Processes of conceptualization in language production: language-specific perspectives and event construal

Differences in how verbal tasks are solved by speakers of different languages are often attributed to specific cultural and stylistic traditions. In contrast to this position we argue that differences in the organization of information in texts are rooted in structural contrasts between languages. This claim is based on production data from speakers of English, German, and Algerian Arabic which include retellings of a silent film and verbalizations of short video clips. The domains of analysis are patterns of event formation and temporal viewpoint. The data obtained from speakers of the three languages show contrasts with respect to three aspects of information organization: (a) speakers segment the flow of information as presented in the visual input on the basis of different criteria, (b) they systematically select different components when representing a given event in language and (c) they establish different temporal perspectives when anchoring and linking events in discourse. In this paper, we argue that the contrasts observed in selecting and structuring information can be generalized by assuming language contrasts at the level of abstract principles of perspective taking. These principles are in turn rooted in language-specific patterns of grammaticization. 1. The problem There is general agreement as to the fundamental components which are constitutive for the language production apparatus. Conceptualization, formulation and articulation, this three-partitive model — Levelt’s blueprint for the speaker (1989), has been the referential frame for most of the work on language production. Following several years of intensive research in the field of language production, insights have been gained into the two components that involve linguistic structures: the formulator

[1]  W. Klein,et al.  Quaestio and L-perspectivation , 2002 .

[2]  Willem J. M. Levelt,et al.  Linearization in Describing Spatial Networks , 1982 .

[3]  Werner Deutsch,et al.  Psychologie der Objektbenennung , 1976 .

[4]  D. Cohen.  L'aspect verbal , 1989 .

[5]  Christiane von Stutterheim,et al.  Typology and information organisation: perspective taking and Language-specific effects in the construal of events , 2002 .

[6]  M. Carroll,,et al.  The representation of spatial configurations in English and German and the grammatical structure of locative and anaphoric expressions , 1993 .

[8]  Mary Carroll,et al.  Relations entre grammaticalisation et conceptualisation et implications sur l’acquisition d’une langue étrangère , 1997 .

[9]  Johannes Engelkamp.  Das menschliche Gedächtnis : das Erinnern von Sprache, Bildern und Handlungen , 1991 .

[10]  Gert Rickheit,et al.  Grundlagen der kognitiven Sprachverarbeitung : Modelle, Methoden, Ergebnisse , 1993 .

[11]  Willem J. M. Levelt,et al.  Perspective taking and ellipsis in spatial descriptions , 1996 .

[12]  Martin Haspelmath,et al.  Approaches to grammaticalization , 1992 .

[13]  M. Carroll,,et al.  THE RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION ORGANIZATION TO SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION STUDIES , 2000, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[14]  M. Bowerman.  The origins of children's spatial semantic categories: Cognitive vs. linguistic determinants , 1996 .

[15]  Paul J. Hopper.  The Category ‘Event’ in Natural Discourse and Logic , 1995 .

[16]  Theo Herrmann,et al.  Sprechen : Psychologie der Sprachproduktion , 1994 .

[17]  Leonard Talmy,et al.  The relation of grammar to cognition , 1986 .

[18]  Mary Carroll,et al.  Deictic and Intrinsic Orientation in Spatial Descriptions: A Comparison Between English and German , 1993 .

[19]  M. Bowerman.  Learning how to structure space for language: A crosslinguistic perspective , 1996 .

[20]  Dominique Caubet,et al.  L'Arabe marocain , 1993 .

[21]  S. Levinson.  From outer to inner space: Linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking , 1997 .

[22]  G. Dell,et al.  Adapting production to comprehension: The explicit mention of instruments , 1987, Cognitive Psychology.

[23]  W. Hays.  Statistics for the social sciences , 1973 .

[24]  R. Schreuder,et al.  From concepts to lexical items , 1992, Cognition.

[25]  Russell S. Tomlin,et al.  Language and conceptualization: Mapping conceptual representations into linguistic representations: the role of attention in grammar , 1997 .

[26]  R. Brown,et al.  A First Language , 1973 .

[27]  D. Slobin.  Learning To Think For Speaking: Native Language, Cognition, And Rhetorical Style , 1991 .

[28]  Andrée Vansteelandt.  Einige prinzipien des textaufbaus , 1999 .

[29]  D. Slobin.  From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking” , 1996 .

[30]  Terence Parsons,et al.  Events in the Semantics of English: A Study in Subatomic Semantics , 1990 .

[31]  Seungjin Choi,et al.  Shaping meanings for language: universal and language-specific in the acquisition of spatial semanti , 2001 .

[32]  Wolfgang Klein,et al.  Time in language , 1994 .