Psychology

Language, Gesture and Mind

Our work in this area draws upon cognitive functional linguistics and the exploration of language and gesture across primate species and human cultures.

Language, Gesture and Mind photo

Including research on: Language ontology and cognitive typology of space and time (Chris Sinha); linguistic diversity, linguistic style for self-help and understanding metaphor; (Joerg Zinken) grammar of human and non-human gesture, social cognition and food sharing apes (Katja Liebal); emergence of numerical understanding, flint knapping and morphology and etymology of learning to spell (Mike Fluck); Language socialization, narrative, agency in verbal and embodied communication (Alessandra Fasulo).

Research example:

Speakers frequently use words and constructions with spatial meanings to talk about time. In English, for example, we say that “the new semester is coming up”, or “the exam is on Tuesday”. Although this pattern is common across languages, our investigation is the first to explore it systematically in the language of a non-industrial culture. The Amondawa are an indigenous group in Amazonia, speaking a Tupi language. We have investigated how Amondawa speakers conceptualize and express spatial motion, from a typological perspective, and whether and how spatial motion constructions are recruited for talking about temporal events and relations. This research is part of the SEDSU project, funded under the European Union 6th Framework Programme “What it means to be human”.

Selected publications:

  • Sampaio, W., Sinha, C. & da Silva Sinha, V. (in press) Mixing and mapping: motion and manner in Amondawa (Uru-eu-uau-uau). In E. Lieven (ed.) Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Study of Language. Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.
  • Fluck, M., Linnell, M. & Holgate, M. (2005). Does counting count for 3 year olds? Parental assumptions about pre-school children's understanding of counting and cardinality. (2005). Social Development, 14 (3), 496-513. ISSN 0961-205X.
  • Liebal K, Call J, Tomasello M (2004) The use of gesture sequences in chimpanzees. American Journal Of Primatology, 64(4), 377-396. ISSN 0275-2565.
  • Sinha, C. (2007) Cognitive linguistics, psychology and cognitive science. In D. Geeraerts and H. Cuyckens (eds.) Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp 1266-1294. ISBN 978-019-514378-2.
  • Sinha, C. (2004) The evolution of language: from signals to symbols to system. In D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel (eds) Evolution of Communication Systems: A comparative approach. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press, pp 217-236. ISBN 0-262-15111-1.
  • Zinken, J. (2007). Discourse metaphors: The link between figurative language and habitual analogies. Cognitive Linguistics, 18(3), 443-464. ISSN 0936-5907.
  • Zinken, J. (in press for 2008). Linguistic picture of the world or language in the world: Metaphors and methods in ethnolinguistics. Etnolingwistyka, 20.
  • Fasulo A., & Zucchermaglio C. (2008). Narratives in the Workplace: Facts, Fiction and Canonicity. Text and Talk, 28, 3 351-376.