Mapping Events onto Language

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

People talk about events in their visual worlds in a way that seems both natural and effortless. However, these events must be represented in spoken language as well as the language of thought, so to speak, and the processes by which people translate between these two languages remain a matter of debate despite decades of linguistic and cognitive research. This research question is complicated by the fact that languages differ considerably in the way they encode even the simplest and most familiar events. Such cross-linguistic variations are common throughout the world's languages, and they raise deep questions about the relationship between language and thought. In the context of event cognition, the question is whether there are universal components of event cognition, and whether the linguistic encoding of event information has an effect on the operation of those components. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Papafragou and Dr. Trueswell will conduct a series of experimental studies with adults speaking different languages to study how dynamically unfolding events are mapped onto linguistic representations, and whether these representations affect the conceptual organization of the visual world. Their research offers an innovative and multi-pronged approach to one of the most fundamental topics in the study of the mind, namely how human perception and cognition make contact with the language faculty. Because of its thoroughly interdisciplinary nature, this project provides unique training for graduate and undergraduate students in the cognitive sciences, including eye-tracking, cross-linguistic, and international work.