Bodo Winter

Of magnitudes and metaphors: explaining cognitive interactions between space, time, and number.

Space, time, and number are fundamental to how we act within and reason about the world. These three experiential domains are systematically intertwined in behavior, language, and the brain. Two main theories have attempted to account for cross-domain interactions. A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM) posits a domain-general magnitude system. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) maintains that cross-domain interactions are manifestations of asymmetric mappings that use representations of space to structure the domains of number and time. These theories are often viewed as competing accounts. We propose instead that ATOM and CMT are complementary, each illuminating different aspects of cross-domain interactions. We argue that simple representations of magnitude cannot, on their own, account for the rich, complex interactions between space, time and number described by CMT. On the other hand, ATOM is better at accounting for low-level and language-independent associations that arise early in ontogeny. We conclude by discussing how magnitudes and metaphors are both needed to understand our neural and cognitive web of space, time and number.

Languages with More Second Language Learners Tend to Lose Nominal Case

Inthispaper,weprovidequantitativeevidenceshowingthatlanguagesspokenbymanysecond languagespeakerstendtohaverelativelysmallnominalcasesystemsornonominalcaseatall. In our sample, all languages with more than 50% second language speakers had no nominal case. The negative association between the number of second language speakers and nominal casecomplexitygeneralizestodifferentlanguageareasandfamilies.Astherearemanystudies attestingtothedifficultyofacquiringmorphologicalcaseinsecondlanguageacquisition,this result supports the idea that languages adapt to the cognitive constraints of their speakers, as wellastothesociolinguisticnichesoftheirspeakingcommunities.Wediscussourresultswith respecttosociolinguistictypologyandtheLinguisticNicheHypothesis,aswellaswithrespect toqualitativedatafromhistoricallinguistics.Allinall,multiplelinesofevidenceconvergeon the idea that morphosyntactic complexity is reduced by a high degree of language contact involving adult learners.

Mental number space in three dimensions.

A large number of experimental findings from neuroscience and experimental psychology demonstrated interactions between spatial cognition and numerical cognition. In particular, many researchers posited a horizontal mental number line, where small numbers are thought of as being to the left of larger numbers. This review synthesizes work on the mental association between space and number, indicating the existence of multiple spatial mappings: recent research has found associations between number and vertical space, as well as associations between number and near/far space. We discuss number space in three dimensions with an eye on potential origins of the different number mappings, and how these number mappings fit in with our current knowledge of brain organization and brain-culture interactions. We derive novel predictions and show how this research fits into a general view of cognition as embodied, grounded and situated.

Assessing incomplete neutralization of final devoicing in German

Abstract It has been claimed that the long established neutralization of the voicing distinction in domain final position in German is phonetically incomplete. However, many studies that have advanced this claim have subsequently been criticized on methodological grounds, calling incomplete neutralization into question. In three production experiments and one perception experiment we address these methodological criticisms. In the first production study, we address the role of orthography. In a large scale auditory task using pseudowords, we confirm that neutralization is indeed incomplete and suggest that previous null results may simply be due to lack of statistical power. In two follow-up production studies (Experiments 2 and 3), we rule out a potential confound of Experiment 1, namely that the effect might be due to accommodation to the presented auditory stimuli, by manipulating the duration of the preceding vowel. While the between-items design (Experiment 2) replicated the findings of Experiment 1, the between-subjects version (Experiment 3) failed to find a statistically significant incomplete neutralization effect, although we found numerical tendencies in the expected direction. Finally, in a perception study (Experiment 4), we demonstrate that the subphonemic differences between final voiceless and “devoiced” stops are audible, but only barely so. Even though the present findings provide evidence for the robustness of incomplete neutralization in German, the small effect sizes highlight the challenges of investigating this phenomenon. We argue that without necessarily postulating functional relevance, incomplete neutralization can be accounted for by recent models of lexical organization.

Language comprehenders represent object distance both visually and auditorily

Abstract When they process sentences, language comprehenders activate perceptual and motor representations of described scenes. On the “immersed experiencer” account, comprehenders engage motor and perceptual systems to create experiences that someone participating in the described scene would have. We tested two predictions of this view. First, the distance of mentioned objects from the protagonist of a described scene should produce perceptual correlates in mental simulations. And second, mental simulation of perceptual features should be multimodal, like actual perception of such features. In Experiment 1, we found that language about objects at different distances modulated the size of visually simulated objects. In Experiment 2, we found a similar effect for volume in the auditory modality. These experiments lend support to the view that language-driven mental simulation encodes experiencer-specific spatial details. The fact that we obtained similar simulation effects for two different modalities—audition and vision—confirms the multimodal nature of mental simulations during language understanding.

The phonetic profile of Korean formal and informal speech registers

In this exploratory sociophonetic study, we investigated the properties of formal and informal speech registers in Korean. We found that in formal speech, Korean male and female speakers lowered their average fundamental frequency and pitch range. The acoustic signal furthermore exhibited overall less variability, as evidenced by decreased fundamental frequency and intensity standard deviations, and decreased period and amplitude perturbations. Differences in speech registers affected Harmonics-toNoise-ratio and the difference between the first and second harmonic as well, suggesting breathinessrelated changes, and the speech was slower and included more non-lexical fillers such as ah and oh. Unexpectedly, formality also affected breathing patterns, leading to a noticeable increase in the amount of loud ‘‘hissing’’ breath intakes in formal speech. We thus show that a variety of different means of vocal expression play a role in signaling formality in Korean. Further, we outline the implications of this study for phonetic theory and discuss our results with respect to the Frequency Code and research on clear speech. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Horror Movies and the Cognitive Ecology of Primary Metaphors

Horror movies consistently reflect metaphorical associations between verticality and affect, as well as between brightness and affect. For example, bad events happen when movie characters are going downwards, or when lights go off. Monsters and villains emerge from below and from the darkness. And protagonists get lost and stuck in dark underground caves, dungeons, tunnels, mines, bunkers or sewers. Even movies that are primarily set above ground or in bright light have the most suspenseful scenes happening beneath the ground and in the dark. An analysis of several horror movies highlights the striking consistency with which the two metaphors “EVIL IS DOWN” and “EVIL IS DARK” are used within this genre. I will argue that these metaphors help in creating fear. Moreover, I will outline how cinematic manifestations of metaphor elaborate and extend metaphorical concepts and ultimately may have a formative role in keeping metaphors alive within a culture.

Taste and smell words form an affectively loaded and emotionally flexible part of the English lexicon

ABSTRACT In brain and behaviour, gustation, and olfaction are closely linked to emotional processing. This paper shows that similarly, words associated with taste and smell, such as “pungent” and “delicious”, are on average more emotionally valenced than words associated with the other senses, such as “beige” (visual) and “echoing” (auditory). Moreover, taste and smell words occur more frequently in emotionally valenced phrases, for example, “fragrant” modifies more emotionally valenced nouns (“fragrant kiss”) than the visual adjective “yellow” (“yellow house”). It is argued that taste and smell words form an affectively loaded part of the English lexicon. Taste and smell words are also shown to be more emotionally flexible in that words such as “sweet” can be combined with both good and bad nouns (“sweet delight” versus “sweet disaster”), much more so than is the case for sensory words for the other modalities. The paper discusses implications for theories of embodied language understanding.

Making Judgments Based on Similarity and Proximity

In this study, we investigate the conceptual structure of the metaphor “SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY.” The results of four experiments suggest a tight mental link between similarity and proximity. Two experiments revealed that people judge entities to be more similar to each other when they are placed closely in space, while two other experiments showed that entities are judged to be closer to each other when they are thought to be more similar. We discuss this bidirectional metaphor transfer effect in light of approaches to metaphor understanding, including the long-standing view that metaphorical mappings are assumed to be asymmetrical. We also consider the implications of this bi-directional mapping for high level cognition.

The Co-evolution of Speech and the Lexicon: The Interaction of Functional Pressures, Redundancy, and Category Variation.

The sound system of a language must be able to support a perceptual contrast between different words in order to signal communicatively relevant meaning distinctions. In this paper, we use a simple agent-based exemplar model in which the evolution of sound-category systems is understood as a co-evolutionary process, where the range of variation within sound categories is constrained by functional pressure to keep different words perceptually distinct. We show that this model can reproduce several observed effects on the range of sound variation. We argue that phonological systems can be seen as finding a relative optimum of variation: Efficient communication is sustained while at the same time, hidden category variation provides pathways for future evolution.