SPACESIGNSPOKEN · The linguistic and cognitive processing of space in signed and spoken language
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2008-01-01 → 2009-12-31
- EU contribution
- €151,675
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- EIF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - SPACESIGNSPOKEN (The linguistic and cognitive processing of space in signed and spoken language)
Languages differ greatly in the way information about the world is packaged into linguistic expressions. There is debate concerning the extent to which different properties of language mediate the interaction between language and other cognitive functions. This project investigates "thinking-for-speaking"-type effects across languages that differ in the modality of production (i.e. spoken vs. signed languages), as well as across languages that differ typologically (i.e. in the types of structures used to package information) within the same modality. The specific effects we are interested in are related to the encoding of visualspatial information (particularly of object size and shape). Due to the affordances of the visual-spatial modality, signed languages have a greater potential for encoding visuospatial dimensions than do spoken languages. Thus, the main question that the project addresses is whether the habitual encoding of visuospatial dimensions in signed language leads to a higher sensitivity to such visuospatial dimensions in signers over speakers. This constitutes a cross-modality investigation of the effect of differences in the treatment of spatial semantic domains on visuospatial cognition. There exist spoken languages, however, which also systematically encode visuospatial information about objects, such that this information may have a similar salience in these spoken languages as in signed languages. This raises the issue of whether the assumption of modality effects in the spatial semantic domain is in fact confounding modality and typology. Therefore, the other main - and novel - question addressed in the project is to what extent modality vs. typology impacts the language-cognition interface, constituting a typologically-driven within-modality investigation of language effects in the spatial semantic domain. To establish the contribution of each of these two dimensions will allow us to gain a far greater understanding of how language (both ontogenetically and phylogenetically) takes advantage of other cognitive functions.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The project investigates the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive processes in a comparison of spoken and signed language. Because signed and spoken languages differ with respect to the use of iconicity (i.e. visually motivated forms), comparison between language modalities can provide valuable insight into the nature of the interface between different cognitive processes. Specifically, the project focuses on the dimensions of size, shape, and location and seeks to explore effects of differences in the linguistic treatment of these domains in spoken and signed languages on visuospatial cognitive processes. In an interdisciplinary approach combining linguistic and psycholinguistic methodologies, we will assess signers and speakers linguistic coding of these spatial dimensions to investigate the effect of linguistic structure on conceptual representation. Crucially, this study will take into account differences in both modality and language typology (i.e. variation between languages) to examine their relative contribution.The project will:(1) document and classify the use of structural devices in signed and spoken language in the spatial domain,(2) evaluate the effects on memory and attention of different linguistic treatment of spatial information in signed and spoken language in a cross-disciplinary approach, and(3) gain insight into the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive processing.The results will enhance our understanding of the language and cognition interface and will have implications for both linguistics and psychology. The applicant has already gained substantial expertise in carrying out the linguistic analyses of signed and spoken languages necessary to the success of the project. The host institution will provide her with the additional complementary experimental knowledge that is also vital to the successful completion of the project and to her professional development as a cognitive scientist
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON · LONDONCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union