Universality and interaction among physical actions, language, and cognition: Comparative study of endangered verb-initial language, English, and Japanese

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H01263
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Okinawa International University
• Principal Investigator: Sato Manami 沖縄国際大学, 総合文化学部, 教授 (80723965)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 遊佐 典昭 宮城学院女子大学, 学芸学部, 教授 (40182670) ; 新国 佳祐 新潟青陵大学, 福祉心理学部, 准教授 (60770500)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 言語学 / 実験心理言語学 / 言語と思考 / 表情認知 / 身体運動 / 眼球運動測定

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project investigated how and what timing non-linguistic information such as physical actions, perception of vertical movements, and perception of facial expressions, is integrated into processing of sentence production and comprehension. In the eye-tracking experiment, we found that performing physical motions immediately affects the conceptual saliency of the components represented in a to-be-described event in ways that guide speakers’ visual attention, but such effect is differed between languages with a different verb position. Moreover, we conducted multiple experiments employing various psycholinguistic methodologies and revealed that subliminal perception of facial expressions affects language comprehenders' perspective adoption and voice preferences when understanding transitive events. These results were reported in journal articles, book chapters, international conferences, and invited talks, but this document shows selected outcomes among others.

Free Research Field

心理言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では言語使用とは切り離せない, 身体運動や表情認知という非言語情報が目の前の出来事の捉え方（事象認知の順序・視点選択）ならびに表現の仕方（ヴォイスの選好性）に与える影響と個人の主体性/共感性の関連について明らかにした。物事の多角的な解釈の要因解明の一助になったと考えられる。