Author
Ünal, Ercenur, Richards, C., Trueswell, J. C., Papafragou, A.
Publication Date
2021-11
Publication Place
-
Wiley
Subject
Causative events, Change blindness, Cross-linguistic differences, Event cognition, Event perception, Thematic roles
Type
Periodical
Language
English
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Özyeğin University
Library Asset ID
1363-755X
Record ID
ce774b3d-41f8-4d19-8fa9-3fdfa0a951a4
Library Location
Psychology
Date
2021-11
Notes
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Sample Text
Although it is widely assumed that the linguistic description of events is based on a structured representation of event components at the perceptual/conceptual level, little empirical work has tested this assumption directly. Here, we test the connection between language and perception/cognition cross-linguistically, focusing on the relative salience of causative event components in language and cognition. We draw on evidence from preschoolers speaking English or Turkish. In a picture description task, Turkish-speaking 3-5-year-olds mentioned Agents less than their English-speaking peers (Turkish allows subject drop); furthermore, both language groups mentioned Patients more frequently than Goals, and Instruments less frequently than either Patients or Goals. In a change blindness task, both language groups were equally accurate at detecting changes to Agents (despite surface differences in Agent mentions). The remaining components also behaved similarly: both language groups were less accurate in detecting changes to Instruments than either Patients or Goals (even though Turkish-speaking preschoolers were less accurate overall than their English-speaking peers). To our knowledge, this is the first study offering evidence for a strong—even though not strict—homology between linguistic and conceptual event roles in young learners cross-linguistically.
DOI
10.1111/desc.13116
Cilt
24
