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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
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Incrementality and efficiency shape pragmatics across languages.

Paula Rubio-Fernandez1,2, Julian Jara-Ettinger3

  • 1Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, 0313 Oslo, Norway; paula.rubio-fernandez@ifikk.uio.no.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|June 3, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Language processing relies on context, guided by incrementality and efficiency. Word order influences how speakers interpret information, affecting their understanding of speaker intentions and referents across languages.

Keywords:
adjective positioncross-linguistic variationinterpretation processespragmaticsvisual search

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Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science
  • Linguistic Anthropology

Background:

  • Pragmatic reasoning, essential for message interpretation, is shaped by context.
  • Human communication universally employs incrementality and efficiency.
  • The interplay of these forces influences pragmatic information processing across languages.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate how pragmatic reasoning is guided by incrementality and efficiency.
  • Examine the impact of adjective-noun word order on pragmatic information integration.
  • Compare pragmatic processing in four understudied languages: Catalan, Hindi, Hungarian, and Wolof.

Main Methods:

  • An eye-tracking study was conducted.
  • Participants from four diverse linguistic backgrounds (Catalan, Hindi, Hungarian, Wolof) were recruited.
  • The study analyzed how speakers process information based on adjective-noun versus noun-adjective word orders.

Main Results:

  • Speakers of adjective-noun languages prioritize identifying properties (e.g., color), while noun-adjective language speakers prioritize identifying kinds (e.g., objects).
  • Adjective-noun order facilitates earlier inference of speaker intention and anticipation of referents.
  • Noun-adjective order can lead to temporary ambiguity in interpretation.

Conclusions:

  • Incrementality and efficiency are universal drivers of pragmatic reasoning.
  • Linguistic word order significantly impacts pragmatic affordances and interpretation strategies.
  • Cross-linguistic differences in word order create distinct patterns in contextual information integration and intention inference.