Publications

Displaying 201 - 300 of 347
  • Lev-Ari, S. (2015). Adjusting the manner of language processing to the social context: Attention allocation during interactions with non-native speakers. In R. K. Mishra, N. Srinivasan, & F. Huettig (Eds.), Attention and Vision in Language Processing (pp. 185-195). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-81-322-2443-3_11.
  • Levelt, W. J. M. (1982). Cognitive styles in the use of spatial direction terms. In R. Jarvella, & W. Klein (Eds.), Speech, place, and action: Studies in deixis and related topics (pp. 251-268). Chichester: Wiley.
  • Levelt, W. J. M. (1962). Motion breaking and the perception of causality. In A. Michotte (Ed.), Causalité, permanence et réalité phénoménales: Etudes de psychologie expérimentale (pp. 244-258). Louvain: Publications Universitaires.
  • Levelt, W. J. M. (2015). Levensbericht George Armitage Miller 1920 - 2012. In KNAW levensberichten en herdenkingen 2014 (pp. 38-42). Amsterdam: KNAW.
  • Levelt, W. J. M. (1982). Linearization in describing spatial networks. In S. Peters, & E. Saarinen (Eds.), Processes, beliefs, and questions (pp. 199-220). Dordrecht - Holland: D. Reidel.

    Abstract

    The topic of this paper is the way in which speakers order information in discourse. I will refer to this issue with the term "linearization", and will begin with two types of general remarks. The first one concerns the scope and relevance of the problem with reference to some existing literature. The second set of general remarks will be about the place of linearization in a theory of the speaker. The following, and main part of this paper, will be a summary report of research of linearization in a limited, but well-defined domain of discourse, namely the description of spatial networks.
  • Levelt, W. J. M. (2015). Sleeping Beauties. In I. Toivonen, P. Csúrii, & E. Van der Zee (Eds.), Structures in the Mind: Essays on Language, Music, and Cognition in Honor of Ray Jackendoff (pp. 235-255). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2003). Spatial language. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of cognitive science (pp. 131-137). London: Nature Publishing Group.
  • Levinson, S. C. (1982). Caste rank and verbal interaction in Western Tamilnadu. In D. B. McGilvray (Ed.), Caste ideology and interaction (pp. 98-203). Cambridge University Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (1998). Deixis. In J. L. Mey (Ed.), Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics (pp. 200-204). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Deixis [Reprint]. In D. Archer, & P. Grundy (Eds.), The pragmatics reader (pp. 163-185). London: Routledge.

    Abstract

    Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing from: Levinson, S. C. (2004) 'Deixis'. In: Horn, L.R. and Ward, G. (Eds.) The Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 100-121
  • Levinson, S. C. (2003). Contextualizing 'contextualization cues'. In S. Eerdmans, C. Prevignano, & P. Thibault (Eds.), Language and interaction: Discussions with John J. Gumperz (pp. 31-39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2003). Language and cognition. In W. Frawley (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (pp. 459-463). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2003). Language and mind: Let's get the issues straight! In D. Gentner, & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and cognition (pp. 25-46). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Foreword. In D. M. Mark, A. G. Turk, N. Burenhult, & D. Stea (Eds.), Landscape in language: Transdisciplinary perspectives (pp. ix-x). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Levinson, S. C. (1998). Minimization and conversational inference. In A. Kasher (Ed.), Pragmatics: Vol. 4 Presupposition, implicature and indirect speech acts (pp. 545-612). London: Routledge.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2012). Interrogative intimations: On a possible social economics of interrogatives. In J. P. De Ruiter (Ed.), Questions: Formal, functional and interactional perspectives (pp. 11-32). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Presumptive meanings [Reprint]. In D. Archer, & P. Grundy (Eds.), The pragmatics reader (pp. 86-98). London: Routledge.

    Abstract

    Reprinted with permission of The MIT Press from Levinson (2000) Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature, pp. 112-118, 116-167, 170-173, 177-180. MIT Press
  • Levinson, S. C., & Brown, P. (2012). Put and Take in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 273-296). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This paper describes the linguistic treatment of placement events in the Rossel Island (Papua New Guinea) language Yélî Dnye. Yélî Dnye is unusual in treating PUT and TAKE events symmetrically with a remarkable consistency. In what follows, we first provide a brief background for the language, then describe the six core PUT/TAKE verbs that were drawn upon by Yélî Dnye speakers to describe the great majority of the PUT/TAKE stimuli clips, along with some of their grammatical properties. In Section 5 we describe alternative verbs usable in particular circumstances and give an indication of the basis for variability in responses across speakers. Section 6 presents some reasons why the Yélî verb pattern for expressing PUT and TAKE events is of broad interest.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Reciprocals in Yélî Dnye, the Papuan language of Rossel Island. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 177-194). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    Yélî Dnye has two discernable dedicated constructions for reciprocal marking. The first and main construction uses a dedicated reciprocal pronoun numo, somewhat like English each other. We can recognise two subconstructions. First, the ‘numo-construction’, where the reciprocal pronoun is a patient of the verb, and where the invariant pronoun numo is obligatorily incorporated, triggering intransitivisation (e.g. A-NPs become absolutive). This subconstruction has complexities, for example in the punctual aspect only, the verb is inflected like a transitive, but with enclitics mismatching actual person/number. In the second variant or subconstruction, the ‘noko-construction’, the same reciprocal pronoun (sometimes case-marked as noko) occurs but now in oblique positions with either transitive or intransitive verbs. The reciprocal element here has some peculiar binding properties. Finally, the second independent construction is a dedicated periphrastic (or woni…woni) construction, glossing ‘the one did X to the other, and the other did X to the one’. It is one of the rare cross-serial dependencies that show that natural languages cannot be modelled by context-free phrase-structure grammars. Finally, the usage of these two distinct constructions is discussed.
  • Levinson, S. C. (1982). Speech act theory: The state of the art. In V. Kinsella (Ed.), Surveys 2. Eight state-of-the-art articles on key areas in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2012). Preface. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. xi-xv). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Three levels of meaning: Essays in honor of Sir John Lyons [Reprint]. In A. Kasher (Ed.), Pragmatics II. London: Routledge.

    Abstract

    Reprint from Stephen C. Levinson, ‘Three Levels of Meaning’, in Frank Palmer (ed.), Grammar and Meaning: Essays in Honor of Sir John Lyons (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 90–115
  • Levinson, S. C. (2011). Universals in pragmatics. In P. C. Hogan (Ed.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of the language sciences (pp. 654-657). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Abstract

    Changing Prospects for Universals in Pragmatics
    The term PRAGMATICS has come to denote the study of general principles of language use. It is usually understood to contrast with SEMANTICS, the study of encoded meaning, and also, by some authors, to contrast with SOCIOLINGUISTICS
    and the ethnography of speaking, which are more concerned with local sociocultural practices. Given that pragmaticists come from disciplines as varied as philosophy, sociology,
    linguistics, communication studies, psychology, and anthropology, it is not surprising that definitions of pragmatics vary. Nevertheless, most authors agree on a list of topics
    that come under the rubric, including DEIXIS, PRESUPPOSITION,
    implicature (see CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE), SPEECH-ACTS, and conversational organization (see CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS). Here, we can use this extensional definition as a starting point (Levinson 1988; Huang 2007).
  • Liszkowski, U., & Epps, P. (2003). Directing attention and pointing in infants: A cross-cultural approach. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 25-27). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877649.

    Abstract

    Recent research suggests that 12-month-old infants in German cultural settings have the motive of sharing their attention to and interest in various events with a social interlocutor. To do so, these preverbal infants predominantly use the pointing gesture (in this case the extended arm with or without extended index finger) as a means to direct another person’s attention. This task systematically investigates different types of motives underlying infants’ pointing. The occurrence of a protodeclarative (as opposed to protoimperative) motive is of particular interest because it requires an understanding of the recipient’s psychological states, such as attention and interest, that can be directed and accessed.
  • Majid, A. (2012). A guide to stimulus-based elicitation for semantic categories. In N. Thieberger (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic fieldwork (pp. 54-71). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Majid, A. (2015). Comparing lexicons cross-linguistically. In J. R. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Word (pp. 364-379). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199641604.013.020.

    Abstract

    The lexicon is central to the concerns of disparate disciplines and has correspondingly elicited conflicting proposals about some of its foundational properties. Some suppose that word meanings and their associated concepts are largely universal, while others note that local cultural interests infiltrate every category in the lexicon. This chapter reviews research in two semantic domains—perception and the body—in order to illustrate crosslinguistic similarities and differences in semantic fields. Data is considered from a wide array of languages, especially those from small-scale indigenous communities which are often overlooked. In every lexical field we find considerable variation across cultures, raising the question of where this variation comes from. Is it the result of different ecological or environmental niches, cultural practices, or accidents of historical pasts? Current evidence suggests that diverse pressures differentially shape lexical fields.
  • Majid, A., & Bödeker, K. (2003). Folk theories of objects in motion. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 72-76). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877654.

    Abstract

    There are three main strands of research which have investigated people’s intuitive knowledge of objects in motion. (1) Knowledge of the trajectories of objects in motion; (2) knowledge of the causes of motion; and (3) the categorisation of motion as to whether it has been produced by something animate or inanimate. We provide a brief introduction to each of these areas. We then point to some linguistic and cultural differences which may have consequences for people’s knowledge of objects in motion. Finally, we describe two experimental tasks and an ethnographic task that will allow us to collect data in order to establish whether, indeed, there are interesting cross-linguistic/cross-cultural differences in lay theories of objects in motion.
  • Majid, A., Evans, N., Gaby, A., & Levinson, S. C. (2011). The semantics of reciprocal constructions across languages: An extensional approach. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 29-60). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    How similar are reciprocal constructions in the semantic parameters they encode? We investigate this question by using an extensional approach, which examines similarity of meaning by examining how constructions are applied over a set of 64 videoclips depicting reciprocal events (Evans et al. 2004). We apply statistical modelling to descriptions from speakers of 20 languages elicited using the videoclips. We show that there are substantial differences in meaning between constructions of different languages.

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  • Malt, B. C., Gennari, S., Imai, M., Ameel, E., Saji, N., & Majid, A. (2015). Where are the concepts? What words can and can’t reveal. In E. Margolis, & S. Laurence (Eds.), The conceptual Mind: New directions in the study of concepts (pp. 291-326). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Abstract

    Concepts are so fundamental to human cognition that Fodor declared the heart of a cognitive science to be its theory of concepts. To study concepts, though, cognitive scientists need to be able to identify some. The prevailing assumption has been that they are revealed by words such as triangle, table, and robin. But languages vary dramatically in how they carve up the world with names. Either ordinary concepts must be heavily language dependent, or names cannot be a direct route to concepts. We asked speakers of English, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese to name a set of 36 video clips of human locomotion and to judge the similarities among them. We investigated what name inventories, name extensions, scaling solutions on name similarity, and scaling solutions on nonlinguistic similarity from the groups, individually and together, suggest about the underlying concepts. Aggregated naming data and similarity solutions converged on results distinct from individual languages.
  • Marcus, G., & Fisher, S. E. (2011). Genes and language. In P. Hogan (Ed.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of the language sciences (pp. 341-344). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Mark, D. M., Turk, A., Burenhult, N., & Stea, D. (2011). Landscape in language: An introduction. In D. M. Mark, A. G. Turk, N. Burenhult, & D. Stea (Eds.), Landscape in language: Transdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 1-24). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Marti, M., Alhama, R. G., & Recasens, M. (2012). Los avances tecnológicos y la ciencia del lenguaje. In T. Jiménez Juliá, B. López Meirama, V. Vázquez Rozas, & A. Veiga (Eds.), Cum corde et in nova grammatica. Estudios ofrecidos a Guillermo Rojo (pp. 543-553). Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.

    Abstract

    La ciencia moderna nace de la conjunción entre postulados teóricos y el desarrollo de una infraestructura tecnológica que permite observar los hechos de manera adecuada, realizar experimentos y verificar las hipótesis. Desde Galileo, ciencia y tecnología han avanzado conjuntamente. En el mundo occidental, la ciencia ha evolucionado desde pro-puestas puramente especulativas (basadas en postulados apriorísticos) hasta el uso de métodos experimentales y estadísticos para explicar mejor nuestras observaciones. La tecnología se hermana con la ciencia facilitando al investigador una aproximación adecuada a los hechos que pretende explicar. Así, Galileo, para observar los cuerpos celestes, mejoró el utillaje óptico, lo que le permitió un acercamiento más preciso al objeto de estudio y, en consecuencia, unos fundamentos más sólidos para su propuesta teórica. De modo similar, actualmente el desarrollo tecnológico digital ha posibilitado la extracción masiva de datos y el análisis estadístico de éstos para verificar las hipótesis de partida: la lingüística no ha podido dar el paso desde la pura especulación hacia el análisis estadístico de los hechos hasta la aparición de las tecnologías digitales.
  • Martin, R. C., & Tan, Y. (2015). Sentence comprehension deficits: Independence and interaction of syntax, semantics, and working memory. In A. E. Hillis (Ed.), Handbook of adult language disorders (2nd ed., pp. 303-327). Boca Raton: CRC Press.
  • Matić, D. (2015). Information structure in linguistics. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) Vol. 12 (pp. 95-99). Amsterdam: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.53013-X.

    Abstract

    Information structure is a subfield of linguistic research dealing with the ways speakers encode instructions to the hearer on how to process the message relative to their temporary mental states. To this end, sentences are segmented into parts conveying known and yet-unknown information, usually labeled ‘topic’ and ‘focus.’ Many languages have developed specialized grammatical and lexical means of indicating this segmentation.
  • McDonough, L., Choi, S., Bowerman, M., & Mandler, J. M. (1998). The use of preferential looking as a measure of semantic development. In C. Rovee-Collier, L. P. Lipsitt, & H. Hayne (Eds.), Advances in Infancy Research. Volume 12. (pp. 336-354). Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing.
  • McQueen, J. M., Dahan, D., & Cutler, A. (2003). Continuity and gradedness in speech processing. In N. O. Schiller, & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 39-78). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • McQueen, J. M., & Cutler, A. (1998). Morphology in word recognition. In A. M. Zwicky, & A. Spencer (Eds.), The handbook of morphology (pp. 406-427). Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Meira, S. (2003). 'Addressee effects' in demonstrative systems: The cases of Tiriyó and Brazilian Portugese. In F. Lenz (Ed.), Deictic conceptualization of space, time and person (pp. 3-12). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  • Merolla, D., & Ameka, F. K. (2012). Reflections on video fieldwork: The making of Verba Africana IV on the Ewe Hogbetsotso Festival. In D. Merolla, J. Jansen, & K. Nait-Zerrad (Eds.), Multimedia research and documentation of oral genres in Africa - The step forward (pp. 123-132). Münster: Lit.
  • Meyer, A. S., & Dobel, C. (2003). Application of eye tracking in speech production research. In J. Hyönä, R. Radach, & H. Deubel (Eds.), The mind’s eye: Cognitive and applied aspects of eye movement research (pp. 253-272). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Muysken, P., Hammarström, H., Birchall, J., van Gijn, R., Krasnoukhova, O., & Müller, N. (2015). Linguistic Areas, bottom up or top down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré region. In B. Comrie, & L. Golluscio (Eds.), Language Contact and Documentation / Contacto lingüístico y documentación (pp. 205-238). Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Narasimhan, B., Kopecka, A., Bowerman, M., Gullberg, M., & Majid, A. (2012). Putting and taking events: A crosslinguistic perspective. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 1-18). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Narasimhan, B. (2012). Putting and Taking in Tamil and Hindi. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 201-230). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    Many languages have general or “light” verbs used by speakers to describe a wide range of situations owing to their relatively schematic meanings, e.g., the English verb do that can be used to describe many different kinds of actions, or the verb put that labels a range of types of placement of objects at locations. Such semantically bleached verbs often become grammaticalized and used to encode an extended (set of) meaning(s), e.g., Tamil veyyii ‘put/place’ is used to encode causative meaning in periphrastic causatives (e.g., okkara veyyii ‘make sit’, nikka veyyii ‘make stand’). But do general verbs in different languages have the same kinds of (schematic) meanings and extensional ranges? Or do they reveal different, perhaps even cross-cutting, ways of structuring the same semantic domain in different languages? These questions require detailed crosslinguistic investigation using comparable methods of eliciting data. The present study is a first step in this direction, and focuses on the use of general verbs to describe events of placement and removal in two South Asian languages, Hindi and Tamil.
  • Neijt, A., Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (2003). Verpleegsters, ambassadrices, and masseuses: Stratum differences in the comprehension of Dutch words with feminine agent suffixes. In L. Cornips, & P. Fikkert (Eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2003. (pp. 117-127). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Noordman, L. G. M., Vonk, W., Cozijn, R., & Frank, S. (2015). Causal inferences and world knowledge. In E. J. O'Brien, A. E. Cook, & R. F. Lorch (Eds.), Inferences during reading (pp. 260-289). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Noordman, L. G., & Vonk, W. (1998). Discourse comprehension. In A. D. Friederici (Ed.), Language comprehension: a biological perspective (pp. 229-262). Berlin: Springer.

    Abstract

    The human language processor is conceived as a system that consists of several interrelated subsystems. Each subsystem performs a specific task in the complex process of language comprehension and production. A subsystem receives a particular input, performs certain specific operations on this input and yields a particular output. The subsystems can be characterized in terms of the transformations that relate the input representations to the output representations. An important issue in describing the language processing system is to identify the subsystems and to specify the relations between the subsystems. These relations can be conceived in two different ways. In one conception the subsystems are autonomous. They are related to each other only by the input-output channels. The operations in one subsystem are not affected by another system. The subsystems are modular, that is they are independent. In the other conception, the different subsystems influence each other. A subsystem affects the processes in another subsystem. In this conception there is an interaction between the subsystems.
  • Noordman, L. G. M., & Vonk, W. (2015). Inferences in Discourse, Psychology of. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) Vol. 12 (pp. 37-44). Amsterdam: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.57012-3.

    Abstract

    An inference is defined as the information that is not expressed explicitly by the text but is derived on the basis of the understander's knowledge and is encoded in the mental representation of the text. Inferencing is considered as a central component in discourse understanding. Experimental methods to detect inferences, established findings, and some developments are reviewed. Attention is paid to the relation between inference processes and the brain.
  • Norcliffe, E., Enfield, N. J., Majid, A., & Levinson, S. C. (2011). The grammar of perception. In K. Kendrick, & A. Majid (Eds.), Field manual volume 14 (pp. 1-10). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
  • Norcliffe, E., & Konopka, A. E. (2015). Vision and language in cross-linguistic research on sentence production. In R. K. Mishra, N. Srinivasan, & F. Huettig (Eds.), Attention and vision in language processing (pp. 77-96). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-81-322-2443-3_5.

    Abstract

    To what extent are the planning processes involved in producing sentences fine-tuned to grammatical properties of specific languages? In this chapter we survey the small body of cross-linguistic research that bears on this question, focusing in particular on recent evidence from eye-tracking studies. Because eye-tracking methods provide a very fine-grained temporal measure of how conceptual and linguistic planning unfold in real time, they serve as an important complement to standard psycholinguistic methods. Moreover, the advent of portable eye-trackers in recent years has, for the first time, allowed eye-tracking techniques to be used with language populations that are located far away from university laboratories. This has created the exciting opportunity to extend the typological base of vision-based psycholinguistic research and address key questions in language production with new language comparisons.
  • Nouaouri, N. (2012). The semantics of placement and removal predicates in Moroccan Arabic. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 99-122). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This article explores the expression of placement and removal events in Moroccan Arabic, particularly the semantic features of ‘putting’ and ‘taking’ verbs, classified in accordance with their combination with Goal and/or Source NPs. Moroccan Arabic verbs encode a variety of components of placement and removal events, including containment, attachment, features of the figure, and trajectory. Furthermore, accidental events are distinguished from deliberate events either by the inherent semantics of predicates or denoted syntactically. The postures of the Figures, in spite of some predicates distinguishing them, are typically not specified as they are in other languages, such as Dutch. Although Ground locations are frequently mentioned in both source-oriented and goal-oriented clauses, they are used more often in goal-oriented clauses.
  • O’Connor, L. (2012). Take it up, down, and away: Encoding placement and removal in Lowland Chontal. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 297-326). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This paper offers a structural and semantic analysis of expressions of caused motion in Lowland Chontal of Oaxaca, an indigenous language of southern Mexico. The data were collected using a video stimulus designed to elicit a wide range of caused motion event descriptions. The most frequent event types in the corpus depict caused motion to and from relations of support and containment, fundamental notions in the de­scription of spatial relations between two entities and critical semantic components of the linguistic encoding of caused motion in this language. Formal features of verbal construction type and argument realization are examined by sorting event descriptions into semantic types of placement and removal, to and from support and to and from containment. Together with typological factors that shape the distribution of spatial semantics and referent expression, separate treatments of support and containment relations serve to clarify notable asymmetries in patterns of predicate type and argument realization.
  • Otake, T., & Cutler, A. (2003). Evidence against "units of perception". In S. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in psychology research (pp. 57-82). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
  • Ozyurek, A. (2012). Gesture. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds.), Sign language: An international handbook (pp. 626-646). Berlin: Mouton.

    Abstract

    Gestures are meaningful movements of the body, the hands, and the face during communication,
    which accompany the production of both spoken and signed utterances. Recent
    research has shown that gestures are an integral part of language and that they contribute
    semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic information to the linguistic utterance. Furthermore,
    they reveal internal representations of the language user during communication in ways
    that might not be encoded in the verbal part of the utterance. Firstly, this chapter summarizes
    research on the role of gesture in spoken languages. Subsequently, it gives an overview
    of how gestural components might manifest themselves in sign languages, that is,
    in a situation in which both gesture and sign are expressed by the same articulators.
    Current studies are discussed that address the question of whether gestural components are the same or different in the two language modalities from a semiotic as well as from a cognitive and processing viewpoint. Understanding the role of gesture in both sign and
    spoken language contributes to our knowledge of the human language faculty as a multimodal communication system.
  • Ozyurek, A., & Perniss, P. M. (2011). Event representations in signed languages. In J. Bohnemeyer, & E. Pederson (Eds.), Event representations in language and cognition (pp. 84-107). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Peeters, D., Vanlangendonck, F., & Willems, R. M. (2012). Bestaat er een talenknobbel? Over taal in ons brein. In M. Boogaard, & M. Jansen (Eds.), Alles wat je altijd al had willen weten over taal: De taalcanon (pp. 41-43). Amsterdam: Meulenhoff.

    Abstract

    Wanneer iemand goed is in het spreken van meerdere talen, wordt wel gezegd dat zo iemand een talenknobbel heeft. Iedereen weet dat dat niet letterlijk bedoeld is: iemand met een talenknobbel herkennen we niet aan een grote bult op zijn hoofd. Toch dacht men vroeger wel degelijk dat mensen een letterlijke talenknobbel konden ontwikkelen. Een goed ontwikkeld taalvermogen zou gepaard gaan met het groeien van het hersengebied dat hiervoor verantwoordelijk was. Dit deel van het brein zou zelfs zo groot kunnen worden dat het van binnenuit tegen de schedel drukte, met name rond de ogen. Nu weten we wel beter. Maar waar in het brein bevindt de taal zich dan wel precies?
  • Perniss, P. M. (2012). Use of sign space. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds.), Sign Language: an International Handbook (pp. 412-431). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Abstract

    This chapter focuses on the semantic and pragmatic uses of space. The questions addressed concern how sign space (i.e. the area of space in front of the signer’s body) is used for meaning construction, how locations in sign space are associated with discourse referents, and how signers choose to structure sign space for their communicative intents. The chapter gives an overview of linguistic analyses of the use of space, starting with the distinction between syntactic and topographic uses of space and the different types of signs that function to establish referent-location associations, and moving to analyses based on mental spaces and conceptual blending theories. Semantic-pragmatic conventions for organizing sign space are discussed, as well as spatial devices notable in the visual-spatial modality (particularly, classifier predicates and signing perspective), which influence and determine the way meaning is created in sign space. Finally, the special role of simultaneity in sign languages is discussed, focusing on the semantic and discourse-pragmatic functions of simultaneous constructions.
  • Petersen, J. H. (2012). How to put and take in Kalasha. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 349-366). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    In Kalasha, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Northwest Pakistan, the linguistic encoding of ‘put’ and ‘take’ events reveals a symmetry between lexical ‘put’ and ‘take’ verbs that implies ‘placement on’ and ‘removal from’ a supporting surface. As regards ‘placement in’ and ‘removal from’ an enclosure, the data reveal a lexical asymmetry as ‘take’ verbs display a larger degree of linguistic elaboration of the Figure-Ground relation and the type of caused motion than ‘put’ verbs. When considering syntactic patterns, more instances of asymmetry between these two event types show up. The analysis presented here supports the proposal that an asymmetry exists in the encoding of goals versus sources as suggested in Nam (2004) and Ikegami (1987), but it calls into question the statement put forward by Regier and Zheng (2007) that endpoints (goals) are more finely differentiated semantically than starting points (sources).
  • Petersson, K. M., Forkstam, C., Inácio, F., Bramão, I., Araújo, S., Souza, A. C., Silva, S., & Castro, S. L. (2011). Artificial language learning. In A. Trevisan, & V. Wannmacher Pereira (Eds.), Alfabeltização e cognição (pp. 71-90). Porto Alegre, Brasil: Edipucrs.

    Abstract

    Neste artigo fazemos uma revisão breve de investigações actuais com técnicas comportamentais e de neuroimagem funcional sobre a aprendizagem de uma linguagem artificial em crianças e adultos. Na secção final, discutimos uma possível associação entre dislexia e aprendizagem implícita. Resultados recentes sugerem que a presença de um défice ao nível da aprendizagem implícita pode contribuir para as dificuldades de leitura e escrita observadas em indivíduos disléxicos.
  • Phillips, W., & Majid, A. (2011). Emotional sound symbolism. In K. Kendrick, & A. Majid (Eds.), Field manual volume 14 (pp. 16-18). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.1005615.
  • Puccini, D., Hassemer, M., Salomo, D., & Liszkowski, U. (2012). The type of shared activity shapes caregiver and infant communication [Reprint]. In J.-M. Colletta, & M. Guidetti (Eds.), Gesture and multimodal development (pp. 157-174). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Abstract

    For the beginning language learner, communicative input is not based on linguistic codes alone. This study investigated two extralinguistic factors which are important for infants’ language development: the type of ongoing shared activity and non-verbal, deictic gestures. The natural interactions of 39 caregivers and their 12-month-old infants were recorded in two semi-natural contexts: a free play situation based on action and manipulation of objects, and a situation based on regard of objects, broadly analogous to an exhibit. Results show that the type of shared activity structures both caregivers’ language usage and caregivers’ and infants’ gesture usage. Further, there is a specific pattern with regard to how caregivers integrate speech with particular deictic gesture types. The findings demonstrate a pervasive influence of shared activities on human communication, even before language has emerged. The type of shared activity and caregivers’ systematic integration of specific forms of deictic gestures with language provide infants with a multimodal scaffold for a usage-based acquisition of language.
  • Rakoczy, H., & Haun, D. B. M. (2012). Vor- und nichtsprachliche Kognition. In W. Schneider, & U. Lindenberger (Eds.), Entwicklungspsychologie. 7. vollständig überarbeitete Auflage (pp. 337-362). Weinheim: Beltz Verlag.
  • Rapold, C. J. (2012). The encoding of placement and removal events in ǂAkhoe Haiǁom. In A. Kopecka, & B. Narasimhan (Eds.), Events of putting and taking: A crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 79-98). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This paper explores the semantics of placement and removal verbs in Ākhoe Hai om based on event descriptions elicited with a set of video stimuli. After a brief sketch of the morphosyntax of placement/removal constructions in Ākhoe Haiom, four situation types are identified semantically that cover both placement and removal events. The language exhibits a clear tendency to make more fine-grained semantic distinctions in placement verbs, as opposed to semantically more general removal verbs.
  • Rapold, C. J. (2011). Semantics of Khoekhoe reciprocal constructions. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 61-74). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This paper identifies four reciprocal construction types in Khoekhoe (Central Khoisan). After a brief description of the morphosyntax of each construction, semantic factors governing their choice are explored. Besides lexical semantics, the number of participants, timing of symmetric subevents, and symmetric conceptualisation are shown to account for the distribution of the four partially competing reciprocal constructions.
  • Reis, A., Faísca, L., & Petersson, K. M. (2011). Literacia: Modelo para o estudo dos efeitos de uma aprendizagem específica na cognição e nas suas bases cerebrais. In A. Trevisan, J. J. Mouriño Mosquera, & V. Wannmacher Pereira (Eds.), Alfabeltização e cognição (pp. 23-36). Porto Alegro, Brasil: Edipucrs.

    Abstract

    A aquisição de competências de leitura e de escrita pode ser vista como um processo formal de transmissão cultural, onde interagem factores neurobiológicos e culturais. O treino sistemático exigido pela aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita poderá produzir mudanças quantitativas e qualitativas tanto a nível cognitivo como ao nível da organização do cérebro. Estudar sujeitos iletrados e letrados representa, assim, uma oportunidade para investigar efeitos de uma aprendizagem específica no desenvolvimento cognitivo e suas bases cerebrais. Neste trabalho, revemos um conjunto de investigações comportamentais e com métodos de imagem cerebral que indicam que a literacia tem um impacto nas nossas funções cognitivas e na organização cerebral. Mais especificamente, discutiremos diferenças entre letrados e iletrados para domínios cognitivos verbais e não-verbais, sugestivas de que a arquitectura cognitiva é formatada, em parte, pela aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita. Os dados de neuroimagem funcionais e estruturais são também indicadores que a aquisição de uma ortografia alfabética interfere nos processos de organização e lateralização das funções cognitivas.
  • Roberts, L. (2012). Sentence and discourse processing in second language comprehension. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1063.

    Abstract

    n applied linguistics (AL), researchers have always been concerned with second language (L2) learners' knowledge of the target language (TL), investigating the development of TL grammar, vocabulary, and phonology, for instance.
  • Robinson, S. (2011). Reciprocals in Rotokas. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 195-211). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This paper describes the syntax and semantics of reciprocity in the Central dialect of Rotokas, a non-Austronesian (Papuan) language spoken in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. In Central Rotokas, there are three main reciprocal construction types, which differ formally according to where the reflexive/reciprocal marker (ora-) occurs in the clause: on the verb, on a pronominal argument or adjunct, or on a body part noun. The choice of construction type is determined by two considerations: the valency of the verb (i.e., whether it has one or two core arguments) and whether the reciprocal action is performed on a body part. The construction types are compatible with a wide range of the logical subtypes of reciprocity (strong, melee, chaining, etc.).
  • Roelofs, A. (2003). Modeling the relation between the production and recognition of spoken word forms. In N. O. Schiller, & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 115-158). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • De Ruiter, J. P. (2003). The function of hand gesture in spoken conversation. In M. Bickenbach, A. Klappert, & H. Pompe (Eds.), Manus Loquens: Medium der Geste, Gesten der Medien (pp. 338-347). Cologne: DuMont.
  • De Ruiter, J. P. (2003). A quantitative model of Störung. In A. Kümmel, & E. Schüttpelz (Eds.), Signale der Störung (pp. 67-81). München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
  • De Ruiter, J. P., Noordzij, M. L., Newman-Norlund, S., Newman-Norlund, R., Hagoort, P., Levinson, S. C., & Toni, I. (2012). Exploring the cognitive infrastructure of communication. In B. Galantucci, & S. Garrod (Eds.), Experimental Semiotics: Studies on the emergence and evolution of human communication (pp. 51-78). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    Human communication is often thought about in terms of transmitted messages in a conventional code like a language. But communication requires a specialized interactive intelligence. Senders have to be able to perform recipient design, while receivers need to be able to do intention recognition, knowing that recipient design has taken place. To study this interactive intelligence in the lab, we developed a new task that taps directly into the underlying abilities to communicate in the absence of a conventional code. We show that subjects are remarkably successful communicators under these conditions, especially when senders get feedback from receivers. Signaling is accomplished by the manner in which an instrumental action is performed, such that instrumentally dysfunctional components of an action are used to convey communicative intentions. The findings have important implications for the nature of the human communicative infrastructure, and the task opens up a line of experimentation on human communication.

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  • Schiller, N. O., & Verdonschot, R. G. (2015). Accessing words from the mental lexicon. In J. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the word (pp. 481-492). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Abstract

    This chapter describes how speakers access words from the mental lexicon. Lexical access is a crucial
    component in the process of transforming thoughts into speech. Some theories consider lexical access to be
    strictly serial and discrete, while others view this process as being cascading or even interactive, i.e. the different
    sub-levels influence each other. We discuss some of the evidence in favour and against these viewpoints, and
    also present arguments regarding the ongoing debate on how words are selected for production. Another important
    issue concerns the access to morphologically complex words such as derived and inflected words, as well as
    compounds. Are these accessed as whole entities from the mental lexicon or are the parts assembled online? This
    chapter tries to provide an answer to that question as well.
  • Schiller, N. O., & Meyer, A. S. (2003). Introduction to the relation between speech comprehension and production. In N. O. Schiller, & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 1-8). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Schimke, S., Verhagen, J., & Turco, G. (2012). The different role of additive and negative particles in the development of finiteness in early adult L2 German and L2 Dutch. In M. Watorek, S. Benazzo, & M. Hickmann (Eds.), Comparative perspectives on language acquisition: A tribute to Clive Perdue (pp. 73-91). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Schmiedtová, B. (2003). The use of aspect in Czech L2. In D. Bittner, & N. Gagarina (Eds.), ZAS Papers in Linguistics (pp. 177-194). Berlin: Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft.
  • Schmiedtová, B. (2003). Aspekt und Tempus im Deutschen und Tschechischen: Eine vergleichende Studie. In S. Höhne (Ed.), Germanistisches Jahrbuch Tschechien - Slowakei: Schwerpunkt Sprachwissenschaft (pp. 185-216). Praha: Lidové noviny.
  • Schreuder, R., Burani, C., & Baayen, R. H. (2003). Parsing and semantic opacity. In E. M. Assink, & D. Sandra (Eds.), Reading complex words (pp. 159-189). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
  • Schriefers, H., & Vigliocco, G. (2015). Speech Production, Psychology of [Repr.]. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed) Vol. 23 (pp. 255-258). Amsterdam: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.52022-4.

    Abstract

    This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 22, pp. 14879–14882, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.
  • Schubotz, L., Oostdijk, N., & Ernestus, M. (2015). Y’know vs. you know: What phonetic reduction can tell us about pragmatic function. In S. Lestrade, P. De Swart, & L. Hogeweg (Eds.), Addenda: Artikelen voor Ad Foolen (pp. 361-380). Njimegen: Radboud University.
  • Seifart, F. (2003). Encoding shape: Formal means and semantic distinctions. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 57-59). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877660.

    Abstract

    The basic idea behind this task is to find out how languages encode basic shape distinctions such as dimensionality, axial geometry, relative size, etc. More specifically, we want to find out (i) which formal means are used cross linguistically to encode basic shape distinctions, and (ii) which are the semantic distinctions that are made in this domain. In languages with many shape-classifiers, these distinctions are encoded (at least partially) in classifiers. In other languages, positional verbs, descriptive modifiers, such as “flat”, “round”, or nouns such as “cube”, “ball”, etc. might be the preferred means. In this context, we also want to investigate what other “grammatical work” shapeencoding expressions possibly do in a given language, e.g. unitization of mass nouns, or anaphoric uses of shape-encoding classifiers, etc. This task further seeks to determine the role of shape-related parameters which underlie the design of objects in the semantics of the system under investigation.
  • Sekine, K. (2011). The development of spatial perspective in the description of large-scale environments. In G. Stam, & M. Ishino (Eds.), Integrating Gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture (pp. 175-186). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

    Abstract

    This research investigated developmental changes in children’s representations of large-scale environments as reflected in spontaneous gestures and speech produced during route descriptions Four-, five-, and six-year-olds (N = 122) described the route from their nursery school to their own homes. Analysis of the children’s gestures showed that some 5- and 6-year-olds produced gestures that represented survey mapping, and they were categorized as a survey group. Children who did not produce such gestures were categorized as a route group. A comparison of the two groups revealed no significant differences in speech indices, with the exception that the survey group showed significantly fewer right/left terms. As for gesture, the survey group produced more gestures than the route group. These results imply that an initial form of survey-map representation is acquired beginning at late preschool age.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Wosi Milamala: Weisen von Liebe und Tod auf den Trobriand Inseln. In I. Bobrowski (Ed.), Anabasis: Prace Ofiarowane Professor Krystynie Pisarkowej (pp. 289-295). Kraków: LEXIS.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Zur Bedeutung der Sprache für die Feldforschung. In B. Beer (Ed.), Methoden und Techniken der Feldforschung (pp. 55-70). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2012). Das Erlernen von Fremdsprachen als Voraussetzung für erfolgreiche Feldforschung. In J. Kruse, S. Bethmann, D. Niermann, & C. Schmieder (Eds.), Qualitative Interviewforschung in und mit fremden Sprachen: Eine Einführung in Theorie und Praxis (pp. 121-135). Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.
  • Senft, G. (1998). 'Noble Savages' and the 'Islands of Love': Trobriand Islanders in 'Popular Publications'. In J. Wassmann (Ed.), Pacific answers to Western hegemony: Cultural practices of identity construction (pp. 119-140). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
  • Senft, G. (2012). 67 Wörter + 1 Foto für Roland Posner. In E. Fricke, & M. Voss (Eds.), 68 Zeichen für Roland Posner - Ein semiotisches Mosaik / 68 signs for Roland Posner - A semiotic mosaic (pp. 473-474). Tübingen: Stauffenberg Verlag.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Ethnographic Methods. In W. Deutsch, T. Hermann, & G. Rickheit (Eds.), Psycholinguistik - Ein internationales Handbuch [Psycholinguistics - An International Handbook] (pp. 106-114). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Ethnolinguistik. In B. Beer, & H. Fischer (Eds.), Ethnologie: Einführung und Überblick. 5. Aufl., Neufassung (pp. 255-270). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2011). Machst Du jetzt Witze oder was? - Die Sprechweisen der Trobriand-Insulaner. In Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Jahrbuch 2011/11 Tätigkeitsberichte und Publikationen (DVD) (pp. 1-8). München: Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved from http://www.mpg.de/1077403/Sprache_Trobriand-Insulaner.

    Abstract

    The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea differentiate and label in their language Kilivila genres and varieties or registers which are constituted by these genres. The documentation and analysis of these varieties and genres reveals how important it is to understand these metalinguistic differentiations. The cultural and verbal competence which is necessary to adequately interact with the Trobriander Islanders is based on the understanding of the indigenous text typology and the Trobriand Islanders' culture specific ways of speaking.
  • Senft, G. (2011). Linearisation in narratives. In K. Kendrick, & A. Majid (Eds.), Field manual volume 14 (pp. 24-28). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.1005607.
  • Senft, G. (2012). Ethnolinguistik. In B. Beer, & H. Fischer (Eds.), Ethnologie - Einführung und Überblick. 7. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage (pp. 271-286). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Reasoning in language. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 28-30). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877663.

    Abstract

    This project aims to investigate how speakers of various languages in indigenous cultures verbally reason about moral issues. The ways in which a solution for a moral problem is found, phrased and justified will be taken as the basis for researching reasoning processes that manifest themselves verbally in the speakers’ arguments put forward to solve a number of moral problems which will be presented to them in the form of unfinished story plots or scenarios that ask for a solution. The plots chosen attempt to present common problems in human society and human behaviour. They should function to elicit moral discussion and/or moral arguments in groups of consultants of at least three persons.
  • Senft, G. (2012). Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila: Stability and change in two lexical domains of sensual perception. In A. C. Schalley (Ed.), Practical theories and empirical practice (pp. 71-98). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This chapter first compares data collected on Kilivila colour terms in 1983 with data collected in 2008. The Kilivila lexicon has changed from a typical stage IIIb into a stage VII colour term lexicon (Berlin and Kay 1969). The chapter then compares data on the Kilivila taste vocabulary collected in 1982/83 with data collected in 2008. No substantial change was found. Finally the chapter compares the 2008 results on taste terms with a paper on the taste vocabulary of the Torres Strait Islanders published in 1904 by Charles S. Myers. Kilivila provides evidence that traditional terms used for talking about colour and terms used to refer to tastes have remained relatively stable over time.
  • Senft, G. (2015). The Trobriand Islanders' concept of karewaga. In S. Lestrade, P. de Swart, & L. Hogeweg (Eds.), Addenda. Artikelen voor Ad Foolen (pp. 381-390). Nijmegen: Radboud University.
  • Senft, G. (2011). To have and have not: Kilivila reciprocals. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (Eds.), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 225-232). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    Kilivila is one of the languages of the world that lacks dedicated reciprocal forms. After a short introduction the paper briefly shows how reciprocity is either not expressed at all, is only implicated in an utterance, or expressed periphrastically.
  • Senft, G. (1998). Zeichenkonzeptionen in Ozeanien. In R. Posner, T. Robering, & T.. Sebeok (Eds.), Semiotics: A handbook on the sign-theoretic foundations of nature and culture (Vol. 2) (pp. 1971-1976). Berlin: de Gruyter.
  • Senghas, A., Ozyurek, A., & Kita, S. (2003). Encoding motion events in an emerging sign language: From Nicaraguan gestures to Nicaraguan signs. In A. E. Baker, B. van den Bogaerde, & O. A. Crasborn (Eds.), Crosslinguistic perspectives in sign language research (pp. 119-130). Hamburg: Signum Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2003). Verb clusters and branching directionality in German and Dutch. In P. A. M. Seuren, & G. Kempen (Eds.), Verb Constructions in German and Dutch (pp. 247-296). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2012). Does a leaking O-corner save the square? In J.-Y. Béziau, & D. Jacquette (Eds.), Around and beyond the square of opposition (pp. 129-138). Basel: Springer.

    Abstract

    It has been known at least since Abelard (12th century) that the classic Square of Opposition suffers from so-called undue existential import (UEI) in that this system of predicate logic collapses when the class denoted by the restrictor predicate is empty. It is usually thought that this mistake was made by Aristotle himself, but it has now become clear that this is not so: Aristotle did not have the Conversions but only one-way entailments, which ‘saves’ the Square. The error of UEI was introduced by his later commentators, especially Apuleius and Boethius. Abelard restored Aristotle’s original logic. After Abelard, some 14th- and 15th-century philosophers (mainly Buridan and Ockham) meant to save the Square by declaring the O-corner true when the restrictor class is empty. This ‘leaking O-corner analysis’, or LOCA, was taken up again around 1950 by some American philosopher-logicians, who now have a fairly large following. LOCA does indeed save the Square from logical disaster, but modern analysis shows that this makes it impossible to give a uniform semantic definition of the quantifiers, which thus become ambiguous—an intolerable state of affairs in logic. Klima (Ars Artium, Essays in Philosophical Semantics, Medieval and Modern, Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1988) and Parsons (in Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.standford.edu/entries/square/, 2006; Logica Univers. 2:3–11, 2008) have tried to circumvent this problem by introducing a ‘zero’ element into the ontology, standing for non-existing entities and yielding falsity when used for variable substitution. LOCA, both without and with the zero element, is critically discussed and rejected on internal logical and external ontological grounds.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2003). Logic, language and thought. In H. J. Ribeiro (Ed.), Encontro nacional de filosofia analítica. (pp. 259-276). Coimbra, Portugal: Faculdade de Letras.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2015). Prestructuralist and structuralist approaches to syntax. In T. Kiss, & A. Alexiadou (Eds.), Syntax--theory and analysis: An international handbook (pp. 134-157). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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