NUMBER GRAMMAR
Exploring the influence of number cognition on number grammar: a cross-linguistic investigation of Hebrew and English
| Coordinatore | THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM.
Organization address
address: GIVAT RAM CAMPUS contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | Israel [IL] |
| Totale costo | 161˙186 € |
| EC contributo | 161˙186 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IOF |
| Anno di inizio | 2010 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2010-10-01 - 2013-01-24 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM.
Organization address
address: GIVAT RAM CAMPUS contact info |
IL (JERUSALEM) | coordinator | 161˙186.20 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'The desire to investigate the relationship between language and thought is deeply rooted in linguistic and psychological thinking. For instance, the standpoint that thoughts and the words that express them are inseparable is the basis of the strong Whorfian hypothesis (Whorf, 1956). A careful examination of contemporary psychological literature reveals that scientists are quite concerned with the possibility that the development of number cognition depends on language use. Accordingly, much concern is addressed to the question of whether pre-linguistic infants, adults who speak languages without counting systems or even non-humans have a defined concept of enumeration. The cognitive process of enumeration has been subjected to extensive research. Various studies in the number cognition domain claim that enumeration takes place in two distinctive processes: subitizing, a fast and accurate process used for numerosities up to three objects (and possibly even four), and counting, a slower and less accurate process for numerosities of four objects and more. Since according to Corbett (2000), languages that have number systems make linguistic distinctions for up to three determinate number categories – singulars, duals, and trials, it seems likely that the fast and almost flawless cognitive process within the subitizing range can support the grammatical number system. In the proposed research I plan to investigate the possibility that number language depends on number cognition. The research will be conducted in Hebrew and in English, and will exploit cases in which notional number and grammatical number are distinct, i.e., mass nouns (e.g., silverware) and pluralia tantum nouns (e.g., scissors). The controlled comparison between the two languages will provide me with the opportunity to assess potential cross-linguistic differences in speakers' sensitivity to notional number in the course of producing nominal forms.'