Kuhn, Geraci, Schlenker, & Strickland. 2020. Boundaries in space and time: iconic biases across modalities.
Manuscript, Institut Jean-Nicod (CNRS), Ecole Normale Supérieure.
[Full
paper at PsyArXiv]
Abstract:
The idea that the form of a word reflects information about its meaning has its
roots in Platonic philosophy, and has been experimentally investigated for concrete,
sensory based semantic properties since the early 20th century. Here, we provide
evidence for an abstract, semantic property of ‘boundedness’ that introduces a
systematic, iconic bias on the phonological expectations of a novel lexicon. We
show that this abstract property is domain-general with respect to meaning and
possibly form. In Experiment 1, we show that subjects are systematically more
likely to associate sign language signs that end with a gestural boundary with
telic verbs (denoting events with temporal boundaries, e.g., die, arrive) and to
count nouns (denoting objects with spatial boundaries, e.g., ball, coin). In
Experiments 2 and 3, we show that this iconic mapping is acting on conceptual
representations, not on grammatical features. Specifically, the mapping does not
carry over to psychological nouns (e.g. idea vs. knowledge). Although these nouns
are still syntactically encoded as either count or mass, they cannot denote objects
with stable spatial boundaries. Experiments 4-5 replicate these findings with a
new set of stimuli. Finally, in Experiments 6-11, we explore possible extensions
to a similar bias beyond sign language and the gestural domain. We provide evidence
that a similar effect is present for spoken language stimuli, at least for nominal
meanings. Generally, the results here suggest that ‘boundedness’ of words’ referents
(in space or time) has a powerful effect on intuitions regarding the form that the
words should take.
Keywords: language universals, cognitive biases, event and object boundaries,
sign language, telicity, count/mass