motivation in language günter radden and klaus-uwe panther hamburg university 03/10/2015 motivation...

Motivation in Language

Günter Radden and Klaus-Uwe PantherHamburg University

19/04/23 Motivation 1

Motivation as understood in psychology and sociology

“Motivation is an internal state or condition (sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction.” (Huitt 2001).

“The conscious or unconscious stimulus for action towards a desired goal provided by psychological or social factors; that which gives purpose or direction to behaviour.” (Oxford English Dictionary)

What motivates Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks?


Motivation in a wider sense and applied to language

A motivational process involves:

(i) a basis, or source, for the motivational process to operate on;

(ii) independent factors triggering the motivational process;

(iii) the “shaping” of at least some of the target’s properties by the source and independent factors;

(iv) the resulting target of the motivational process.

Definition of linguistic motivation:

A linguistic sign (target) is motivated to the extent that some of its properties are shaped by a linguistic or non-linguistic source and language-independent factors.


Motivation of Benefactives: (a) English for as in Red wine is good

for your health.(i) Source: preposition for ‘in front of, before’

(ii) Independent factor: metonymic reasoning: Objects that are in front of us are perceptible and

accessible and hence potentially beneficial to us.

(iii) Shaping: meaning extension of for (at the expense of its spatial sense)

(iv) Target: sense of for: ‘benefactive’


Motivation of Benefactives: (b) Case marker ná inEwe

The Ewe verb ná ‘give’ has grammaticalized into the case functions Benefactive, Purpose and Dative.

(i) Source: verb ná ‘give’, i.e. ‘Agent causes Recipient to have Object’

(ii) Independent factors: two metonymies:

a) NEUTRAL FOR POSITIVE: Recipient to Benefactive

b) EVENT FOR SALIENT PARTICIPANT OF EVENT: event of ‘giving’ for ‘benefitting recipient’

(iii) Motivational process: grammaticalization of verb into case marker

(iv) Target: Case marker ná ‘Benefactive’


Characteristics of motivation

(i) Motivation is a causal relation but the notion of causation is non-deterministic—that’s why motivation is described as “shaping” or “influencing”).

(ii) Motivation in language is “relative’, i.e. a matter of degree on a continuum between the poles of

arbitrariness and predictability.

(iii) A motivational process is based on post hoc, i.e. abductive reasoning by the analyst, i.e. it is inferred from some observed fact and general principles of reasoning to a conclusion that “best explains” the observed fact.


Non-determinacy in naming a thing


The motivational source is the concept ‘screwdriver’.The motivational target is the name of it.

What do we call this thing?

Words for ‘screw-driver’ across languagesSCREW-DRIVE-ER screwdriver English

SCREW(S)-PULL-ER Schraubenzieher German skruetrækker Danish csavarhúzó Hungarian

SCREW-TURN-ER schroevedraaier Dutch neji-mawashi Japanese

TURN-SCREW tournevis French nasadolige Korean

SCREW-TURN śrubokręt PolishDE/OUT-SCREW-ER destornillador Spanish STICK-IN/TAKE-OUT-SCREW cacciavite Italian KEY OF CUT chave de fenda Portuguese SCREW-KNIFE luósīdāo Chinese SCREW-CHISEL skruvmejsel Swedish

ruuvimeisseli, ruuvitaltta Finnish


Screwdriver ICM (Idealized Cognitive Model)

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE

long thin rodwith handle on one and blade at the other end

key

chisel

long shaftwith metal blade

Schrauben-zieh-er csavar-húz-ó schroeve-draai-er

screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

tourne-vis

chave de fenda


Screwdriver ICM – ‘screw’

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel


Schrauben-zieh-er csavar-húz-ó

tourne-vis

screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

schroeve-draai-er

chave de fenda19/04/23 Motivation 10

Screwdriver ICM – ‘drive’

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel



screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

tourne-vis


Screwdriver ICM – ‘pull’

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel



screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

tourne-vis


Screwdriver ICM – ‘turn’

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel



screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

tourne-vis


Screwdriver ICM - Instrument

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel



screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

tourne-vis


Screwdriver ICM

INSTRUMENT

TOOL

‘screwdriver’

ACTION

APPLIED-TO

cut of screw

PURPOSE

drive-in pull-out

MEANS

turn

MATERIAL

METAL

SHAPE


key

chisel


Schrauben-zieh-er csavar-húz-ó

tourne-vis

screw-driv-er

skruv-mejsel

chave de fenda

schroeve-draai-er


Motivation 16

Relativity of motivation

[The principle of arbitrariness] would lead to the worst sort of complication if applied without restriction. But the mind contrives to introduce a principle of order and regularity into certain parts of the mass of signs and this is the role of relative motivation. There is no language in which nothing is motivated, and our definition makes it impossible to conceive of a language in which everything is motivated. Between the two extremes—a minimum of organization and a minimum of arbitrariness—we find all possible varieties.

(de Saussure 1916/1959)

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Relative

Arbitrariness M o t i v a t i o n Predictability

Relativity of motivation

20 80

douze

12 14 19 21

quatorze dix-neuf vingt-et-unquatre-vingt vingt


Motivational processes within a wider framework

(i) Motivational processes are triggered by independent factors, i.e. factors that are external to the human

system the motivational entity belongs to.

(ii) In principle, motivational relations may hold between any two human systems.

(iii) We claim that all human systems interact with cognition as the central system and may, via cognition, interact with one another. Cognition thus functions as a switchboard that receives input from peripheral systems and may influence them in turn.


Cognition and its interaction with other human systems (Radden &

Panther 2011)


Bodily experience

Perception

Culture

Action

Emotion

Language

Social/CommunicativeInteraction

COGNITION

Reasoning, inferencing, etc.Categorizing, ecology

Framing, cognitive modelling, etc.Associative thinking (conceptual metonymy)

Analogizing (conceptual metaphor)Conceptual blending (integration)

Perspectivizing

Cognition: Reasoning (Kahneman 2011)

A bat and a ball cost $1.10.The ball costs one dollar more than the bat.How much does the ball cost?

The answer 10c is intuitive, appealing, and wrong.

If the ball costs 10c, then the total cost will be $1.20 (10c for the ball and $1.10 for the bat), not $1.10.

The correct answer is 5c.

System 1 is fast, instinctive and emotional. (10c)

System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. (5c)


Cognition: Categories

A category is a conceptual unit formed on the basis of a collection of equivalent experiences that are meaningful and relevant to us, i.e. categories are formed for things that “matter” in a community.

Concept: general and abstract idea, as opposed to percept

Collection: Categories are types.

Equivalence: Assessment of similarity of experiences

Experience: “We see things not as they are but as we are.” (Kant)

Meaningfulness and relevance: “Language without meaning is meaningless.” (Jakobson)

Community: Collective experience


Recategorization: X and Y alike construction (Panther & Thornburg

2012)

(1) A car-free family resort offering a warm welcome, summer and winter alike.

(2) Doctors and citizens alike are concerned about the consequences of health-care reform.


Cognition: Inference and conversational

implicatureConversational implicatures are inferences drawn by the hearer in order to recover the speaker’s intended meaning of an utterance.

Sarah: “I've been asked to get married hundreds of times.”

Miriam (surprised): ”Really?! By whom?”Sarah: “My parents.”

Sarah’s statement invites the implicature that she has been asked to get married by hundreds of men. Her reply cancels this implicature.


Bodily Experience and Cognition


Bodily experience

Perception

Culture

Action

Emotion

Language


COGNITION




Perspectivizing

Bodily Experience and Cognition:Impact of bodily experience on

cognition“This is Descartes' error: the abyssal separation between body and mind, between the sizable, dimensioned, mechanically operated, infinitely divisible body stuff, on the one hand, and the unsizable, undimensional, un-pushpullable, nondivisible mind stuff. Body and brain form an indissociable organism.” (Damasio)

UNDERSTANDING IS GRASPING: grasp a complex idea

IDEAS ARE FOOD: She gave us some brain food.

They swallowed whatever garbage he gave them.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested. (Bacon)


Bodily Experience and Cognition:Impact of cognition on bodily

experienceCultural prohibition against the use of language referring to bodily functions: Taboo words are avoided and euphemisms used instead:

Where can I wash my hands?

We have a relationship.


Perception and Cognition


Bodily experience

Perception

Culture

Action

Emotion

Language


COGNITION




Perspectivizing

Perception and Cognition


Müller-Lyer illusion

Perception and Cognition:Impact of perception on cognition

KNOWING IS SEEING

I see the solution to the problem. ‘know’

I see your point. ‘understand’

APPEARANCE FOR INFERRED REALITY

John looks sad. ‘Judging from his appearance, I infer that John is sad’

You sound disappointed. ‘Judging from your tone of voice, I infer that you are disappointed’


Perception and Cognition: Impact of cognition on perception

“We see things not as they are but as we are.” (Kant)

Objects perceived (tokens) become meaningful by assigning them to a type, as in: That’s a poisonous snake.

Cognition enables us to divide a perceived scene into Figure and Ground.


Figure 2.4. Figure and ground

The Canadian flag

Two angry men with their foreheads pressed together: Jack and Jacques


Motivation 32

Culture and Cognition:Impact of culture on cognition

Metaphor: ANGER IS HEAT

Variant a) English and Chinese: ANGER IS FIRE

Variant b) English: ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER

as in You make my blood boil. Chinese: ANGER IS HOT GAS IN A CONTAINER

as in ‘He’s ballooned with gas’, i.e. ‘inflated with anger’

Philosophical theory of yin-yang: fluids (yin) are categorizedwith cold, while gas (yang) is categorized with heat becauseheat is understood as a necessary condition for the occurrenceof gas. (Yu 1998: 55)

19/04/23

Language and Cognition


Bodily experience

Perception

Culture

Action

Emotion

Language


COGNITION




Perspectivizing

Language and cognition:Impact of language on cognition

“Language is the formative organ of thought.”(Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1830-35)

“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.”

(Ludwig Wittgenstein)


Whorfian effects: Grammatical gender(Lera Boroditsky)

‘key’

German der Schlüssel evokes “male” attributes: ‘hard’, ‘heavy’, ‘jagged’, ‘metal’, ‘serrated’, ‘useful’

Spanish la llave evokes “female attributes:‘golden’, ‘intricate’, ‘little’, ‘lovely’, ‘shiny’, ‘tiny’

‘bridge’

German die Brücke evokes “female” attributes:‘beautiful’, ‘elegant’, ‘fragile’, ‘peaceful’, ‘slender’, ‘pretty’

Spanish el puente evokes “male” attributes:‘big’, ‘dangerous’, ‘long’, ‘strong’, ‘sturdy’, ‘towering’


die Rialto-Brücke


el puente de la torre de Londres


Herta Müller, Nobel prize winner

Reporter: Sometimes you use the feminine gender with words that have the masculine gender in German.

Herta Müller: Yes, this is because certain words in Romanian have a different gender. Winter in Romanian is a woman, and without being aware of it, I have made it into a woman. And I also know that I meant the Romanian winter. That’s crazy about language. The word gives us a view of something. The rose in Romanian is masculine, also the lily; they give us a different view.


Motivation 39

Language and cognition:Basic semiotic relations of a sign

CONTENT

FORM

arbitrary relation

CONTENT

SOURCE

FORM

CONTENT motivating FORM

TARGET

FORM

CONTENT

SOURCE

TARGET

FORMmotivating CONTENT

19/04/23

Content motivating form: Iconicity

Imagic iconicity appliesto a sign that resembles its conceived referent.

Pictograms:

Onomatopoeia (imitative iconicity) Latin cuculus > OFr. coucoul (> cokold > Engl. cuckold) > OFr. coucou > Engl. cuckoo

Cuckoo superseded Old English gēac, which lost its onomatopoeic quality through sound change, and did not undergo the regular sound change of /u/ to /Λ/.


Words for the cuckoo

Afrikaans: koekoek Japanese: kakkou kakkou Albanian: ku ku Italian: cucú, cucú, cucú Catalan: cucut, cucut Korean: ppu-kkook-ppu-kkook Croatian: ku-ku Norwegian: koko Danish: kuk-kuk Portuguese: cucu cucu Dutch: koekoek Russian: ku-ku English: cuckoo Slovene: ku-kuEstonian: kuku kuku Spanish: cúcu cúcu Finnish: kukkuu Swedish: kokoFrench: coucou Turkish: guguk, gugukGerman: kuckuck Ukrainian: ku-ku, ku-kuHebrew: kuku Vietnamese: cuc-cu


Imagic iconicity: Kanji characters (ideograms)


Kanji characters for ‘Nihon’


Kanji characters for ‘Tokyo’


Motivation 45

Form motivating content: Isomorphism

Sameness of form signals sameness of meaning: phonesthemes, e.g. /sp/: spit, spank, spam

stress pattern (Taylor 2004)Hamburg-er, Frankfurt-er, London-er, villag-er

[’hæm,bə:gə] has the same stress pattern as dog-lover, man-hater, horse-breeding, etc.

reanalyzed as ham-burger cheese-burger, etc.

19/04/23

Phonesthemes:bang as in Bang goes the weekend

(Taylor)Many monosyllabic words with the vowel /æ/ designate a noisy impact and/or sudden movement:slam, slap, crack, clap, flap, crash, bash, spank, smack

Several words commencing in /b/ are associated with a sudden event:boo, beat, bat, batter, bump, binge, bingo

A number of words ending in a nasal are associated with sound or movement:sing, ring, ping, fling, sling, dong, gong, hum, boom


Motivation 47

Content Content Content/Form: Compounds

CONTENT‘ICM’

SOURCE TARGET

1

3

1: motivated conceptual relation

Example: ‘screwdriver’ ‘screw’ + ‘drive’ + INSTR screwdriver

SOURCE

C1 C2 C3

F1 F2 F3

TARGET

CONTENT

FORM1+2+3

2

2: motivated form-form relation

3: motivated semiotic relation

19/04/23

motivation in language günter radden and klaus-uwe panther hamburg university 03/10/2015 motivation...

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