Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2008

The signal and the noise in the scale

Résumé

Scalar continuity is not without exceptions. Still, these exceptions are not random, but rather show a consistent pattern, whereby the highest part of the scale, i.e. first and second person pronouns, is represented by the same structures as the lowest part of the scale, i.e. generic or inanimate nouns. This distribution, which may have either a categorical or a tendential status in languages, can be given a cognitive motivation, related to the fact that first and second person pronouns have maximally familiar referents. It is acknowledged that selective attention decreases with repeated exposures, so that very familiar patterns tend to be perceived as noise rather than as signal. While the intermediate part of the scale denotes cognitively salient referents, the extremities convey either redundant information (in the highest pole) or non-important, unattended information (in the lowest pole).

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Dates et versions

hal-04857803 , version 1 (28-12-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04857803 , version 1

Citer

Carlotta Viti. The signal and the noise in the scale. Richards, Marc; Malchukov Andrej. Scales, 86, Institut für Linguistik, pp.55-72, 2008, Linguistische Arbeits Berichte. ⟨hal-04857803⟩
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