognition system to make a prediction of the intention recognition performed by the receiver. This finding supports the notion that our communicative abilities are distinct from both sensorimotor processes and language abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthijs L Noordzij
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Haun DBM, Rapold CJ, Call J, Janzen G, Levinson SC. Cognitive cladistics and cultural override in Hominid spatial cognition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2006; 103:17568-73. [PMID: 17079489 PMCID: PMC1859970 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607999103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2006] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Current approaches to human cognition often take a strong nativist stance based on Western adult performance, backed up where possible by neonate and infant research and almost never by comparative research across the Hominidae. Recent research suggests considerable cross-cultural differences in cognitive strategies, including relational thinking, a domain where infant research is impossible because of lack of cognitive maturation. Here, we apply the same paradigm across children and adults of different cultures and across all nonhuman great ape genera. We find that both child and adult spatial cognition systematically varies with language and culture but that, nevertheless, there is a clear inherited bias for one spatial strategy in the great apes. It is reasonable to conclude, we argue, that language and culture mask the native tendencies in our species. This cladistic approach suggests that the correct perspective on human cognition is neither nativist uniformitarian nor "blank slate" but recognizes the powerful impact that language and culture can have on our shared primate cognitive biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B M Haun
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, PO Box 310, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Haun DBM, Call J, Janzen G, Levinson SC. Evolutionary Psychology of Spatial Representations in the Hominidae. Curr Biol 2006; 16:1736-40. [PMID: 16950112 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.07.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2006] [Revised: 07/07/2006] [Accepted: 07/10/2006] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Comparatively little is known about the inherited primate background underlying human cognition, the human cognitive "wild-type." Yet it is possible to trace the evolution of human cognitive abilities and tendencies by contrasting the skills of our nearest cousins, not just chimpanzees, but all the extant great apes, thus showing what we are likely to have inherited from the common ancestor. By looking at human infants early in cognitive development, we can also obtain insights into native cognitive biases in our species. Here, we focus on spatial memory, a central cognitive domain. We show, first, that all nonhuman great apes and 1-year-old human infants exhibit a preference for place over feature strategies for spatial memory. This suggests the common ancestor of all great apes had the same preference. We then examine 3-year-old human children and find that this preference reverses. Thus, the continuity between our species and the other great apes is masked early in human ontogeny. These findings, based on both phylogenetic and ontogenetic contrasts, open up the prospect of a systematic evolutionary psychology resting upon the cladistics of cognitive preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B M Haun
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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Levinson SC. Languages: Europe puts its money where its mouth is. Nature 2005; 438:914. [PMID: 16355190 DOI: 10.1038/438914c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Abstract
The contribution of language history to the study of the early dispersals of modern humans throughout the Old World has been limited by the shallow time depth (about 8000 +/- 2000 years) of current linguistic methods. Here it is shown that the application of biological cladistic methods, not to vocabulary (as has been previously tried) but to language structure (sound systems and grammar), may extend the time depths at which language data can be used. The method was tested against well-understood families of Oceanic Austronesian languages, then applied to the Papuan languages of Island Melanesia, a group of hitherto unrelatable isolates. Papuan languages show an archipelago-based phylogenetic signal that is consistent with the current geographical distribution of languages. The most plausible hypothesis to explain this result is the divergence of the Papuan languages from a common ancestral stock, as part of late Pleistocene dispersals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Dunn
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Post Office Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, Netherlands.
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