Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently?

Time is a fundamental domain of experience. In this paper we ask whether aspects of language and culture affect how people think about this domain. Specifically, we consider whether English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently. We review all of the available evidence both for and against this hypothesis, and report new data that further support and refine it. The results demonstrate that English and Mandarin speakers do think about time differently. As predicted by patterns in language, Mandarin speakers are more likely than English speakers to think about time vertically (with earlier time-points above and later time-points below).     

Tone matters for Cantonese–English bilingual children’s English word reading development: A unified model of phonological transfer

Languages differ considerably in how they use prosodic features, or variations in pitch, duration, and intensity, to distinguish one word from another. Prosodic features include lexical tone in Chinese and lexical stress in English. Recent cross-sectional studies show a surprising result that Mandarin Chinese tone sensitivity is related to Mandarin–English bilingual children’s English word reading. This study explores the mechanism underlying this relation by testing two explanations of these effects: the prosodic hypothesis and segmental phonological awareness transfer. We administered multiple measures of Cantonese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, segmental phonological awareness in Cantonese and English, nonverbal ability, and English word reading to 123 Cantonese–English bilingual children ages 7 and 8 years. Structural equation modeling revealed a longitudinal prediction of Cantonese tone sensitivity to English word reading between 8 and 9 years of age. This relation was realized through two parallel routes. In one, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English stress sensitivity, and English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, as postulated by the prosodic hypothesis. In the second, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English word reading through the transfer of segmental phonological awareness between Cantonese and English, as predicted by segmental phonological transfer. These results support a unified model of phonological transfer, emphasizing the role of tone in English word reading for Cantonese–English bilingual children.     

Children’s Knowledge of Ellipsis Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

This study investigated 4-year-old children’s knowledge of the structural constraints on ellipsis constructions in Mandarin Chinese, focusing on the structural difference between verb phrase (VP) ellipsis and null object constructions. In Mandarin Chinese, if the antecedent clause of a VP-ellipsis structure contains an adverbial modifier, this adverbial modifier must be recovered at the elided site in the second clause. However, if the antecedent clause of a null object construction contains an adverbial modifier, the reconstruction of this adverbial modifier at the elided site is not necessary. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether young Mandarin-speaking children are sensitive to this structural difference between the two ellipsis constructions. The results show that children exhibited adult-like performance in both experiments. This is evidence that young Mandarin-speaking children have knowledge of the structural difference between VP-ellipsis and null object constructions with regard to adverbial recovery. We interpreted the findings in conjunction with previous research as evidence that children’s knowledge of the structural constraints on ellipsis constructions is innately specified.     

What are effective phonological units in Cantonese spoken word planning?

Two picture—word interference experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of effective phonological units in Cantonese spoken word production. The names of the pictures were Cantonese monosyllables with a consonant 1 vowel 1 consonant (CVC) structure. Participants’ picture-naming responses were faster when the target (e.g., “star” /sing1/) and the distractor shared the same CVC component (e.g., /sing4/, meaning “city”), the same CV component (e.g., /sik6/, “eat”), or the same VC component (e.g., /ging2/, “region”), as opposed to when they were unrelated, and the facilitation effects observed were comparable in size. Also, similar facilitation effects were obtained across the CV1tone-related and the VC1tone-related conditions, whereas no reliable effect was found in the V1tone-related condition. These results indicate that an effective phonological unit in spoken word planning is neither a syllable (without tone) nor a segmental unit, and that the possible candidates lie between the two, at least in Cantonese.     

Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time

Does the language you speak affect how you think about the world? This question is taken up in three experiments. English and Mandarin talk about time differently--English predominantly talks about time as if it were horizontal, while Mandarin also commonly describes time as vertical. This difference between the two languages is reflected in the way their speakers think about time. In one study, Mandarin speakers tended to think about time vertically even when they were thinking for English (Mandarin speakers were faster to confirm that March comes earlier than April if they had just seen a vertical array of objects than if they had just seen a horizontal array, and the reverse was true for English speakers). Another study showed that the extent to which Mandarin-English bilinguals think about time vertically is related to how old they were when they first began to learn English. In another experiment native English speakers were taught to talk about time using vertical spatial terms in a way similar to Mandarin. On a subsequent test, this group of English speakers showed the same bias to think about time vertically as was observed with Mandarin speakers. It is concluded that (1) language is a powerful tool in shaping thought about abstract domains and (2) one's native language plays an important role in shaping habitual thought (e.g., how one tends to think about time) but does not entirely determine one's thinking in the strong Whorfian sense.     

Native-Language Phonological Interference in Early Hakka–Mandarin Bilinguals’ Visual Recognition of Chinese Two-Character Compounds: Evidence from the Semantic-Relatedness Decision Task

Previous research has indicated that, in viewing a visual word, the activated phonological representation in turn activates its homophone, causing semantic interference. Using this mechanism of phonological mediation, this study investigated native-language phonological interference in visual recognition of Chinese two-character compounds by early Hakka–Mandarin bilinguals. A visual semantic-relatedness decision task in Chinese was given to native Mandarin speakers and early Hakka–Mandarin bilinguals. Both participant groups made more false positive errors and responded more slowly to the pair of two-character compounds containing a homophone; but only Hakka–Mandarin bilinguals made more false positive errors and responded more slowly to the pair containing a near-homophone. We concluded that phonology is needed in both native and nonnative speakers’ meaning access of Chinese two-character compounds and that native-language phonological interference is universal in L2 visual word recognition, not language type dependent; phonological and orthographic information are “interactive-compensatory” in helping Hakka readers’ resolve the interference.     

How do Mandarin speakers conceptualize time? Beyond the horizontal and vertical dimensions

Cognitive Processing - Mandarin speakers, similar to speakers of most other languages around the world, tend to conceptualize time in terms of space. However, it has been supposed that Mandarin...     

Is the superior verbal memory span of Mandarin speakers due to faster rehearsal?

It is well established that digit span in native Chinese speakers is atypically high. This is commonly attributed to a capacity for more rapid subvocal rehearsal for that group. We explored this hypothesis by testing a group of English-speaking native Mandarin speakers on digit span and word span in both Mandarin and English, together with a measure of speed of articulation for each. When compared to the performance of native English speakers, the Mandarin group proved to be superior on both digit and word spans while predictably having lower spans in English. This suggests that the Mandarin advantage is not limited to digits. Speed of rehearsal correlated with span performance across materials. However, this correlation was more pronounced for English speakers than for any of the Chinese measures. Further analysis suggested that speed of rehearsal did not provide an adequate account of differences between Mandarin and English spans or for the advantage of digits over words. Possible alternative explanations are discussed.     

Correction to: How do Mandarin speakers conceptualize time? Beyond the horizontal and vertical dimensions

Cognitive Processing - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01033-6     

Can a mind have two time lines? Exploring space-time mapping in Mandarin and English speakers

Spatial representations of time are a ubiquitous feature of human cognition. Nevertheless, interesting sociolinguistic variations exist with respect to where in space people locate temporal constructs. For instance, while in English time metaphorically flows horizontally, in Mandarin an additional vertical dimension is employed. Noting that the bilingual mind can flexibly accommodate multiple representations, the present work explored whether Mandarin–English bilinguals possess two mental time lines. Across two experiments, we demonstrated that Mandarin–English bilinguals do indeed employ both horizontal and vertical representations of time. Importantly, subtle variations to cultural context were seen to shape how these time lines were deployed.     

Phonon–phason coupling in a Mg–Ga–Al–Zn icosahedral quasicrystal

Precise X-ray diffraction measurements have revealed that phonon (conventional) strain is introduced at the phase transition from an icosahedral quasicrystal to its orthorhombic crystal approximant in a Mg–Ga–Al–Zn alloy. From the magnitude of the measured phonon strain, the phonon–phason coupling constant has been evaluated. This constant is approximately ?0.03μ (μ: shear modulus) and it is in good agreement with the result of a theoretical calculation reported previously (W.-J. Zhu and C.L. Henley, Europhys. Lett. 46 748 (1999)). This is the first study that experimentally evaluates the phonon–phason coupling constant in any existing quasicrystalline phase.     

Formation of plate-shaped Guinier–Preston zones during natural aging of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu–Zr Alloy

Plate-shaped Guinier–Preston (G–P) zone formation in an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu–Zr alloy has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The results provide, for the first time, direct evidence showing nucleation and growth of plate-shaped coherent G–P zones during natural aging.     

Rapid dendritic growth within an undercooled Ni–Cu–Fe–Sn–Ge quinary alloy

A liquid quinary alloy with composition Ni–5%Cu–5%Fe–5%Sn–5%Ge has been prepared from a containerless state by undercooling. Dendritic growth of α-Ni phase took place with a velocity of 28 m s^?1 at the maximum degree of undercooling, which was as high as 405 K (0.24T _L). All of the four solute elements Cu, Fe, Sn and Ge exhibited a significant solute trapping effect during the rapid dendrite growth. Segregation-less solidification is consequently realized when the degree of undercooling is sufficiently large. The lattice constant of α-Ni solid solution phase is found to increase with the amount of multicomponent solute trapping.     

Recrystallization in a low-density low-alloy Fe–Mn–Al–C duplex-phase alloy

The recrystallization behaviour of a cold-rolled, low-density, low-alloy duplex-phase alloy (Fe–6.57Al–3.34Mn–0.18C, wt.%) has been studied. Temperature-resolved X-ray diffraction and dilatometry showed that the alloy recrystallizes at 850?°C during continuous heating. However, electron back-scattered diffraction investigations using Kernel average misorientation revealed that during annealing ferrite recrystallizes at lower temperatures while austenite remains strained up to 1200?°C. This study underlines the complexity of recrystallization of a microstructure comprising of constituents with high and low stacking fault energy.     

Coparenting in the Context of Mother–Father–Infant versus Mother–Grandmother–Infant Triangular Interactions in Turkey

In this report, coparenting behaviors during triangular interactions among families raising a 3-month-old infant in Turkey are examined. Given the significant role played by extended family members in Turkish culture, coparenting dynamics were examined as mothers and babies played together with grandmothers, as well as together with fathers. Forty-five families took part, and 42 father–mother–baby and 33 grandmother–mother–baby triangular interactions of approximately 10?min in length were filmed during the Lausanne Trilogue Play. From videotapes of the interactions, individual and mutual coparenting behaviors were evaluated using the Coparenting and Family Rating System: 3 Month Adaptation (CFRS3M). Results indicated that while mothers’ own parenting behavior when in the LTP role of Active Parent (AP) was comparable whether with fathers or grandmothers, their behavior when in the LTP role of third party parent (TPP) was comparatively more engaged while with fathers than while with grandmothers. Fathers were comparatively less engaged when occupying the TPP role than were mothers in the TPP role, while grandmothers showed more flirting and distracting behavior in the TPP role than did either fathers or mothers. These findings are significant in documenting meaningful distinctions in Turkish grandmothers’ as well as in Turkish fathers’ and mothers’ coparenting propensities when engaging in triangular interactions with babies during the LTP.     

An Interaction Between the Effects of Bilingualism and Cross-linguistic Similarity in Balanced and Unbalanced Bilingual Adults’ L2 Mandarin Word-Reading Production

We conducted three experiments investigating in more detail the interaction between the two effects of bilingualism and L1–L2 similarity in the speech performance of balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. In Experiment 1, L1 Mandarin monolinguals and two groups of Hakka and Minnan balanced bilinguals (Hakka: more similar to Mandarin) performed a non-contextual single-character reading task in Mandarin, which required more inhibitory control. The two bilingual groups outperformed the monolinguals, regardless of their L1 background. However, the bilingual advantage was not found in a contextual multi-word task (Experiment 2), but instead the effect of cross-linguistic similarity emerged. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, the Hakka unbalanced bilinguals showed an advantage in the non-contextual task, while their Minnan counterparts did not, and the impact of L1–L2 similarity emerged in both tasks. These results unveiled the way the two effects dynamically interplayed depending on the task contexts and the relative degrees of using L1 and L2.     

Who Do You Love, Your Mother or Your Horse? An Event-Related Brain Potential Analysis of Tone Processing in Mandarin Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, word meaning is partially determined by lexical tone (Wang, 1973). Previous studies suggest that lexical tone is processed as linguistic information and not as pure tonal information (Gandour, 1998; Van Lanker & Fromkin, 1973). The current study explored the online processing of lexical tones. Event-related potentials were obtained from 25 Mandarin speakers while they listened to normal and anomalous sentences containing one of three types of semantic anomalies created by manipulating the tone, the syllable, or both tone and syllable (double-anomaly) of sentence-final words. We hypothesized N400 effects elicited by all three types of anomalies and the largest by the double-anomaly. As expected, all three elicited N400 effects starting approximately 150 ms poststimulus and continuing until 1000 ms in some areas. Surprisingly, onset of the double-anomaly effect was approximately 50 ms later than the rest. Delayed detection of errors in this condition may be responsible for the apparent delay. Slight differences between syllable and tone conditions may be due to the relative timing of these acoustic cues.     

Transition from the Bose–Einstein condensate to the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless phase

We obtain a phase diagram for a trapped two-dimensional ultracold Bose gas. We find a critical temperature above which the free energy of a state with a pair of vortices of opposite circulation is lower than that for a vortex-free Bose–Einstein condensed ground state. We identify three distinct phases which are, in order of increasing temperature, a phase coherent Bose–Einstein condensate, a vortex pair plasma with a fluctuating condensate phase, and a thermal Bose gas. The existence of the vortex pair phase could be verified using current experimental set-ups.     

Chinese–English bilinguals processing temporal–spatial metaphor

The conceptual projection of time onto the domain of space constitutes one of the most challenging issues in the cognitive embodied theories. In Chinese, spatial order (e.g., “大树前”/da shu qian/, in front of a tree) shares the same terms with temporal sequence (三月前”, /san yue qian/, before March). In comparison, English natives use different sets of prepositions to describe spatial and temporal relationship, i.e., “before” to express temporal sequencing and “in front of” to express spatial order. The linguistic variations regarding the specific lexical encodings indicate that some flexibility might be available in how space–time parallelisms are formulated across different languages. In the present study, ERP (Event-related potentials) data were collected when Chinese–English bilinguals processed temporal ordering and spatial sequencing in both their first language (L1) Chinese (Experiment 1) and the second language (L2) English (Experiment 2). It was found that, despite the different lexical encodings, early sensorimotor simulation plays a role in temporal sequencing processing in both L1 Chinese and L2 English. The findings well support the embodied theory that conceptual knowledge is grounded in sensory-motor systems (Gallese and Lakoff, Cogn Neuropsychol 22:455–479, 2005). Additionally, in both languages, neural representations during comprehending temporal sequencing and spatial ordering are different. The time–spatial relationship is asymmetric, in that space schema could be imported into temporal sequence processing but not vice versa. These findings support the weak view of the Metaphoric Mapping Theory.     

Gay–See also–Lesbian Resources for Believers

ABSTRACT

Few bibliographies exist that specifically focus on the resources available for lesbian and gay people of faith. This paper seeks to gather some of the best resources, both old and new, into a cohesive and comprehensive format as they mainly relate to the Christian tradition. Focusing on available books, as well as Internet resources, annotated lists have been assembled that document resources that many theological libraries might consider for purchase. Books have been categorized in typical library categories and each entry is annotated to aid in selection. Internet sites have also been annotated to explain their inclusion in the article.