Thread by @AndreaArioBizar

INTENTIONALITY--degree of an agent's involvement in an event--is crucial for the linguistic encoding of causality in Spanish & Basque

BUT🤔

Do Spanish & Basque speakers conceptualise causality in the same way❓

@iraideia @MendigurenL @psylex_lab @unizar #linguistweets #It0700

𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘

-CAL Stimuli: 58 causal events clips

-Informants: 32 L1 Spanish & 22 L1 Basque speakers

-Tasks:
1.🧠non-verbal categorisation➡️attribution of responsibility
2.🗣️verbal description➡️"what happened?"

-Data:📹💻

𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐒📢

🗣️Verbal task:

-Similar linguistic structures in Basque & Spanish to explicitly encode the opposition between Intentionality vs. Unintentionality

➡️Spanish = Basque

𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐒📢

🧠Non-Verbal task:

-Different causal responsibility assignment. Attention to different issues:

--Basque speakers focus on AGENCY, regardless of the intention

--Spanish speakers focus on INTENTIONALITY, regardless of who did it

➡️Spanish❌Basque 😯

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍📢

-Intentional & Accidental events are categorised differently

-For Basque speakers: Agents ALWAYS assume responsibility, with or without intention

-For Spanish speakers: Agents ONLY assume responsibility if they act on purpose

➡️Spanish❌Basque 😯

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒📣😀✨

➡️Basque & Spanish speakers pay attention to different aspects of causality

➡️Be careful with "similar" linguistic encoding (e.g. ergative marking)

➡️Further research: gestures, more tasks (🧠🗣️)

➡️More info:@AndreaArioBizar @MendigurenL @iraideia