Cognitive Construal Research Articles

L2 cognitive construal and morphosyntactic acquisition of pseudo-passive constructions

Abstract Discussion of the theoretical underpinning of pseudo-passive constructions abounds in generative linguistics and comparative typology. However, the cognitive construal of and morphosyntactic acquisition of (un)grammatical English pseudo-passive constructions by Chinese-speaking L2-English users with different proficiency levels have never been investigated. It is worth examining whether proficiency level modulates constructional acceptability and cognitive construal, which would allow us to infer L2-English users’ morphosyntactic acquisition stages of pseudo-passive constructions. To fill this research gap, the study recruited 120 L2-English speakers with different levels of proficiency and 40 native English speakers to complete a grammaticality judgment test with an acceptance judgment scale from −2 to 2 for 40 ungrammatical pseudo-passive sentences and 40 fillers. Proficiency level significantly correlates with a firmer rejection of ungrammatical pseudo-passive sentences and cognitive construal which is more target-like. Significantly asymmetrical acceptance levels between two types of target ungrammatical constructions are also revealed for low (p = 0.002) and medium proficiency (p = 0.000) groups, demonstrating the type effect on grammaticality judgment and morphosyntactic acquisition.

Geospace translation strategies and their cognitive construal

Since the literary geospace is usually tinged with the author’s embodied experiences, it calls on the translator to restore or reconstruct the ST geospace’s geographical reality or imagination in the target language culture. Based on the embodied cognition of the environment, the translator can wash and negotiate the geographical conceptual system of the ST geospace by resorting to the three translation strategies, i.e., retention, reconstruction, and substitution, so as to generate new geospace in the geographical conceptual system of the TL. The article aims to analyze geospace translation strategies from the perspective of conceptual blending theory. The translator’s use of different translation strategies results from different mapping paths among the spaces of the source text, of the translator, and of the target text. It can illustrate the regularities of the translator’s space mediation in translating the geospace. Retention signifies the single-domain mappings from the space of ST. Substitution indicates the single-domain mappings from the space of the translator. Reconstruction denotes the double-domain mappings from both the spaces of ST and the translator. The emergent structure generated in the space of the target text yields the reterritorialization of the geospace in the target language culture, which can stimulate the reader of TT to get a similar geographical experience to that of the author and to empathize with the author’s sense of place to a greater extent.

Developing Student Expertise in Evolution: Cognitive Construals Complement Key Concepts in Student Representations.

Genetic variation is historically challenging for undergraduate students to master, potentially due to its grounding in both evolution and genetics. Traditionally, student expertise in genetic variation has been evaluated using Key Concepts. However, Cognitive Construals may add to a more nuanced picture of students' developing expertise. Here, we analyze the occurrence of Key Concepts and Cognitive Construals among three types of student representations: interviews, drawn models, and constructed responses (CRs). Our mixed-methods analysis indicates that differential survival and differential reproduction occur more often in interviews than in CRs. In our interviews, presence of Cognitive Construals indicate varying levels of understanding of genetic variation, but we were not able to detect Cognitive Construals in students' models or CRs. Finally, our analyses of both Key Concepts and Cognitive Construals in student representations indicate that Cognitive Construals can co-occur with any number of Key Concepts, and that the presence of Construal-based language alone does not seem to correlate to the expert nature of a response. Taken together, our results highlight the need for instructors to avoid treating Construal-based language as implicit disconnects in student understanding, and to use multiple methods to gain a holistic picture of student expertise.

Feminist identification, inclusive victimhood and supporting outgroups

Our research demonstrates the key role of identity content— feminist, egalitarian, or nonfeminist— in predicting solidarity-based actions towards outgroup members among women with regards to the cognitive construals of victimization—victim consciousness. Perceived similarities with other victim groups—inclusive victim consciousness—may have positive effects on intergroup relations. Using an online large sample of women from Hungary (N = 772; SD = 11.54), we show that feminist identification is associated with higher levels of support for victimized outgroups. However, contrary to our expectations that inclusive victimhood would play a significant role, we identified an association between support for other groups and collective victim beliefs only with respect to the centrality of ingroup victimization. These results contribute to the emerging literature on collective victim beliefs and solidarity towards other victimized groups, suggesting that perceived relevance of victimization for own identity may be a more important link in terms of solidarity between victimized groups than emphasizing shared victimization over different identities that outgroups are formed over.

A Study on the Translation Strategies of The Nine Songs from the Perspective of Cognitive Construal: A Comparative Analysis of the Yangs’ and Waley’s Versions

The process of forming translations is closely related to the translators’ embodied cognition and experience. The translators’ different mechanisms of construal contribute to the formation of a variety of translation versions. Based on the theory of Cognitive Construal, this paper discusses in detail the differences and translation strategies between the Yangs and Arthur Waley’s English versions of The Nine Songs, Elegies of the South. The analysis shows that the Yangs’ version has a high degree of specificity, follows the figure-ground relation of the original, highlights the original metrical pattern, and adopts the translation strategy of foreignization by translating the poem from the perspective of the original author. However, Waley’s version has more expressions of lesser specificity, does not follow the figure-ground relation of the original text completely, and changes the metrical pattern of the original poem. He interprets the poem from the perspective of the target language reader and adopts the translation strategy of domestication. The study shows the different translation poetics between Chinese translators and sinologists, hoping to provide references for the translation of Chinese classics.

An Analysis of Publicity Translation in ICT Enterprises Based on Cognitive Construal

An Analysis of Publicity Translation in ICT Enterprises Based on Cognitive Construal

The Cognitive Construal of Ku Hung-ming’s Translation in The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius

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Limitations on the role of frequency in L2 acquisition

abstractIn the context of theories of statistical learning, frequency of encounter is viewed as a major driving force in L2 acquisition. The present paper challenges this position with respect to core components at the level of language competence which relate to language-specific patterns in cognitive construal. Empirical evidence from very advanced L2 speakers (L1 French, L2 English and L2 German) shows that forms and constructions which are highly frequent in the target languages in the expression of motion events are not used in a target-like form by L2 speakers. The study shows how the basis for language use which is not target-like lies at the level of event construal: conceptual frames, which are language-specific and are deeply anchored in the course of L1 acquisition, drive allocation of attention and the extraction of forms in L2 acquisition. Findings in the domain of spatial cognition show that motion event frames based on the L1 take precedence over frequency of occurrence of forms in the target language as a factor in L2 use.

Shell nouns as grammatical metaphor in knowledge construal: Variation across science and engineering discourse

This article proposes a novel treatment of cataphoric shell nouns (SNs) as instances of grammatical metaphor serving to reconstruct human experience into knowledge through the discipline-specific construal of different transitivity processes. Based on a two-million-word corpus of research articles in physics and aeronautic engineering, we investigated the sub-disciplinary variation in the use of SNs between science and engineering. While the two disciplines are found to demonstrate similar preferences for SN items evidenced by a large set of common SNs, the empirical study has uncovered significant differences. Firstly, physics favours finite clauses while aeronautic engineering favours non-finite clauses as preferred SN complementation types. Secondly, physics primarily chooses identifying relational processes to characterise fact-like propositions while aeronautic engineering tends to prefer attributive relational processes to express dynamic modality and mental processes of volition to highlight desirability of potential activities under specific conditions. Thirdly, physics resorts to verbal processes of assertion to argue for the discovery of discipline-internal theories while aeronautic engineering relies on material processes to construe laboratory-based activities. These findings reveal the fundamental differences between science and engineering as two discourse types and demonstrate SNs as significant manifestations of cognitive construals underpinning linguistic variations across the two registers.

Classification and Categorization: Linguistic and Cultural Conceptualization of Time in the YiJing

This paper investigates how concepts of time in the YiJing (here易经 YiJing refers to the 经文Jing text in the ancient Chinese work The Book of Changes) are organized and expressed in terms of language structure and cultural practice, especially with regard to the lexicalization of time intervals and temporal landmarks. The way in which time is conceptualized in the YiJing is very special. The purpose of this study is to explore the cognitive and cultural construals of time with the language of real-world experience. With reference to the Cognition-Culture interface, the YiJing text has been used as a corpus to investigate the encoding of time, and the following categories of temporal conceptualization are found according to the different kinds of usages: 1. Metaphoric temporal usage, which is a metaphoric expression of time, such as “a long time” or “quasi-calendar time”; 2. Concepts of time, involving quantification of time: for example, the processes of waxing, waning, declining and growing of the moon that illustrate the quality of alteration associated with time; 3. Event-based intervals, such as “巳日 Siri Day Si” “先甲三日three days before Day Jia and 后甲三日three days after Day Jia”; 4. The propitious or opportune time, which is the notion of time as the right time to do something, or the right time which gives a chance to engage in the activity at the right time once it brings good luck. What is more interesting is that from all of these examples in the YiJing, the concepts of time are directly or indirectly linked with either metaphor or the event-based time concept, such as celestial bodies (the sun, moon and stars) or the ritual system, which is specific to a particular culture of the YiJing in ancient China.

Cognitive Construal-Consistent Instructor Language in the Undergraduate Biology Classroom.

Researchers have identified patterns of intuitive thinking that are commonly used to understand and reason about the biological world. These cognitive construals (anthropic, teleological, and essentialist thinking), while useful in everyday life, have also been associated with misconceptions about biological science. Although construal-based thinking is pervasive among students, we know little about the prevalence of construal-consistent language in the university science classroom. In the current research, we characterized the degree to which construal-consistent language is present in biology students’ learning environments. To do so, we coded transcripts of instructor’s speech in 90 undergraduate biology classes for the presence of construal-consistent language. Classes were drawn from two universities with very different student demographic profiles and represented 18 different courses aimed at nonmajors and lower- and upper-division biology majors. Results revealed construal-consistent language in all 90 sampled classes. Anthropic language was more frequent than teleological or essentialist language, and frequency of construal-consistent language was surprisingly consistent across instructor and course level. Moreover, results were surprisingly consistent across the two universities. These findings suggest that construal-consistent language is pervasive in the undergraduate classroom and highlight the need to understand how such language may facilitate and/or interfere with students learning biological science.

Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition: Introduction to Special Issue

AbstractMost, if not all, languages exhibit “animacy effects”: grammatical structures interact with the relative animacy of noun referents, as represented on various versions of animacy scales, with human discourse participants at one end and inanimate objects at the other. Cross-linguistic evidence attests to a range of linguistic phenomena conditioned by animacy, with complex effects requiring (a) subtler distinctions than a binary contrast [± animate] and (b) more sophisticated analyses than mapping higher animacy to higher grammatical role.This paper introduces the Special Issue, “Effects of Animacy in Grammar and Cognition”, in which the linguistic interest in grammatical effects of animacy is aligned with broader questions concerning animacy in cognition, including the origins of animacy in language, the biases underlying how we attend to animacy distinctions and how animacy affects discourse. Recent work in cognitive science and adjacent fields has contributed to the understanding of the role of animacy across linguistic domains. Yet, despite the consensus that sensitivity to animacy is a property central to human cognition, there is no agreement on how to incorporate animacy within linguistic theories. This SI focusses on the cognitive construal of animacy, aiming to extend our understanding of its role in grammar(s) and theory.

Implicit reappraisal as an emotional buffer: Reappraisal-related neural activity moderates the relationship between inattention and perceived stress during exposure to negative stimuli

Emotion regulation often is an adaptive option in the face of elevated perceived stress. Perceived stress has been shown to have negative consequences for physical and mental health, including cognitive deficits and difficulties controlling attention. Cognitive reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that involves changing one's cognitive construal of an emotionally evocative stimulus to alter its emotional impact. Reappraisal can be implemented explicitly or implicitly (i.e., with or without conscious awareness). The objective of the present study was to examine whether implicit cognitive reappraisal during exposure to negative stimuli moderates the relationship between inattention and perceived stress. We found, as expected, that inattention problems are associated with increased perceived stress, but also found that one's spontaneous propensity to engage in cognitive reappraisal-as indexed by correspondence with a reliable thresholded whole-brain pattern of reappraisal implementation-moderated the relationship between inattention and perceived stress. Overall, the current study provides evidence that spontaneous reappraisal recruitment has a buffering effect on the relationship between inattention and perceived stress.

Looking up to virtue: averting gaze facilitates moral construals via posteromedial activations.

Witnessing exemplary actions triggers admiration, a positive emotion that can pertain to concrete skills, or move the onlooker beyond physical characteristics to appreciate the abstract, moral implications. Participants reacted to narratives depicting skilled or virtuous protagonists first during a videotaped interview then during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed participants’ gaze aversion (an indicator of disengaging from the immediate environment) and cognitive construals (mentions of concrete characteristics vs abstract beliefs and values) during the interview, and relations to individuals’ subsequent neural activations. When participants averted their gaze, they were more likely to mention abstract construals, and both behaviors were more likely when reacting to virtue. Gaze aversion to virtue narratives predicted greater subsequent activation for those narratives in dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), involved in visual attention control. The inferior-posterior posteromedial cortices (ipPMC), a default mode network hub involved in abstract thought, activated only to virtue, and activity level reflected individuals’ tendency to abstract construals. Critically, dPCC and ipPMC activity sequentially mediated the relationship between individuals’ gaze and abstract construal tendencies. No such relationships existed for reactions to skill, despite participants reporting equivalently strong positive emotion. In appreciating virtue, dPCC may support individuals in transcending the viewable context, facilitating ipPMC activity and moral construals.

Challenging Cognitive Construals: A Dynamic Alternative to Stable Misconceptions.

In biology education research, it has been common to model cognition in terms of relatively stable knowledge structures (e.g., mental models, alternative frameworks, deeply held misconceptions). For example, John D. Coley and Kimberley D. Tanner recently proposed that many student difficulties in biology stem from underlying cognitive frameworks called cognitive construals (CBE—Life Sciences Education, 11[3], 209–215 [2012]; CBE—Life Sciences Education, 14[1], ar8 [2015]). They argued that three such frameworks—teleology, anthropocentrism, and essentialism—cause undergraduate students to hold a range of misconceptions about the biological world. Our purpose in this article is to present an alternative perspective that considers student thinking to be dynamic and context sensitive. Using the example of cognitive construals, we argue that a dynamic perspective creates a burden of proof for claims of cognitive stability—to demonstrate that patterns of thinking are indeed stable across contexts. To illustrate our argument, we report on the results of a study designed to explore the stability of students’ apparent teleological, anthropocentric, and essentialist thinking. Our results are inconsistent with framework models. We propose instead that response patterns stem from students’ context-specific interpretations of the statements, consistent with dynamic models of cognition. Building on these preliminary findings, we discuss the implications of a dynamic view of cognition for biology education research and biology instruction.

Representing the cognitive construal of Chinese first-person singular reference in discourse

This study aims to explore the Chinese first-person singular reference in discourse, and exhibit the complexity of its usage. Default Semantics is applied in the construal of Chinese first-person singular reference phenomenon taken as an act of communication. After analyzing the examples elicited from the Lancaster Chinese Corpus, we find that the discourse meanings of Chinese first-person singular pronoun wǒ are not limited to self-reference, a variety of additional or non-deictic meanings are conveyed by it in different contexts, and many non-deictic expressions can also be employed to convey self-referential meanings. The construal of Chinese first-person singular reference discourse meaning results from the interaction of pragmatics with grammar and semantics. Thus, the interface between semantics and pragmatics should be rethought with respect to specific language interpretation.

Developing and Validating a Naturalistic Decision Model for Intelligent Language-Based Decision Aids

People make mundane and critical consumption decisions every day using choice processes that are inherently constructive in nature, where preferences emerge ‘on the spot’ or ‘on the go’ using multiple strategies based on the task at hand (Bettman, Luce, & Payne, 1998; Sproule & Archer, 2000). This implies that applying a single, invariant algorithm will not solve decision problems that humans face (Tversky, Sattath, & Slovic, 1988). Instead, consumers need adaptive, multi-strategy decision aids since they shift between multiple strategies in a single decision as they acquire increasing information during the decision-making process (Bettman et al., 1998). This paper puts forth a cognitive computing approach to develop and validate a naturalistic decision model for designing language-based, mobile decision-aids (MoDA©) based on adaptive and intelligent information retrieval and multi-decision strategy use. The approach integrates established psychological theories, Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Construal Level Theory (CLT), to develop the scientific base for predicting decision-making under contingencies. ELM delineates whether human information processing is effortful or heuristic based on a person’s ability and motivation to engage in an object-relevant elaboration (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981). CLT determines whether the cognitive construal of the decision object is abstract or concrete based on psychological distance (Liberman, Trope, & Wakslak, 2007). Integrating the derivatives of these theories, the Human-Elaboration-Object-Construal (H-E-O-C) Contingency Decision Model’s central thesis is that the decision-making strategy employed by a decision-maker can be predicted by using natural language cues to infer the extent of human elaboration (low-high) on the decision and the type of knowledge (abstract-concrete) possessed on the decision object. Specifically, an extensive (vs. limited) decision strategy is likely to be employed when human elaboration revealed through natural language cues is high (vs. low). Further, an attribute-based (vs. alternative-based) strategy may be employed when the cognitive representation of the decision object is abstract (vs. concrete). Based on this theorizing, the H-E-O-C Contingency Decision Model can predict the use of four common decision strategies that systematically differ based on the amount (extensive vs. limited) and pattern (attribute- vs. alternative-based) of processing: Lexicographic or LEX (limited, attribute-based processing), Satisficing or SAT (limited, alternative-based processing), Elimination-by-Aspects or EBA (extensive, attribute-based processing), and Weighted Adding or WADD (extensive, alternative-based processing) (Bettman et al., 1998). To validate the H-E-O-C Contingency Decision Model, we conducted observational studies that simulated in-store purchase decision-making with real consumers. A total of 48 shopping sessions (n = 48) were held in a simulation home improvement retail store, and decision-making dialog between consumers and a customer service agent (trained research assistant) was recorded using wearable voice recorders. To ensure that there were fairly equal numbers of consumers who were either motivated or not to elaborate on their decisions, we created two shopping conditions – low risk (replacement AC filter purchase) and high risk (AC filter purchase to address allergy and asthma). The recorded decision dialogs were first transcribed verbatim, resulting 48 units of analysis, which were then analyzed using the grounded theory approach through open and axial coding processes (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). The open coding first identified the construal level, which was followed by axial coding to infer the decision strategy (LEX, EBA, SAT, or WADD) employed by the consumer at the initial and final stages of decision-making. This process was conducted by two coders with adequate inter-coder reliability. Two different coders coded the transcripts for the elaboration level (low vs. high) of the consumer based on specific definitions, with adequate inter-coder reliability. The H-E-O-C Contingency Decision Model proposes that high elaboration consumers will employ either WADD or EBA, whereas low elaboration consumers will employ either SAT or LEX. This proposition was supported in over 80% of the decision transcripts, offering an important validation of the framework. The main contribution of the H-E-O-C Contingency Decision Model is that it is derived from universal psychological constructs and predicts decision-making strategies that apply to many types of products and services related to healthcare, education, and finance that are characterized by attributes and alternatives. This ensures its broad applicability across a wide variety of disciplines and use cases.

Measuring the degree of near-synonymy of Spanish verbs of putting

The present article presents a corpus-based study of two near-synonymous verbs in Spanish: the locative verbs of puttingponerandmeter. Starting from the universal principle of linguistic economy, the paper aims to empirically identify potentially influencing variables that determine the native speaker’s choice between the two verbs. It is investigated whether and to what extent the choice is governed by a set of variables related to the nature of the locative movement itself and the characteristics of the participants taking part in the event. The difference between the near-synonyms is shown to be determined mainly by the direction of the locative movement, the semantic nature of the participants (animacy, concreteness), the reflexiveness of the event, as well as the cognitive construal of the locative event (the possibility of a container-reading).

<b>Through the prism of metaphor: a case study of the US and UK political discourse on the Ukraine conflict

Much has been said about the role of metaphor in constructing the meaning of political discourse. The seminal work of G. Lakoff showed how a particular choice of metaphors allowed political agents to take a stand on important issues and achieve their rhetorical goals. This paper focuses on the identification of the most productive means for semantic configuration of the metaphors used by British and American media given the ideological perspectivization of North-American politics towards recent conflicts in Ukraine. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and conceptual metaphor theory, this paper argues that the metaphorical system offered by Lakoff is insufficient for conceptualizing the US policy regarding the Ukraine conflict, and claims that the choice of cognitive construals is governed by the context in which they are used and by the perspective adopted.

Objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjectivity

Subjectivity and intersubjectivity have long been recognized as central to the understanding of the relations between language, mind and society. They arise in an interactive world for the mind of the individual and shape his/her (inter)personal reality. In present-day linguistics, there are two major approaches to subjectivity. One is associated with Langacker and focuses on cognitive construal. The other framework, which was developed by Traugott, zooms in on diachronic changes on the conceptual level. Naturally, diachronic developments are intimately related to synchronic variation and the conceptual content of an utterance hinges on its presentation and perspectivization. This paper, therefore, argues that, rather than being discrepant and treating distinct phenomena, as is widely suggested (e.g. Brisard 2006; Nuyts 2001, 2012), the two frameworks can be reconciled. By so doing, the ensuing discussion yields an integrated view on objectivity and (inter)subjectivity, a view that will be organized around four main arguments.