The archipelago of meaning: Methodological contributions to the study of Vanuatu sand drawing

Vanuatu sand drawing has been listed by UNESCO since 2006 and has both fascinated and puzzled researchers from various disciplines for over a century. The inherent multi-dimensionality of the practice makes analysis complex, and until very recently developing a systematic methodology to study this intangible art form was difficult. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap with the analysis of a corpus of sand drawings documented on the island of Paama in 2019. A detailed methodological toolkit is proposed to better understand the complex morphology of the drawings and their multi-layered meaning and function. This paper offers the first few steps along a journey toward designing integrated comparative methods of analysis that can not only potentiate unprecedented insights into the cultural practice of Vanuatu sand drawing, but also more broadly help us understand how worldviews, beliefs and societal structures spread across time and space

The archipelago of meaning: Methodological contributions to the study of Vanuatu sand drawing

Vanuatu sand drawing has been listed by UNESCO since 2006 and has both fascinated and puzzled researchers from various disciplines for over a century. The inherent multi-dimensionality of the practice makes analysis complex, and until very recently developing a systematic methodology to study this intangible art form was difficult. This paper aims to contribute to filling this gap with the analysis of a corpus of sand drawings documented on the island of Paama in 2019. A detailed methodological toolkit is proposed to better understand the complex morphology of the drawings and their multi-layered meaning and function. This paper offers the first few steps along a journey toward designing integrated comparative methods of analysis that can not only potentiate unprecedented insights into the cultural practice of Vanuatu sand drawing, but also more broadly help us understand how worldviews, beliefs and societal structures spread across time and space

Carving the body at its joints: Does the way we speak about the body shape the way we think about it?

Looking at the way different linguistic communities speak about a universally shared domain of experience raises questions that are central to the language sciences. How can we compare meaning across languages? What is the interaction between language, thought, and perception? Does linguistic diversity entail linguistic relativism? The literature on the naming systems of the body across languages have addressed these questions with little consensus. In the present study, we contribute to this debate with a comparison of body part terms in French, Indonesian, and Japanese. Using an updated version of the body coloring task, we observed both diversity and cross-linguistically shared patterns. Importantly, we also observed that speakers of languages which violate the wrist/ankle joint boundary rule do not collapse the distinction in thought. This key finding goes against the conflation of language and thought and leads us to conclude that linguistic diversity does not entail linguistic relativism. Methodologically, we advocate for the use of a culturally neutral etic space as a necessary tool in semantic typology. Theoretically, we propose that language is a multilevel phenomenon, which results from the interaction of non-linguistic and cross-culturally shared embodied motivations, context-specific situated language use, and culturally-specific sedimented linguistic conventions

Analyzing polysemiosis: Language, gesture, and depiction in two cultural practices with sand drawing

Human communication is by default polysemiotic: it involves the spontaneous combination of two or more semiotic systems, the most important ones being language, gesture, and depiction. We formulate an original cognitive-semiotic framework for the analysis of polysemiosis, contrasting this with more familiar systems based on the ambiguous term “multimodality.” To be fully explicit, we developed a coding system for the analysis of polysemiotic utterances containing speech, gesture, and drawing, and implemented this in the ELAN video annotation software. We used this to analyze 23 video-recordings of sand drawing performances on Paama, Vanuatu and 20 sand stories of the Pitjantjatjara culture in Central Australia. Methodologically we used the conceptual-empirical loop of cognitive semiotics: our theoretical framework guided general considerations, such as distinguishing between the “tiers” of gesture and depiction, and the three kinds of semiotic grounds (iconic, indexical, symbolic), but the precise decisions on how to operationalize these were made only after extensive work with the material. We describe the coding system in detail and provide illustrative examples from the Paamese and Pitjantjatjara data, remarking on both similarities and differences in the polysemiosis of the two cultural practices. We conclude by summarizing the contributions of the study and point to some directions for future research

Pantolang: A synthetic cognitive-semiotic approach to language origins

We present an ongoing international project, From Pantomime to Language (PANTOLANG), aiming to develop a comprehensive, empirically grounded theory of the evolution of human language and the human mind, relying on the new paradigm of cognitive semiotics, which combines methods and concepts from the humanities and the sciences (Zlatev, 2015; Zlatev, et al. 2016)

Twelve-month psychosis-predictive value of the ultra-high risk criteria in children and adolescents

Objective The validity of current ultra-high risk (UHR) criteria is under-examined in help-seeking minors, particularly, in children below the age of 12 years. Thus, the present study investigated predictors of one-year outcome in children and adolescents (CAD) with UHR status. Method Thirty-five children and adolescents (age 9–17 years) meeting UHR criteria according to the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes were followed-up for 12 months. Regression analyses were employed to detect baseline predictors of conversion to psychosis and of outcome of non-converters (remission and persistence of UHR versus conversion). Results At one-year follow-up, 20% of patients had developed schizophrenia, 25.7% had remitted from their UHR status that, consequently, had persisted in 54.3%. No patient had fully remitted from mental disorders, even if UHR status was not maintained. Conversion was best predicted by any transient psychotic symptom and a disorganized communication score. No prediction model for outcome beyond conversion was identified. Conclusions Our findings provide the first evidence for the predictive utility of UHR criteria in CAD in terms of brief intermittent psychotic symptoms (BIPS) when accompanied by signs of cognitive impairment, i.e. disorganized communication. However, because attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS) related to thought content and perception were indicative of non-conversion at 1-year follow-up, their use in early detection of psychosis in CAD needs further study. Overall, the need for more in-depth studies into developmental peculiarities in the early detection and treatment of psychoses with an onset of illness in childhood and early adolescence was further highlighted

Le schéma PARTIE-TOUT au travers duquel nous vivons : une analyse de linguistique cognitive des expressions partie-tout à l'oeuvre dans le domaine personnel

Bien que le Self soit une abstraction omniprésente de notre quotidien, il demeure complexe à définir. L'immense majorité des cultures du monde fait appel aux relations parties-tout afin de conceptualiser cette abstraction intime: nous catégorisons nos corps en tant que touts faits de parties, et réifions beaucoup d'aspects intangibles du Self au travers de l'image schéma PARTIE-TOUT (ex: "J'ai perdu une partie de moi ce jour là"; "je me sens entier"). Le Self et les relations parties-tout ont fait l'objet de nombreuses recherche à ce jour. Il convient donc, dans un premier temps, d'établir l'état de l'art en se focalisant sur un certain nombre de contributions influentes à ce sujet, qui nous permettront d'introduire les concepts et notions clés à partir desquels nous établirons notre hypothèse. Nous proposons une définition étroite de la relation partie-tout, puis, en accord avec le cadre théorique de la linguistique cognitive, nous proposerons que nous pouvons en apprendre sur la conceptualisation du Self en étudiant les expressions linguistiques qui y réfère. En effet, du point de vue de la linguistique cognitive, le sens et la conceptualisation ne font qu'un, et nous analysons donc les mécanismes conceptuels à l’œuvre dans les expressions partie-tout du Self. La linguistique cognitive a réconcilié la pensée et le corps en démontrant que la pensée était incarnée. Nous proposons ainsi d'analyser les expressions partie-tout que les anglophones utilisent pour conceptualiser le Self incarné. Nous montrons que l'anglais a des stratégies syntaxiques encodant la conceptualisation du corps en tant que tout fait de parties de manière très précises. Nous proposerons ensuite d'analyser les stratégies linguistiques que les anglophones utilisent pour faire référence à leur Self intangible. Nous soutenons que le schéma PARTIE-TOUT est omniprésent dans la conceptualisation du Self aussi bien dans ses aspects tangibles, qu'intangibles. Nous soutenons que ce schéma est un modèle récurrent hérité de notre expérience sensorimotrice au travers duquel nous vivons, et que ce système de conceptualisation est très précisément capturé par la langue que nous parlons.The Self is a ubiquitous abstraction of our daily lives, and yet remains complex to define. The vast majority of the world’s cultures recruit a part-whole conceptualizing process to give shape to this intimate abstraction: we categorize our bodies as wholes made of parts, and we reify many aspects of our intangible Self through the PART-WHOLE schema (e.g. “I lost a part of me that can never be replaced”; “I feel whole”). The Self and part-whole relations have both received a considerable amount of attention. I first review influential contributions to both domains of investigation to introduce the theoretical background and key concepts, upon which I build my argument, and also raise some issues, which I propose to address throughout this dissertation. I propose a narrow definition for the part-whole relation, and following the cognitive linguistic literature, I argue that we can learn more about the way we conceptualize our Self by analyzing the linguistic expressions that refer to it. Indeed, from the standpoint of Cognitive Linguistics, meaning is conceptualization, and I thus analyze the conceptual mechanisms at work in part-whole expressions of the Self. Cognitive Linguistics has put back together the long divorced mind and body in Western culture by demonstrating that the mind is embodied. Accordingly, I first propose to analyze part-whole expressions that English speakers use to conceptualize the Embodied Self. I show that English has syntactic strategies that encode the conceptualization of the body as a whole made of parts at a fine level of granularity. I then propose to analyze linguistic strategies English speakers use to refer to their Intangible Self. In both tangible and intangible aspects of the Self I argue that the PART-WHOLE schema is a pervasive recurring pattern of our sensorimotor experience that we live through, and that this complex conceptual system is precisely encoded in language

Mereology in the Flesh

Figurative language repositories typically encompass expressions that are coded manually in formal content analyses. This chapter proposes to discuss a number of theoretical and methodological issues related to mereology – the study of parts, wholes, and their relation – that are crucial for coding part–whole figurative expressions. This contribution draws the attention to the importance of: distinguishing language and experience of part whole relations; taking into account the existence of two different kinds of whole; and finding ways to implement these distinctions in coding schemes to be used to annotate figurative expressions in electronic repositories. Finally, based on cognitive scientific evidence, this chapter formulates a hypothesis on how part–whole relations are acquired through bodily experiences and therefore could indeed said to be “in the flesh”

Mereology in the Flesh

Figurative language repositories typically encompass expressions that are coded manually in formal content analyses. This chapter proposes to discuss a number of theoretical and methodological issues related to mereology – the study of parts, wholes, and their relation – that are crucial for coding part–whole figurative expressions. This contribution draws the attention to the importance of: distinguishing language and experience of part whole relations; taking into account the existence of two different kinds of whole; and finding ways to implement these distinctions in coding schemes to be used to annotate figurative expressions in electronic repositories. Finally, based on cognitive scientific evidence, this chapter formulates a hypothesis on how part–whole relations are acquired through bodily experiences and therefore could indeed said to be “in the flesh”

Cutting and Breaking the Embodied Self

This paper analyzes the Cutting and Breaking (C&B) events affecting the tangible aspects of the personal domain, that is to say the body and its parts. The study of the embodied Self, as the affected theme of C&B events, provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of the conceptualization of the personal domain, as well as providing an additional distinction between cut-verbs and break-verbs. First, I propose to re-analyze three arguments of the C&B literature under the light of Talmy’s different levels of synthesis (2000). I propose that cut-verbs can be distinguished from break-verbs based on the level of synthesis of the affected theme they encode. I support this argument with a corpus-based analysis of a series of syntactic-semantic tests. Second, while English does not have morphosyntactic strategies to make a distinction between alienable and inalienable possessions, I argue that the participation of C&B events affecting the corporeal Self to specific argument structure alternations (causatives – reflexives – possessor raising) shows that the distinction is syntactically encoded in the English language. Third, I analyze a testimony of a FGC/FGM1 victim and demonstrate the sociocultural relevance of the distinction proposed in this paper