Revisiting binomial order in English: ordering constraints and reversibility

Mollin, Sandra

doi:10.1017/s1360674311000293

Cited by 54 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…We then coded the NP conjuncts for a number of variables which have been suggested to influence their order, based on the psycholinguistic literature and the studies on irreversible binomials (see above). Taking into account variables from research on irreversible binomials seems justified, as it has been shown in previous research that those factors underlie order also in reversible cases (Mollin, 2012;Lohmann, 2014). As outlined above we are most interested in influences A. Lohmann, T. Takada / Lingua 152 (2014) 48--64 52 pertaining to either conceptual or lexical accessibility; however, other influences were also considered to obtain a maximally accurate model illustrating which factors underlie the internal order of conjuncts, and to control for potentially confounding influences.…”

Section: Data and Operationalization Of Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Order in NP conjuncts in spoken English and Japanese

Lohmann¹,

Takada²

2014

Lingua

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In the emerging field of cross-linguistic studies on language production, one particularly interesting line of inquiry is possible differences between English and Japanese in ordering words and phrases. Previous research gives rise to the idea that there is a difference in accessing meaning versus form during linearization between these two languages. This assumption is based on observations of language-specific effects of the length factor on the order of phrases (short-before-long in English, long-before-short in Japanese). We contribute to the cross-linguistic exploration of such differences by investigating the variables underlying the internal order of NP conjuncts in spoken English and Japanese. Our quantitative analysis shows that similar influences underlie the ordering process across the two languages. Thus we do not find evidence for the aforementioned difference in accessing meaning versus form with this syntactic phenomenon. With regard to length, Japanese also exhibits a short-before-long preference. However, this tendency is significantly weaker in Japanese than in English, which we explain through an attenuating influence of the typical Japanese phrase structure pattern on the universal effect of short phrases being more accessible. We propose that a similar interaction between entrenched long-before-short schemas and universal accessibility effects is responsible for the varying effects of length in Japanese.

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Section: Data and Operationalization Of Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Order in NP conjuncts in spoken English and Japanese

Lohmann¹,

Takada²

2014

Lingua

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“…Besides guiding interpretation, word order also reveals specific meaning as convincingly shown by research on binomials (Hegarty, Watson, Fletcher, & McQueen, 2011;McGuire & McGuire, 1982;Mollin, 2012). Mollin's (2012) extensive corpus analyses show that many binomials have a predominant order (brother and sister, Spring and Summer) and that some are particularly unlikely to appear in reverse order.…”

Section: Word-order and Meaningmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Mollin's (2012) extensive corpus analyses show that many binomials have a predominant order (brother and sister, Spring and Summer) and that some are particularly unlikely to appear in reverse order. Binomials with a strong canonical order and a low degree of reversibility show specific semantic constraints, such that the first term will be the more powerful and more agentic.…”

Section: Word-order and Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The above-mentioned archival research by Mollin (2012) has shown that the first element of fixed-order binomials tends to be chronologically antecedent to the second (Spring and Summer, before and after) and the cause rather than the effect (trial and error). A conceptually similar finding emerges from research on situation models in text comprehension that focuses on clauses and sentences rather than on single words (Johnson-Laird, 1983;Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998).…”

Section: Word-order and Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Word-order and causal inference: The temporal attribution bias

Bettinsoli

Maass

Kashima

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…The two exceptions are seminal but scantly noted work by McGuire and McGuire (1992), and work by Hegarty and colleagues reviewed below. Linguists and psycholinguists, in contrast, have extensively studied word order in conjoined phrases.Linguistic research has investigated word properties that are associated with initial position in a conjoined phrase and linked it to multiple word attributes concerning phonology, use frequency, and semantics (for reviews, see Lohmann, 2014;Mollin, 2012). While our focus is on semantic factors, we want to keep in mind that multiple interrelated factors are at play.…”

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confidence: 99%

Word order denotes relevance differences: The case of conjoined phrases with lexical gender.

Kesebir

2017

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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This work explores the order of linguistic references to the two genders (e.g., men and women vs. women and men). It argues that a gender is more likely to be mentioned first when it is perceived to have higher relevance in a context rather than lower relevance, and audiences assign stronger relevance to a party when the party is mentioned first rather than second.Studies 1-3 document the current prevalence of male-first conjoined phrases in the public (but not family) domain and link the pattern to historical changes in women's public presence over the 20 th century. Study 4 shows that contextual relevance cues affect the odds of first mention, such that people are more likely to refer to a woman before a man, when the two are in a primary school classroom rather than a corporate office. At the same time, Studies 4 and 5 find that people often choose to reproduce collectively preferred word order patterns (e.g., men and women). Studies 6 and 7 show that these choices matter because people assign more relevance to a party when it comes first rather than second in a conjoined phrase. Overall, this work offers theoretical grounding and empirical evidence for word order as a means of expressing and perpetuating gender stereotypes.Running Head: GENDER AND WORD ORDER 3 Word Order Denotes Relevance Differences: The Case of Conjoined Phrases with Lexical GenderWhen do people say "women and men" and when do they instead say "men and women"? And what does this choice communicate to audiences? This paper argues that word order choices are a function of the two genders' relative relevance in a context, and in turn, they are used by audiences as relevance cues. If this is true, word order choices can be a means of conveying and reinforcing gender beliefs about the two genders' relevance in a given context such as work or home. Communicating Gender Stereotypes through LanguageStereotypes are generalized beliefs about members of a social category. Language plays a critical role in forming, disseminating, and maintaining stereotypes (Kashima, Fiedler, & Freytag, 2008;Maass & Arcuri, 1996;Van Dijk, 1987;Wigboldus & Douglas, 2007). Stereotypes are sometimes transmitted blatantly via language, such as through racist or sexist language, derogatory labels, or jokes featuring certain groups (Carnaghi & Maass, 2007;Simon & Greenberg, 1996). Stereotypes can also be transmitted subtly and covertly.For example, people tend to describe positive actions of their ingroup members with personality adjectives ("she is charitable"), and their negative actions with concrete action verbs ("she yelled at the driver"). This pattern is reversed for outgroup members, such that people describe outgroup members' positive acts with concreate action verbs that isolate them as solo incidents ("she donated to a charity") and their negative actions with personality adjectives that imply global and stable qualities ("she is aggressive") (Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989;Maass, 1999 unspecified, or unknown (Silveira, 1980). Examples include wor...

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Revisiting binomial order in English: ordering constraints and reversibility

Cited by 54 publications

References 14 publications

Order in NP conjuncts in spoken English and Japanese

Order in NP conjuncts in spoken English and Japanese

Word-order and causal inference: The temporal attribution bias

Word order denotes relevance differences: The case of conjoined phrases with lexical gender.

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