Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs are grounded in interaction
Yüklə 94,32 Kb.
|
- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Semai Siwu Spanish Tzeltal
Audition verbs were noted as having cognition-related meanings in three languages. In English and Lao, the examples arose in the context of hearing speech as a way of coming to know something. In Siwu, the verb nɔ‘hear’ was used to mean ‘understand’, in the context of understanding a language (5). (5)
‘Talking their Sidabe language that they talk, I don’t understand what they are saying.’ (Siw_074/MD) The overlap between hearing and cognition that arises in the context of comprehending a language is widespread (see also Vanhove 2008; Aikhenvald and Storch 2013), and such uses have indeed been suggested as an important bridging context to other cognition meanings for audition terms (e.g., Evans and Wilkins 2000). Attentional uses for hearing verbs, found in seven of eleven languages, concerned closely attending to speech and heeding another’s words (with one exception, see Section 3.5). The playful Mandarin exchange shown in (6) illustrates one such case. (6)
The presence of recurrent meanings in the database (according to the domains identified in Table 1) is summarized in Table 3. While we do not see the same coverage as for vision verbs, the domains of cognition and attention are nevertheless represented across several language families, with attention particularly prominent. As well as the recurrent meanings investigated, three unique extensions of hearing verbs were noted (see Supplementary Materials: S19–S21). Two of these were constructional, with the hearing verb used in combination with a verb of speaking to express specific types of linguistic communication: ‘tell’ in Lao, and ‘ask’ in Cha’palaa. The Lao material also included ñin2 ‘hear’ meaning ‘audio-record’, an auditory parallel of Chintang copt ‘see/look’ as ‘video-record’, mentioned above. Four languages (English, Italian, Siwu, Spanish) had examples of hearing verbs used with a discourse function. These verbs were all used to talk about perceiving the speaker’s upcoming or just prior talk, and were almost exclusively imperatives. An example from Spanish, recorded in a home in Bogotá, is shown in (7). Here, Xavier is involved in a lively discussion with another speaker, Juan. Simultaneous with an exclamation from Xavier, Alex (their host) addresses Xavier and Juan with the preface oiga niños ‘Listen guys’ [6] and goes on to remind them of their intention to visit the National Museum today: time is running short, and if they want to get to the museum they should leave soon. (7)
Alex’s use of oiga (‘hear’) agrees with Sidnell’s (2007) analysis of listen-prefaced turns in English — which he argues “launch courses of action” — as Alex is initiating a suggestion that Xavier and Juan should leave; it also concurs with Pons Borderia’s analysis of Spanish oye ‘listen’ as used to change topic or introduce a justification (1998; as cited in Tanghe and Jansegers 2014). In (7), Alex orients to potential breaches of intersubjective alignment as he gets this task underway. For starters, Alex must insert himself into an ongoing conversation, to the extent that he even produces his turn in overlap with Xavier. He begins his utterance with a direct bid for attention (the audition verb itself) and a vocative nominal (niños, ‘guys’) that explicates who the listeners should be, signaling that Xavier and Juan now need to reconfigure the participation framework to include Alex. He then continues with the potentially interpersonally fraught task of suggesting that his visitors leave. Alex mitigates the possible fallout of this action through his preamble (‘Not to kick you out, but…’), his focus on Xavier and Juan’s desires (‘you’re wanting to go…’), and his use of the conditional ‘if’ (downgrading his own epistemic authority and implying that the final decision rests with the addressees). The interaction appears to be rich in possibilities for misunderstanding and misalignment, and oiga is part of Alex’s defense against these risks. This example illustrates how audition verbs can be deployed in conversational actions that are designed to secure attention and understanding. Yüklə 94,32 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||