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Title: Gaps in the Lexicon Restrict Communication
Abstract Across languages, words carve up the world of experience in different ways. For example, English lacks an equivalent to the Chinese superordinate noun tiáowèipǐn, which is loosely translated as “ingredients used to season food while cooking.” Do such differences matter? A conventional label may offer a uniquely effective way of communicating. On the other hand, lexical gaps may be easily bridged by the compositional power of language. After all, most of the ideas we want to express do not map onto simple lexical forms. We conducted a referential Director/Matcher communication task with adult speakers of Chinese and English. Directors provided a clue that Matchers used to select words from a word grid. The three target words corresponded to a superordinate term (e.g., beverages) in either Chinese or English but not both. We found that Matchers were more accurate at choosing the target words when their language lexicalized the target category. This advantage was driven entirely by the Directors’ use/non-use of the intended superordinate term. The presence of a conventional superordinate had no measurable effect on speakers’ within- or between-category similarity ratings. These results show that the ability to rely on a conventional term is surprisingly important despite the flexibility languages offer to communicate about non-lexicalized categories.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2020969
PAR ID:
10478948
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Open Mind
Volume:
7
ISSN:
2470-2986
Page Range / eLocation ID:
412 to 434
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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