Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 7;14(1):e0210333. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210333. eCollection 2019.
Demonstrative reference is central to human communication. But what influences our choice of demonstrative forms such as "this" and "that" in discourse? Previous literature has mapped the use of such "proximal" and "distal" demonstratives onto spatial properties of referents, such as their distance from the speaker. We investigated whether object semantics, and specifically functional properties of referents, also influence speakers' choices of either demonstrative form. Over two experiments, we presented English, Danish and Italian speakers with words denoting animate and inanimate objects, differing in size and harmfulness, and asked them to match them with a proximal or a distal demonstrative. Objects that offer more affordances for manipulation (smaller and harmless) elicited significantly more proximal demonstratives. These effects were stronger for inanimate referents, in line with the predictions of sensory-functional views on object semantics. These results suggest that demonstrative use may be partly grounded on manual affordances, and hints at the possibility of using demonstratives as a proxy to investigate the organization of semantic knowledge.
指示语的指涉是人类交际的核心。但是，在话语中，是什么影响了我们选择“这”和“那”等指示语形式呢？先前的文献已经将这种“近指”和“远指”指示语的使用映射到了指涉物的空间属性上，例如它们与说话者的距离。我们调查了对象语义，特别是指涉物的功能属性，是否也会影响说话者对这两种指示语形式的选择。在两个实验中，我们向英语、丹麦语和意大利语使用者展示了表示有生命和无生命物体的单词，这些物体在大小和危害性上有所不同，并要求他们将这些单词与近指或远指指示语进行匹配。那些提供更多操作可能性的物体（较小且无害）会引出更多的近指指示语。对于无生命的指涉物来说，这些效果更强，这与基于对象语义的感觉-功能观点的预测一致。这些结果表明，指示语的使用可能部分基于手动的可操作性，并且暗示了使用指示语作为代理来研究语义知识组织的可能性。
