Abstract
Our hypothesis:The meaning of a word experienced by the speaker/ listener using this word depends, in part, on the cognition of the situation in which the sentence is uttered. In order to test this hypothesis drawings showing two persons each were selected; the persons had been rated on the Semantic Differential as being high (or low) on one of the dimensions of Activity, Potency, or Evaluation, and medium on the two other dimensions. In the next step, 36 Ss rated on the Semantic Differential the verb of a short utterance (e.g. “ich bitte dich”) shown as being spoken by one person of the drawing to the other person. The same words were rated in isolation. Result:The connotative meaning of an utterance (as assessed by the SD) is determined not less by the persons perceived in verbal communication than by what is being said. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.
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