Re: Natural Order of Events

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 2:25 PM, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:

> One immediate problem with this study comes to mind.
> Admittedly, we only have four examples, but these are they:
>
> (1) Agent = Boy; Patient = Glass; Action = Tilts to mouth
> (2) Agent = Captain; Patient = Pail; Action = Swings
> (3) Agent = Woman; Patient = Knob; Action = Twists
> (4) Agent = Girl; Patient = Hat; Action = Puts on
>
> So...  Anyone else notice anything about the animacy of the
> agents?  And the patients?  And the actions involving the
> two?  And how no matter what order you put these in, the
> result probably won't be ambiguous?

The null hypothesis is: The order of events in the gestural "retelling" will
mimic their grammatical order in the native language. Of course you want
unambiguous arguments and predicates; you want to be able to interpret the
gestural "utterances". The real question is: Why are they put in the order
AGENT PATIENT ACTION, even when the native language (English) would have
them as AGENT ACTION PATIENT? Since that order contradicts the null
hypothesis, it requires explanation.

Dirk
--
Miapimoquitch: Tcf Pt*p+++12,4(c)v(v/c) W* Mf+++h+++t*a2c*g*n4 Sf++++argh
La----c++d++600

Replies