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Journal Article

Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultures, but the ranking of non-visual verbs varies

MPS-Authors
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San Roque,  Lila
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Kendrick,  Kobin H.
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Norcliffe,  Elisabeth
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Brown,  Penelope
Other Research, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Defina,  Rebecca
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Dingemanse,  Mark
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Dirksmeyer,  Tyko
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Enfield,  N. J.
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
University of Sydney;

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Floyd,  Simeon
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Rossi,  Giovanni
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Tufvesson,  Sylvia
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Van Putten,  Saskia
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
Syntax, Typology, and Information Structure, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Majid,  Asifa
Language and Cognition Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;
Radboud University;

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SanRoque_etal_2015.3.pdf
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Citation

San Roque, L., Kendrick, K. H., Norcliffe, E., Brown, P., Defina, R., Dingemanse, M., et al. (2015). Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultures, but the ranking of non-visual verbs varies. Cognitive Linguistics, 26, 31-60. doi:10.1515/cog-2014-0089.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-001A-0906-1
Abstract
To what extent does perceptual language reflect universals of experience and cognition, and to what extent is it shaped by particular cultural preoccupations? This paper investigates the universality~relativity of perceptual language by examining the use of basic perception terms in spontaneous conversation across 13 diverse languages and cultures. We analyze the frequency of perception words to test two universalist hypotheses: that sight is always a dominant sense, and that the relative ranking of the senses will be the same across different cultures. We find that references to sight outstrip references to the other senses, suggesting a pan-human preoccupation with visual phenomena. However, the relative frequency of the other senses was found to vary cross-linguistically. Cultural relativity was conspicuous as exemplified by the high ranking of smell in Semai, an Aslian language. Together these results suggest a place for both universal constraints and cultural shaping of the language of perception.