Representing agents, patients, goals and instruments in causative events: A cross-linguistic investigation of early language and cognition.
Representing agents, patients, goals and instruments in causative events: A cross-linguistic investigation of early language and cognition.
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DOI：
10.1111/desc.13116
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发表时间：
2021-05
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Ercenur Ünal;Catherine Richards;J. Trueswell;A. Papafragou
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ercenur Ünal;Catherine Richards;J. Trueswell;A. Papafragou
尽管人们普遍认为，事件的语言描述是基于事件组件在感知/概念层面的结构化表示，但很少有实证工作直接测试这一假设。在这里，我们跨语言测试语言和感知/认知之间的联系，重点关注语言和认知中导致事件成分的相对显著性。我们从说英语或土耳其语的学龄前儿童中提取证据。在一项图片描述任务中，说土耳其语的3-5岁儿童提到特工的次数少于说英语的同龄人（土耳其语允许省略主题）；此外，两种语言组提到“患者”的频率都高于“目标”，而提到“工具”的频率都低于“患者”或“目标”。在变化盲视任务中，两种语言组在检测Agent的变化方面同样准确（尽管提到Agent的表面差异）。其余的组成部分也表现相似：两个语言组在检测仪器变化方面的准确性都低于患者或目标（尽管说土耳其语的学龄前儿童总体上比说英语的同龄人更低）。据我们所知，这是第一个为年轻学习者跨语言的语言和概念事件角色之间的强烈同源性（尽管不是严格同源）提供证据的研究。
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.