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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility
T2 - a comparison of 14 European languages
AU - Suitner, Caterina
AU - Maass, Anne
AU - Navarrete, Eduardo
AU - Formanowicz, Magdalena
AU - Bratanova, Boyka
AU - Cervone, Carmen
AU - Hakoköngäs, Eemeli
AU - Kuppens, Toon
AU - Lipourli, Eleni
AU - Rakić, Tamara
AU - Scatolon, Andrea
AU - Teixeira, Catia P.
AU - Wang, Zhenlan
AU - Pedro Sobral, Maria
AU - Carrier, Antonin
PY - 2021/5/31
Y1 - 2021/5/31
N2 - The Spatial Agency Bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word-order. A pre-registered study on 14 European languages (n=420) varying in word-order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.
AB - The Spatial Agency Bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word-order. A pre-registered study on 14 European languages (n=420) varying in word-order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.
U2 - 10.1017/S0142716420000831
DO - 10.1017/S0142716420000831
M3 - Journal article
VL - 42
SP - 657
EP - 671
JO - Applied Psycholinguistics
JF - Applied Psycholinguistics
SN - 0142-7164
IS - 3
ER -