Before my presentation: Which is the same as this?

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The preference of Shape and Material in Japanese

L2 Users of EnglishLing620

Makiko Ogawa

Research Area Applied Psycholinguistics

Bilingualism

Aim/Justification “A series of recent studies have shown that the way we categorize is based

on the lexical categories made available by our language”. (Athanasopoulos & Kasai, 2008)

“In English, there is systematic distinction between count and mass nouns. On the other hand, in Japanese only nouns that have animate referents can be pluralized, which is rather optional than obligatory” (Athanasopoulos & Kasai, 2008). Lucy (1992) hypothesized that these cross-linguistic differences had consequence for cognition and predicted that these obligatory plural marking of nouns in English direct a speaker’s habitual attention toward the shape of objects.

Aim/Justification The study of Athanasopoulos & Kasai (2008), who tested with shape-versus

color-matching task, supports the basic insight of Lucy’s finding (1992). Their results show English monolinguals selected shape significantly more than Japanese monolingual; on the other hand, bilinguals shifted their cognitive preference according to their L2 proficiency.

References Athanasopoulos.P. & Kasai. C. (2008). Language and thought in bilinguals. The case of

grammatical number and nonverbal classification preferences. Applied linguistics. 29. 105-123.

Athanasopoulos, P. (2006). Effects of the grammatical representation of number on cognition in bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 89–96.

Cook, V. J., Bassetti, B., Kasai, C., Sasaki, M., & Takahashi, J.A. (2006). Do bilinguals have different concepts? The case of shape and material in Japanese L2 users of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 10, 137–152.

Imai, M., & Gentner, D. (1997). A crosslinguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169–200.

Lucy, J.A.(1992). Grammatical categories and cognition. A case study of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Research Questions Does the obligatory plural marking of nouns in English direct a speaker’s

attention toward the shape of objects?

Do Japanese monolinguals regularly choose color materials over shape materials?

Do English monolinguals regularly choose shape over color materials?

Do bilinguals regularly choose differently than monolinguals?

Methodology Participants : Japanese monolingual, bilinguals in Japanese and in English (2

categories), and English monolingual

OU students from Japan, Japanese people living in Athens, Japanese students from Chubu University, International University in Ohio (option), community center in Columbus (option)

Procedure Researcher recruit participants Participants will come to Gordy Lab (LL) and take tests with computer. (Tests of my research consist 3 different types of task: shape-versus color-

matching task, grammatical judgment test, and questionnaire.) Researcher will collect the necessary amount of data and analyze the data.

Type data and analysis Statistical analysis (quantitative analysis) Correlation between response time and grammatical judgment tests will be

analyzed.

Expected findings Bilinguals who do well on grammatical judgment test regularly choose shape

over color materials due to the influence of English as Lucy’s finding (1992).

Correlation between response time and grammatical judgment tests to confirm or disconfirm the findings of Athanasopoulos.P. & Kasai. C. (2008).

Anticipated problem/Limitations Problems: Participants may not take the test seriously.

Participants may have some technical trouble with their computers.

Are there Japanese monolinguals in the U.S.?

Limitation: How representative the small size participants could be?