Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: People automatically chunk ongoing dynamic events into discrete units.This paper investigates whether linguistic structure is a factor in this process.We test the claim that describing an event with a serial verb construction will influence a speaker's conceptual event structure.The grammar of Avatime (a Kwa language spoken in Ghana) requires its speakers to describe some, but not all, placement events using a serial verb construction which also encodes the preceding taking event.We tested Avatime and English speakers' recognition memory for putting and taking events.Avatime speakers were more likely to falsely recognize putting and taking events from episodes associated with takeput serial verb constructions than from episodes associated with other constructions.English speakers showed no difference in false recognitions between episode types.This demonstrates that memory for episodes is related to the type of language used; and, moreover, across languages different conceptual representations are formed for the same physical episode, paralleling habitual linguistic practices.
Authors: Rebecca Defina, Asifa Majid
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1931175864