Multiple Time-Scales of Language Dynamics: An Example From Psycholinguistics

Abstract

Linguistic forms are sustained by and, in turn, harness rich dynamics. Dynamical events, important for language, span timescales from milliseconds of brain activity to hundreds of milliseconds of individual cognitive processing, seconds and minutes of interaction, months and years of language acquisition, and hundreds of years of cultural language evolution. These events involve levels ranging from an individual brain, to dyads, to groups, to populations. This article aims to demonstrate that recognition of this complexity gives a different perspective on “grounding” of linguistic symbols. At the same time it attempts a preliminary systematization of the variety of dynamics that might be important. Finally, an example from psycholinguistic research is presented to show the necessity of including multiple levels and timescales in the explanation of interaction between language and other cognitive processes.

Notes

¹In this article alternative models of cognitive functioning cannot be treated in the way they deserve. Consider, for example, connectionist and, more broadly, dynamical systems approaches (e.g., Edelman, 1992; Freeman & Skarda, 1990; Kelso, 1995; Port & van Gelder, 1996; Rumelhart, McClelland, & the PDP Research Group, 1986; Smolensky, 1988) in which symbolic representations either vanish completely from the models or are descriptions of emergent patterns.

²Slobin's (1996) “thinking for speaking” hypothesis is an example.