講演抄録/キーワード |
講演名 |
2009-07-19 10:35
Does implicit grammatical person influence perspective in mental simulation? ○Manami Sato・Benjamin K. Bergen(Univ. of Hawaii) TL2009-21 |
抄録 |
(和) |
Language comprehension causes the retrieval of listeners prior perceptual and motor experiences, and this retrieval generates perceptual-motor simulations of the described scenes ([1], [2]). The internal mechanisms of mental simulation have been investigated in terms of (1) unit simulation size (single word vs. context) and (2) grammatical aspect. Processing an isolated word (e.g., 'calculator') activates intrinsic knowledge of the object (e.g., color, shape, and size) as well as related interactional knowledge ([3]). Contextual information, however, is able to override the object痴 intrinsic properties and dynamically produce contextually appropriate representations ([4]). Grammatical aspect, encoded in the progressive or perfect tense, generates simulations with different time-points for the event ([5]). Additionally, mental simulation adopts particular perspectives denoted by 1st and 3rd person subjects ([6], [7]). Contextual information along with grammatical aspect are the defining factors of simulation.
In the current studies on Japanese, we address three questions: 1) is the emergence of perspective language-dependent? (Experiment 1); 2) can elements of prior discourse drive listeners to adopt a perspective in the absence of an explicit subject? (Experiment 2); 3) what role do explicit perspective markers (i.e., subject pronouns) play in simulation?
Experiment 1: Japanese speakers read three sentences with explicit subject pronouns and decided if a depicted event was mentioned in the final sentence. The accompanying picture depicts the event from an internal (a performer痴 viewpoint) or external perspective (an observer痴 viewpoint). Twenty-four critical sentences and corresponding pairs of internal and external perspective pictures were created, and fully crossed to produce perspective matching and mismatching pictures for each item. The results agree with previous experiments in English ([6]) showing that responses were significantly faster when the picture matched the perspective implied by the pronoun - 2nd person facilitated internal perspective, while 3rd person facilitated external perspective (Fs>5). Experiment 2: Subject pronouns were removed from the third sentence (in Japanese, contextually retrievable subjects are omittable). Though the subjects were retrievable, the absent pronouns eliminated the compatibility effect seen in Experiment 1 (Fs<1).
The two experiments indicate that perspective is as robust a feature of mental simulation in Japanese as has been observed in English, and perspective in simulation is determined by the repetition of explicit perspective markers within each clause. Perspective as a feature of mental simulation situates language comprehenders at a particular vantage point, but decays quickly if not driven by the stream of discourse.
References:
[1] Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577-660.
[2] Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645.
[3] Masson, M., Bub, D., Warren, C. (2008). Kicking calculators: Contribution of embodied representations to sentence comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language 59, 259-265.
[4] Zwaan, R.A., Stanfield, R.A., and Yaxley, R.H. (2003). Do language comprehenders routinely represent the shapes of objects? Psychological Science, 13, 168-171.
[5] Madden, C. J. and Zwaan, R.A. (2003). How does verb aspect constrain event representations? Memory and Cognition, 31(5), 663-672.
[6] Brunye, T. T., Ditman, T., Mahoney, C.R., Augustyn, J.S., and Taylor, H.A. (In press). When you and I share perspectives: Pronouns modulate perspective taking during narrative comprehension. Psychological Science.
[7] Zwaan, R.A., Yaxley, C.J., and Aveyard, M.E. (2004). Moving words: Dynamic mental representations in language comprehension. Cognitive Science, 28, 611-619. |
(英) |
Language comprehension causes the retrieval of listeners prior perceptual and motor experiences, and this retrieval generates perceptual-motor simulations of the described scenes ([1], [2]). The internal mechanisms of mental simulation have been investigated in terms of (1) unit simulation size (single word vs. context) and (2) grammatical aspect. Processing an isolated word (e.g., 'calculator') activates intrinsic knowledge of the object (e.g., color, shape, and size) as well as related interactional knowledge ([3]). Contextual information, however, is able to override the object痴 intrinsic properties and dynamically produce contextually appropriate representations ([4]). Grammatical aspect, encoded in the progressive or perfect tense, generates simulations with different time-points for the event ([5]). Additionally, mental simulation adopts particular perspectives denoted by 1st and 3rd person subjects ([6], [7]). Contextual information along with grammatical aspect are the defining factors of simulation.
In the current studies on Japanese, we address three questions: 1) is the emergence of perspective language-dependent? (Experiment 1); 2) can elements of prior discourse drive listeners to adopt a perspective in the absence of an explicit subject? (Experiment 2); 3) what role do explicit perspective markers (i.e., subject pronouns) play in simulation?
Experiment 1: Japanese speakers read three sentences with explicit subject pronouns and decided if a depicted event was mentioned in the final sentence. The accompanying picture depicts the event from an internal (a performer痴 viewpoint) or external perspective (an observer痴 viewpoint). Twenty-four critical sentences and corresponding pairs of internal and external perspective pictures were created, and fully crossed to produce perspective matching and mismatching pictures for each item. The results agree with previous experiments in English ([6]) showing that responses were significantly faster when the picture matched the perspective implied by the pronoun - 2nd person facilitated internal perspective, while 3rd person facilitated external perspective (Fs>5). Experiment 2: Subject pronouns were removed from the third sentence (in Japanese, contextually retrievable subjects are omittable). Though the subjects were retrievable, the absent pronouns eliminated the compatibility effect seen in Experiment 1 (Fs<1).
The two experiments indicate that perspective is as robust a feature of mental simulation in Japanese as has been observed in English, and perspective in simulation is determined by the repetition of explicit perspective markers within each clause. Perspective as a feature of mental simulation situates language comprehenders at a particular vantage point, but decays quickly if not driven by the stream of discourse.
References:
[1] Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 577-660.
[2] Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645.
[3] Masson, M., Bub, D., Warren, C. (2008). Kicking calculators: Contribution of embodied representations to sentence comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language 59, 259-265.
[4] Zwaan, R.A., Stanfield, R.A., and Yaxley, R.H. (2003). Do language comprehenders routinely represent the shapes of objects? Psychological Science, 13, 168-171.
[5] Madden, C. J. and Zwaan, R.A. (2003). How does verb aspect constrain event representations? Memory and Cognition, 31(5), 663-672.
[6] Brunye, T. T., Ditman, T., Mahoney, C.R., Augustyn, J.S., and Taylor, H.A. (In press). When you and I share perspectives: Pronouns modulate perspective taking during narrative comprehension. Psychological Science.
[7] Zwaan, R.A., Yaxley, C.J., and Aveyard, M.E. (2004). Moving words: Dynamic mental representations in language comprehension. Cognitive Science, 28, 611-619. |
キーワード |
(和) |
Perspective / Simulation / Discourse / Personal pronouns / language comprehension / Japanese / Null subject / |
(英) |
Perspective / Simulation / Discourse / Personal pronouns / language comprehension / Japanese / Null subject / |
文献情報 |
信学技報, vol. 109, no. 140, TL2009-21, pp. 73-77, 2009年7月. |
資料番号 |
TL2009-21 |
発行日 |
2009-07-11 (TL) |
ISSN |
Print edition: ISSN 0913-5685 Online edition: ISSN 2432-6380 |
著作権に ついて |
技術研究報告に掲載された論文の著作権は電子情報通信学会に帰属します.(許諾番号:10GA0019/12GB0052/13GB0056/17GB0034/18GB0034) |
PDFダウンロード |
TL2009-21 |
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