Schedule 80. StuTS

Language processing is a major topic in psycholinguistics and cognitive science.
Here, language serves as a gateway to gaining insight into the inner workings of the thought process. The
weak version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity,
is another factor in the complex interplay of the
components of thought.
Polysynthesis is a phenomenon found in languages that are often on the periphery of
academic linguistic attention. Not only is there evidence
of a different measurable (EKP-based) mental processing of
polysynthetic languages or languages with polysynthetic verbs, but
arguments can also be found for a different perception or classification of
scenarios and events in movement sequences.
Through the example given here—Lakota from the Sioux (-Catawba) language family
of North America—provides an opportunity to investigate these
perceptions of movement in polysynthetic contexts. The difference
from the “classical languages” of the Old World, which researchers are attempting to identify,
is that polysynthetic verb or sentence structures always possess certain
slots that must be filled. These slots then refer to
space and time and are simply not
present in most English equivalents (e.g., put vs. gnaká, haglé, unpá, mahel’iyeya, otká, a’ú).
The methodology proposes and prepares a video-scenario stimulation involving Lakota participants
and aims to conduct a textual analysis of Ella
Cara Deloria’s recordings in an effort to isolate the speakers’ intuitions.