Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility: a comparison of 14 European languages

Caterina Suitner; Anne Maass; Eduardo Navarrete; Magdalena Formanowicz; Boyka Bratanova; Carmen Cervone; Juho Eemeli Hakoköngäs; Toon Kuppens; Eleni Lipourli; Tamara Rakić; Andrea Scatolon; Catia P. Teixeira; Zhenlan Wang; Maria Pedro Sobral; Antonin Carrier

doi:10.1017/S0142716420000831

Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility: a comparison of 14 European languages

Caterina Suitner^*, Anne Maass, Eduardo Navarrete, Magdalena Formanowicz, Boyka Bratanova, Carmen Cervone, Juho Eemeli Hakoköngäs, Toon Kuppens, Eleni Lipourli, Tamara Rakić, Andrea Scatolon, Catia P. Teixeira, Zhenlan Wang, Maria Pedro Sobral, Antonin Carrier

^*Corresponding author for this work

Centre for Research into Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The spatial agency bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely, that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word order. A preregistered study on 14 European languages (n = 420) varying in word order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	657-671
Number of pages	15
Journal	Applied Psycholinguistics
Volume	42
Issue number	3
Early online date	10 Feb 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716420000831
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2021

Keywords

Cross-linguistic
Word order
Spatial agency bias

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10.1017/S0142716420000831Licence: CC BY

Suitner_2021_AP_spatial-agency_CC
Copyright © The Author (s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 1.05 MBLicence: CC BY

Spatial bias across languages (dataset)
Bratanova, B. A. (Creator), OSF, 2018
https://osf.io/r5j79/?view_only=3cd97a4bc75a4367a9ce10033f4ef356
Dataset

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Suitner, C., Maass, A., Navarrete, E., Formanowicz, M., Bratanova, B., Cervone, C., Hakoköngäs, J. E., Kuppens, T., Lipourli, E., Rakić, T., Scatolon, A., Teixeira, C. P., Wang, Z., Sobral, M. P., & Carrier, A. (2021). Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility: a comparison of 14 European languages. Applied Psycholinguistics, 42(3), 657-671. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716420000831

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abstract = "The spatial agency bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely, that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word order. A preregistered study on 14 European languages (n = 420) varying in word order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.",

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Suitner, C, Maass, A, Navarrete, E, Formanowicz, M, Bratanova, B, Cervone, C, Hakoköngäs, JE, Kuppens, T, Lipourli, E, Rakić, T, Scatolon, A, Teixeira, CP, Wang, Z, Sobral, MP & Carrier, A 2021, 'Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility: a comparison of 14 European languages', Applied Psycholinguistics, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 657-671. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716420000831

TY - JOUR

T1 - Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility

T2 - a comparison of 14 European languages

AU - Suitner, Caterina

AU - Maass, Anne

AU - Navarrete, Eduardo

AU - Formanowicz, Magdalena

AU - Bratanova, Boyka

AU - Cervone, Carmen

AU - Hakoköngäs, Juho Eemeli

AU - Kuppens, Toon

AU - Lipourli, Eleni

AU - Rakić, Tamara

AU - Scatolon, Andrea

AU - Teixeira, Catia P.

AU - Wang, Zhenlan

AU - Sobral, Maria Pedro

AU - Carrier, Antonin

PY - 2021/5/1

Y1 - 2021/5/1

N2 - The spatial agency bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely, that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word order. A preregistered study on 14 European languages (n = 420) varying in word order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.

AB - The spatial agency bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely, that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word order. A preregistered study on 14 European languages (n = 420) varying in word order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.

KW - Cross-linguistic

KW - Word order

KW - Spatial agency bias

U2 - 10.1017/S0142716420000831

DO - 10.1017/S0142716420000831

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AN - SCOPUS:85100720610

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VL - 42

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EP - 671

JO - Applied Psycholinguistics

JF - Applied Psycholinguistics

IS - 3

ER -

Spatial agency bias and word order flexibility: a comparison of 14 European languages

Abstract

Keywords

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Datasets

Spatial bias across languages (dataset)

Cite this