Is there a natural order for expressing semantic relations?. Gershkoff-Stowe, L. & Goldin-Medow, S. Cognit Psychol, 45(3):375-412, 2002. abstract bibtex All languages rely to some extent on word order to signal relational information. Why? We address this question by exploring communicative and cognitive factors that could lead to a reliance on word order. In Study 1, adults were asked to describe scenes to another using their hands and not their mouths. The question was whether this home-made "language" would contain gesture sentences with consistent order. In addition, we asked whether reliance on order would be influenced by three communicative factors (whether the communication partner is permitted to give feedback; whether the information to be communicated is present in the context that recipient and gesturer share; whether the gesturer assumes the role of gesture receiver as well as gesture producer). We found that, not only was consistent ordering of semantic elements robust across the range of communication situations, but the same non-English order appeared in all contexts. Study 2 explored whether this non-English order is found only when a person attempts to share information with another. Adults were asked to reconstruct scenes in a non-communicative context using pictures drawn on transparencies. The adults picked up the pictures for their reconstructions in a consistent order, and that order was the same non-English order found in Study 1. Finding consistent ordering patterns in a non-communicative context suggests that word order is not driven solely by the demands of communicating information to another, but may reflect a more general property of human thought.
@Article{Gershkoff-Stowe2002,
author = {Lisa Gershkoff-Stowe and Susan Goldin-Medow},
journal = {Cognit Psychol},
title = {Is there a natural order for expressing semantic relations?},
year = {2002},
number = {3},
pages = {375-412},
volume = {45},
abstract = {All languages rely to some extent on word order to signal relational
information. Why? We address this question by exploring communicative
and cognitive factors that could lead to a reliance on word order.
In Study 1, adults were asked to describe scenes to another using
their hands and not their mouths. The question was whether this home-made
"language" would contain gesture sentences with consistent order.
In addition, we asked whether reliance on order would be influenced
by three communicative factors (whether the communication partner
is permitted to give feedback; whether the information to be communicated
is present in the context that recipient and gesturer share; whether
the gesturer assumes the role of gesture receiver as well as gesture
producer). We found that, not only was consistent ordering of semantic
elements robust across the range of communication situations, but
the same non-English order appeared in all contexts. Study 2 explored
whether this non-English order is found only when a person attempts
to share information with another. Adults were asked to reconstruct
scenes in a non-communicative context using pictures drawn on transparencies.
The adults picked up the pictures for their reconstructions in a
consistent order, and that order was the same non-English order found
in Study 1. Finding consistent ordering patterns in a non-communicative
context suggests that word order is not driven solely by the demands
of communicating information to another, but may reflect a more general
property of human thought.},
keywords = {Adult, Analysis of Variance, Female, Gestures, Humans, Male, Narration, Neurolinguistic Programming, Semantics, Time Factors, United States, 12480479},
}
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In addition, we asked whether reliance on order would be influenced by three communicative factors (whether the communication partner is permitted to give feedback; whether the information to be communicated is present in the context that recipient and gesturer share; whether the gesturer assumes the role of gesture receiver as well as gesture producer). We found that, not only was consistent ordering of semantic elements robust across the range of communication situations, but the same non-English order appeared in all contexts. Study 2 explored whether this non-English order is found only when a person attempts to share information with another. Adults were asked to reconstruct scenes in a non-communicative context using pictures drawn on transparencies. The adults picked up the pictures for their reconstructions in a consistent order, and that order was the same non-English order found in Study 1. 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The question was whether this home-made\n\t\"language\" would contain gesture sentences with consistent order.\n\tIn addition, we asked whether reliance on order would be influenced\n\tby three communicative factors (whether the communication partner\n\tis permitted to give feedback; whether the information to be communicated\n\tis present in the context that recipient and gesturer share; whether\n\tthe gesturer assumes the role of gesture receiver as well as gesture\n\tproducer). We found that, not only was consistent ordering of semantic\n\telements robust across the range of communication situations, but\n\tthe same non-English order appeared in all contexts. Study 2 explored\n\twhether this non-English order is found only when a person attempts\n\tto share information with another. Adults were asked to reconstruct\n\tscenes in a non-communicative context using pictures drawn on transparencies.\n\tThe adults picked up the pictures for their reconstructions in a\n\tconsistent order, and that order was the same non-English order found\n\tin Study 1. Finding consistent ordering patterns in a non-communicative\n\tcontext suggests that word order is not driven solely by the demands\n\tof communicating information to another, but may reflect a more general\n\tproperty of human thought.},\n keywords = {Adult, Analysis of Variance, Female, Gestures, Humans, Male, Narration, Neurolinguistic Programming, Semantics, Time Factors, United States, 12480479},\n}\n\n","author_short":["Gershkoff-Stowe, L.","Goldin-Medow, S."],"key":"Gershkoff-Stowe2002","id":"Gershkoff-Stowe2002","bibbaseid":"gershkoffstowe-goldinmedow-isthereanaturalorderforexpressingsemanticrelations-2002","role":"author","urls":{},"keyword":["Adult","Analysis of Variance","Female","Gestures","Humans","Male","Narration","Neurolinguistic Programming","Semantics","Time Factors","United States","12480479"],"metadata":{"authorlinks":{}}},"bibtype":"article","biburl":"https://endress.org/publications/ansgar.bib","dataSources":["xPGxHAeh3vZpx4yyE","TXa55dQbNoWnaGmMq"],"keywords":["adult","analysis of variance","female","gestures","humans","male","narration","neurolinguistic programming","semantics","time factors","united states","12480479"],"search_terms":["natural","order","expressing","semantic","relations","gershkoff-stowe","goldin-medow"],"title":"Is there a natural order for expressing semantic relations?","year":2002}