Word formation patterns in the perception domain: a typological study of cross-modal semantic associations

The lexicalization of perception verbs has been of widespread interest as a route into understanding the relationship between language and cognition. A recent study finds global biases in colexification patterns, suggesting recurrent conceptual associations between sensory meanings across languages. In this paper, drawing on a balanced sample of 100 languages, we examine cross-modal semantic associations in word formation. Confirming earlier proposals, we find derived verbs are lower on a proposed Sense Modality Hierarchy (sight > hearing > touch > taste, smell) than the source perception verbs on which they are based. We propose these findings can be explained by verb frequency asymmetries and the general tendency for sources of derivations to be more frequent than their targets. Moreover, it appears certain pairings (e.g., hear–smell) are recurrently associated via word formation, but others are typologically rare. Intriguingly, the typological patterning partially diverges from the patterning reported for colexification in the same domain. We suggest that while colexification is driven by conceptual resemblance between sensory meanings, cross-modal word formations tend to arise from grammaticalization processes of lexical specification, where additional material (e.g., a sensory noun) is collocated to a polysemous verb in order to disambiguate it in context. Together, these processes can account for the typological similarities and divergences between the two phenomena. More generally, this study highlights the need to consider conceptual, communicative and diachronic factors together in the mapping between words and meanings

Vision Verbs Emerge First in English Acquisition but Touch, not Audition, Follows Second

Words that describe sensory perception give insight into how language mediates human experience, and the acquisition of these words is one way to examine how we learn to categorize and communicate sensation. We examine the differential predictions of the typological prevalence hypothesis and embodiment hypothesis regarding the acquisition of perception verbs. Studies 1 and 2 examine the acquisition trajectories of perception verbs across 12 languages using parent questionnaire responses, while Study 3 examines their relative frequencies in English corpus data. We find the vision verbs see and look are acquired first, consistent with the typological prevalence hypothesis. However, for children at 12–23 months, touch—not audition—verbs take precedence in terms of their age of acquisition, frequency in child‐produced speech, and frequency in child‐directed speech, consistent with the embodiment hypothesis. Later at 24–35 months old, frequency rates are observably different and audition begins to align with what has previously been reported in adult English data. It seems the initial orientation to verbalizing touch over audition in child–caregiver interaction is especially related to the control of physically and socially appropriate behaviors. Taken together, the results indicate children's acquisition of perception verbs arises from the complex interplay of embodiment, language‐specific input, and child‐directed socialization routines

Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs are grounded in interaction

Apart from references to perception, words such as see and listen have shared, non-literal meanings across diverse languages. Such cross-linguistic meanings have not been systematically investigated as they appear in their natural home-informal spoken interaction. We present a qualitative examination of the semantic associations of perception verbs based on recorded everyday conversation in thirteen diverse languages. Across these diverse communities, spontaneous interaction provides evidence for two commonly-discussed extensions of perception verbs-perception~cognition, hearing~linguistic communication-as well as illustrating other meanings and functions (e.g., the use of perception verbs as discourse markers) that have been less appreciated heretofore. The range of usage that is readily observable in informal conversation makes it clear that this type of data must take center stage for the empirically grounded study of semantics. Moreover, these data suggest that commonalities in polysemous meanings may rely not only on universal cognition, but also on the universal exigencies of social interaction

Constructing Spanish Complex Predicates

Abeillé and Godard (2007) describe a variety of Spanish whose complex predicates differ structurally from the more familiar flat VP type of complex predicate common to other varieties of Spanish and Romance. I present a verb cluster analysis of this variety which both captures these structural differences, and at the same time preserves those features that are common across both construction types. Coupled with a simple morphological treatment of affixation, this analysis predicts the range of ‘clitic climbing ’ facts. The parsimony of the affixation analysis is afforded by an alternative approach to the constraints on reflexive affix distribution in Spanish complex predicates. I depart radically from previous morpho-lexical approaches to the phenomenon, instead showing how the constraints follow from independently motivated binding principles. This approach not only handles more of the Spanish data, but also has the potential to provide a unified account of the phenomenon across Romance

Verbs of perception: a quantitative typological study

Previous studies have proposed that the lexicalization of perception verbs is constrained by a biologically grounded hierarchy of the senses. Other research traditions emphasize conceptual and communicative factors instead. Drawing on a balanced sample of perception verb lexicons in 100 languages, we found that vision tends to be lexicalized with a dedicated verb, but that nonvisual modalities do not conform to the predictions of the sense-modality hierarchy. We also found strong asymmetries in which sensory meanings colexify. Rather than a universal hierarchy of the senses, we suggest that two domain-general constraints—conceptual similarity and communicative need—interact to shape lexicalization patterns

The Core and the Periphery: Data-driven Perspectives on Syntax inspired by Ivan A Sag

The Core and the Periphery is a collection of papers inspired by the linguistics career of Ivan A. Sag (1949–2013), written to commemorate his many contributions to the field. Sag was professor of linguistics at Stanford University from 1979 to 2013; served as the director of the Symbolic Systems Program from 2005 to 2009; authored, co-authored, or edited fifteen volumes on linguistics; and was at the forefront of non-transformational approaches to syntax. Reflecting the breadth of s theoretical interests and approaches to linguistic problems, the papers collected here tackle a range of grammar-related issues using corpora, intuitions, and laboratory experiments. They are united by their use of and commitment to rich datasets and share the perspective that the best theories of grammar attempt to account for the full diversity and complexity of language data

Experimental research in cross-linguistic psycholinguistics

In recent years, the field of psycholinguistics has seen an increased focus on the study of typologically diverse languages. Expanding cross-linguistic coverage is critical to tease apart those aspects of language processing that are general to the architecture of the human language processing system compared to those that are fine-tuned to the properties of the specific language one speaks. In this chapter, we present an overview of research in this area and describe in detail the kinds of experimental methods that are employed, with a particular focus on methods and procedures that have been developed for undertaking research on language processing outside of more familiar lab-based settings