Boundaries in space and time: Iconic biases across modalities

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Linguistics
• Psychology

Background:

• The relationship between word form and meaning is ancient, explored for concrete properties.
• Abstract properties of words and their potential for systematic biases remain less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the abstract property of 'boundedness' influences phonological expectations in a novel lexicon.
• To determine if this iconic bias applies to both events and objects, and across different linguistic modalities.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Association of sign language signs with gestural boundaries to telic verbs and count nouns.
• Experiments 2-3: Testing the mapping on conceptual representations versus grammatical features using psychological nouns.
• Experiments 4-11: Replication with new stimuli and exploration of spoken language biases.

Main Results:

• A systematic bias was found linking gestural boundaries to concepts with inherent temporal (telic verbs) or spatial (count nouns) limits.
• The iconic mapping operates on conceptual representations, not grammatical features, as evidenced by its breakdown with psychological nouns.
• Replication and exploration in spoken language showed mixed but generally supportive results for the boundedness bias.

Conclusions:

• The abstract property of 'boundedness' in referents (spatial or temporal) significantly influences intuitions about word form.
• This suggests a powerful, systematic, and iconic link between conceptual boundedness and linguistic expression.
• The findings contribute to understanding the cognitive underpinnings of language structure and meaning.