Le categorie linguistiche influenzano la percezione visiva

La BBC riferisce di uno studio dell'Università della California sul ruolo del linguaggio nei processi percettivi. Si tratta di un nuovo supporto all'approccio cognitivista, ispirato dalla versione morbida della nota ipotesi Sapir-Whorf sul rapporto tra pensiero e linguaggio.

Language affects 'half of vision'
BBC News

The right field of vision was quicker at detecting colours than the leftLanguage affects half of what the human eye sees, a study suggests.
University of California researchers tested the hypothesis that language plays a role in perception by carrying out a series of colour tests.
They found that people were able to identify colours faster in their right visual field than in their left.

BBC News

SPEAKING OF SHORTCUTS

Posted on Sat, Dec. 17, 2005
By Michelle Quinn
Mercury News

"Why laugh when you can say ``El oh el'' instead?
For that matter, saying ``Ninety-nine'' at the end of an evening works just as well as ``Nighty-night.'' Need to cheer up a friend? Try whispering, ``Less than three.'' When typed, it makes a sideways heart <3.">

Articolo del Mercury News sul drawback delle espressioni tipiche, abbreviazioni ed emoticons, di SMS, Chat e Instant Messaging sulla lingua parlata, soprattutto nel gergo giovanile. Interessante innovazione (ma quanto effimera?) dallo (parlato-)scritto al parlato.
Interessante anche il fatto che un'abbreviazione scritta come SRW ("Ess ar why", trisillabo), se pronunziata è più lunga dell'originario bisillabo sorry.

Qualche esempio:

2BCTND To Be Continued 2G4U Too Good For You 4YEO For Your Eyes Only AFAIK As Far As I Know AKA Also Known As ASAP As soon as possible AWHFY Are We Having Fun Yet? AWGTHTGTTA Are We Going To Have To Go Through That Again AYPI And Your Point Is? B4 Before BBL Be Back Later BBIAF Be Back in a Few BBIAB Be Back in a Bit [...]

Segnalo inoltre l'articolo "Lingo Online: A Report on the Language of the Keyboard Generation"
A Report by: Dr. Neil Randall, Ph.D. Department of English, University of Waterloo, accessibile in pdf online al sito di Neil Randall.

Musical training helps language processing, studies show

Stanford Report, November 15, 2005
LISA TREI

"In what will be music to the ears of arts advocates, researchers for the first time have shown that mastering a musical instrument improves the way the human brain processes parts of spoken language. The findings could bolster efforts to make music as much a part of elementary school education as reading and mathematics" [...]

Saper suonare uno strumento, avere sensibilità musicale sono attività connesse a qualche tipo di abilità linguistica? Lo studio della musica migliora le nostre performance linguistiche?

In questo articolo di Lisa Trei illustra i risultati di alcune ricerche condotte all'università di Stanford, da cui emerge l'immensa plasticità del cervello rispetto all'apprendimento musicale (e dunque anche al miglioramento delle prestazioni linguistiche affini), e la differenza nella percezione di alcune differenze linguistiche tra soggetti "non-musicisti" e "musicisti"...

Language acquisition and brain development

E' uscito sull'ultimo numero di Science un articolo di K.L. Sakai sui progressi delle neuroscienze nel campo dell'acquisizione del linguaggio.

Language acquisition and brain development.
Sakai KL
Science. 2005 Nov 4; 310(5749): 815-9

Language acquisition is one of the most fundamental human traits, and it is obviously the brain that undergoes the developmental changes. During the years of language acquisition, the brain not only stores linguistic information but also adapts to the grammatical regularities of language. Recent advances in functional neuroimaging have substantially contributed to systems-level analyses of brain development. In this Viewpoint, I review the current understanding of how the "final state" of language acquisition is represented in the mature brain and summarize new findings on cortical plasticity for second language acquisition, focusing particularly on the function of the grammar center.

With Sound From Africa, the Phonetic Alphabet Expands

By MICHAEL ERARD
Published: December 13, 2005


For the first time in 12 years, the International Phonetic Association is amending its official alphabet. A sound called the labiodental flap will be granted its own letter, one that looks something like a v with a hook.

The sound, a buzz sometimes capped by a faint pop, is present in more than 70 African languages. It is produced by the lower lip moving back and forward, flapping on the inside of the upper teeth. [...].

Articolo di Erard apparso sul NY Times sull'aggiunta di un simbolo all'IPA.

Ascoltate il suono o guardate il video relativo al nuovo simbolo.

Linguistic Censorship: war of words

“All linguistic expressions are, to some extent, ‘euphemized’—they are modified by a certain kind of censorship, which stems from the structure of the market, but which is transformed into self-censorship through the process of anticipation. Viewed from this perspective, phenomena of politeness and tactfulness, of choosing the right word for the right occasion are not exceptional phenomena … Tact is nothing other than the capacity of a speaker to assess market conditions accurately and to produce linguistic expressions which are appropriate to the expressions which are suitably euphemized.”-J.B. Thompson (1991: 19-20)

Blog di Shaughn McArthur sui problemi della censura, del controllo e dell'eufemismo linguistico. Politica linguistica. Pragmatica del linguaggio.