1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Languages in Contrast
  4. Volume 22, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 22, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1387-6759
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9897
PDF
EPUB

Abstract

Abstract

Recent work has shown that ASL (American Sign Language) signers not only articulate the language in the space in front of and around them, they interact with that space bodily, such that those interactions are frequently viewpointed. At a basic level, signers use their bodies to depict the actions of characters, either themselves or others, in narrative retelling. These viewpointed instances seem to reflect “embodied cognition”, in that our construal of reality is largely due to the nature of our bodies (Evans and Green, 2006) and “embodied language” such that the symbols we use to communicate are “grounded in recurring patterns of bodily experience” (Gibbs, 2017: 450). But what about speakers of a spoken language such as English? While we know that meaning and structure for any language, whether spoken or signed, affect and are affected by the embodied mind (note that the bulk of research on embodied language has been about spoken, not signed, language), we can learn much about embodied cognition and viewpointed space when spoken languages are treated as multimodal. Here, we compare signed ASL and spoken, multimodal English discourse to examine whether the two languages incorporate viewpointed space in similar or different ways.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
2022-07-04
2023-09-22

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/lic.00020.jan.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Altman, M.
    2009 Understanding Embodiment: Psychophysiological Models in Traditional Medical Systems. InNew Directions in Cognitive Linguistics, V. Evans and S. Pourcel (eds), 311–329. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/hcp.24.21alt
     https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.24.21alt [Google Scholar]
  2. Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K.
    2016 Embodied Sociolinguistics. InSociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates, N. Coupland (ed.), 173–197. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781107449787.009
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107449787.009 [Google Scholar]
  3. Bybee, J.
    2006 From Usage to Grammar: The Mind’s Response to Repetition. Language82(4): 711–733. 10.1353/lan.2006.0186
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0186 [Google Scholar]
  4. Bybee, J., Perkins, R. and Pagliuca, W.
    1994 The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Clark, H. H. and Gerrig, R. J.
    1990 Quotations as Demonstrations. Language66(4): 764–805. 10.2307/414729
     https://doi.org/10.2307/414729 [Google Scholar]
  6. Croft, W.
    2000 Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach. Harlow: Longman Linguistics Library, Pearson Education Ltd.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Dancygier, B.
    2012a Negation, Stance Verbs, and Intersubjectivity. InViewpoint in Language: A Multimodal Perspective, B. Dancygier and E. Sweetser (eds), 69–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.006
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.006 [Google Scholar]
  8. 2012b Conclusion: Multiple Viewpoints, Multiple Spaces. InViewpoint in Language: A Multimodal Perspective, B. Dancygier and E. Sweetser (eds), 219–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.016
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.016 [Google Scholar]
  9. Dancygier, B., Rice, S. and Janzen, T.
    2019 Stance-Stacking in Language and Multimodal Communication. Paper presented at theFifteenth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 15), Nishinomiya, Japan, 6–10 August 2019.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Du Bois, J. W.
    2007 The Stance Triangle. InStancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction, R. Englebretson (ed.), 139–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.164.07du
     https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.164.07du [Google Scholar]
  11. Dudis, P. G.
    2004 Body Partitioning and Real-Space Blends. Cognitive Linguistics15(2): 223–238. 10.1515/cogl.2004.009
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2004.009 [Google Scholar]
  12. Earis, H. and Cormier, K.
    2013 Point of View in British Sign Language and Spoken English Narrative Discourse: The Example of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Language and Cognition5(4): 313–343. 10.1515/langcog‑2013‑0021
     https://doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2013-0021 [Google Scholar]
  13. Enfield, N. J.
    2009 The Anatomy of Meaning: Speech, Gesture, and Composite Utterances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511576737
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576737 [Google Scholar]
  14. 2013 A ‘Composite Utterances’ Approach to Meaning. InBody – Language – Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction. Volume 1. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science 38.1.), C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill and S. Tessendorf (eds), 689–707. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Engberg-Pedersen, E.
    1993 Space in Danish Sign Language: The Semantics and Morphosyntax of the Use of Space in a Visual Language. Hamburg: Signum.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Evans, V. and Green, M.
    2006 Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Ferrara, L. and Hodge, G.
    2018 Language as Description, Indication, and Depiction. Frontiers in Psychology9(716): 1–15. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00716
     https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00716 [Google Scholar]
  18. Ferrara, L. and Johnston, T.
    2014 Elaborating who’s what: A Study of Constructed Action and Clause Structure in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Australian Journal of Linguistics34(2): 193–215. 10.1080/07268602.2014.887405
     https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2014.887405 [Google Scholar]
  19. Ferrari, L. and Sweetser, E.
    2012 Subjectivity and Upwards Projection in Mental Space Structure. InViewpoint in Language: A Multimodal Perspective, B. Dancygier and E. Sweetser (eds), 47–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.005
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.005 [Google Scholar]
  20. Gärdenfors, P.
    2004 Conceptual Spaces as a Framework for Knowledge Representation. Mind and Matter2(2): 9–27.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Gibbs, R. W. Jr.
    2017 Embodiment. InCambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, B. Dancygier (ed.), 449–462. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316339732.028
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316339732.028 [Google Scholar]
  22. Hanks, W. F.
    1990 Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space Among the Mayan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Haviland, J. B.
    2000 Pointing, Gesture Spaces, and Mental Maps. InLanguage and Gesture, D. McNeill (ed.), 13–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511620850.003
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620850.003 [Google Scholar]
  24. Hostetter, A. B. and Alibali, M. B.
    2008 Visible Embodiment: Gestures as Simulated Action. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review15(3): 495–514. 10.3758/PBR.15.3.495
     https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.3.495 [Google Scholar]
  25. Janney, R. W.
    1999 Words as Gestures. Journal of Pragmatics31: 953–972. 10.1016/S0378‑2166(98)00102‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00102-7 [Google Scholar]
  26. Janzen, T.
    2004 Space Rotation, Perspective Shift, and Verb Morphology in ASL. Cognitive Linguistics15(2): 149–174. 10.1515/cogl.2004.006
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2004.006 [Google Scholar]
  27. 2006 Visual Communication: Signed Language and Cognition. InCognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives, G. Kristiansen, M. Achard, R. Dirven and F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez (eds), 359–377. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. 2012 Two Ways of Conceptualizing Space: Motivating the Use of Static and Rotated Vantage Point Space in ASL Discourse. InViewpoint in Language: A Multimodal Perspective, B. Dancygier and E. Sweetser (eds), 156–174. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.012
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.012 [Google Scholar]
  29. 2017 Composite Utterances in a Signed Language: Topic Constructions and Perspective-Taking in ASL. Cognitive Linguistics28(3): 511–538. 10.1515/cog‑2016‑0121
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2016-0121 [Google Scholar]
  30. 2019 Shared Spaces, Shared Mind: Connecting Past and Present Viewpoints in American Sign Language Narratives. Cognitive Linguistics30(2): 253–279. 10.1515/cog‑2018‑0045
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2018-0045 [Google Scholar]
  31. Janzen, T., Shaffer, B. and Leeson, L.
    2017 Does Grammar Include Gesture? Evidence from Two Signed Languages. Paper presented at theFourteenth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 14), Tartu, Estonia, 10–14 July 2017.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. 2019 The Embodiment of Stance in Narratives in Two Signed Languages. Paper presented at theFifteenth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 15), Nishinomiya, Japan, 6–10 August 2019.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. forthcoming. What I Know Is Here; what I don’t Know Is Somewhere Else: Deixis and Gesture Spaces in American Sign Language and Irish Sign Language. InSigned Language and Gesture Research in Cognitive Linguistics, T. Janzen and B. Shaffer eds Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Johnson, M.
    1987 The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226177847.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226177847.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  35. Kendon, A.
    2004 Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511807572
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807572 [Google Scholar]
  36. 2014 Semiotic Diversity in Utterance Production and the Concept of ‘Language’. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B369: 20130293. 1–13. 10.1098/rstb.2013.0293
     https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0293 [Google Scholar]
  37. Kövecses, Z.
    2010 Metaphor: A Practical Introduction (2nd ed). New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M.
    1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Langacker, R. W.
    2009 Investigations in Cognitive Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110214369
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110214369 [Google Scholar]
  40. Liddell, S. K.
    2003 Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511615054
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615054 [Google Scholar]
  41. MacWhinney, B.
    2013 The Emergence of Language from Embodiment. InThe Emergence of Language, B. MacWhinney (ed.), 213–256. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. 10.4324/9781410602367‑13
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410602367-13 [Google Scholar]
  42. McNeill, D.
    1992 Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Müller, C.
    2018 Gesture and Sign: Cataclysmic Break or Dynamic Relations?Frontiers in Psychology9(1651): 1–20. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01651
     https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01651 [Google Scholar]
  44. Ohala, J. J.
    1994 The Frequency Code Underlies the Sound-Symbolic Use of Voice Pitch. InSound Symbolism, L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds), 325–347. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Parrill, F.
    2009 Dual Viewpoint Gestures. Gesture9(3): 271–289. 10.1075/gest.9.3.01par
     https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.9.3.01par [Google Scholar]
  46. 2012 Interactions between Discourse Status and Viewpoint in Co-Speech Gesture. InCambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, B. Dancygier (ed.), 97–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.008
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.008 [Google Scholar]
  47. Podesva, R. J.
    2013 Gender and the Social Meaning of Non-Modal Phonation Types. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (Vol.37), C. Cathcart, I-H. Chen, G. Finley, S. Kang, C. S. Sandy and E. Stickles (eds), 427–448. Available athttps://escholarship.org/uc/bling_proceedings/37/37
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Quinto-Pozos, D. and Parrill, F.
    2015 Signers and Co-Speech Gesturers Adopt Similar Strategies for Portraying Viewpoint in Narratives. Topics in Cognitive Science7: 12–35. 10.1111/tops.12120
     https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12120 [Google Scholar]
  49. Sams, J.
    2010 Quoting the Unspoken: An Analysis of Quotations in Spoken Discourse. Journal of Pragmatics42: 3147–3160. 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.04.024
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.04.024 [Google Scholar]
  50. Scheibman, J.
    2002 Point of View and Grammar: Structural Patterns of Subjectivity in American Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/sidag.11
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sidag.11 [Google Scholar]
  51. Sweetser, E.
    2012 Introduction: Viewpoint and Perspective in Language and Gesture, from the Ground down. InViewpoint in Language: A Multimodal Perspective, B. Dancygier and E. Sweetser (eds), 1–22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139084727.002
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084727.002 [Google Scholar]
  52. 2013 Creativity across Modalities in Viewpoint Construction. InLanguage and the Creative Mind, M. Borkent, B. Dancygier and J. Hinnell (eds), 239–254. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Sweetser, E. and Stec, K.
    2016 Maintaining Multiple Viewpoints with Gaze. InViewpoint and the Fabric of Meaning: Form and Use of Viewpoint Tools Across Languages and Modalities, B. Dancygier, V.-l. Lu and A. Verhagen (eds), 237–257. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110365467‑011
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110365467-011 [Google Scholar]
  54. Traugott, E. C. and Dasher, R. B.
    2002 Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Vandelanotte, L.
    2017 Viewpoint. InCambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, B. Dancygier (ed.), 157–171. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316339732.011
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316339732.011 [Google Scholar]
  56. Verhagen, A.
    2005 Constructions of Intersubjectivity: Discourse, Syntax, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Wilcox, P. P.
    2000 Metaphor in American Sign Language. Washington: Gallaudet University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  58. 2004 A Cognitive Key: Metonymic and Metaphorical Mappings in ASL. Cognitive Linguistics15(2): 197–222. 10.1515/cogl.2004.008
     https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2004.008 [Google Scholar]
  59. Wilcox, S. E.
    2002 The Gesture-Language Interface: Evidence from Signed Languages. InProgress in Sign Language Research: In Honor of Siegmund Prillwitz/Fortschritte in der Gebärdensprachforschung: Festschrift für Siegmund Prillwitz, R. Schulmeister and H. Reinitzer (eds), 63–81. Hamburg: Signum-Verlag.
     [Google Scholar]
  60. 2004 Gesture and Language: Cross-Linguistic and Historical Data from Signed Languages. Gesture4(1): 43–73. 10.1075/gest.4.1.04wil
     https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.4.1.04wil [Google Scholar]
  61. Winston, E. A.
    1995 Spatial Mapping in Comparative Discourse Frames. InLanguage, Gesture, and Space, K. Emmorey and J. S. Reilly (eds), 87–114. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Zlatev, J.
    2017 Embodied Intersubjectivity. InThe Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, B. Dancygier (ed.), 172–187. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316339732.012
     https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316339732.012 [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
Loading
Embodied cognition
Languages in Contrast 22, 227 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
/content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
/content/journals/10.1075/lic.00020.jan
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): English/ASL; multimodality; perspective-taking; stance; viewpoint

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error