THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF
LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY
Daniel Gile
daniel.gile@yahoo.com
www.cirinandgile.com
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LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY
PLAIN “KNOWLEDGE” OF WORDS AND RULES OF GRAMMAR?
OTHER DIMENSION TO LANGUAGE MASTERY?
-
SOMETIMES YOU “KNOW” A WORD, BUT HAVE DIFFICULTY IN
RETRIEVING IT FROM MEMORY
-
YOU MAY UNDERSTAND A FOREIGN LANGUAGE WHEN IT IS
SPOKEN SLOWLY, BUT NOT AT ALL WHEN IT IS SPOKEN
FASTER
THE TIME IT TAKES TO FIND/UNDERSTAND A WORD/LINGUISTIC
STRUCTURE IS CORRELATED WITH THE EFFORT IT TAKES
“LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY”:
THE VARIABLE WHICH MEASURES THIS TIME/EFFORT
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WORKING MEMORY AND LONG-TERM MEMORY
A METAPHOR
EXT. STIMUL.
LONG-TERM MEMORY
WORKING MEMORY
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LANGUAGE AVAILABILITY PRODUCTION
-
STARTS WITH IDEA
RETRIEVES WORDS AND LANGUAGE RULES FROM LTM,
-
PUTS THEM IN WORKING MEMORY
- TO ASSEMBLE THEM INTO CLAUSES AND SENTENCES
WITH THE HELP OF INFO RETRIEVED FROM LONG-TERM
MEMORY
-
WRITES THEM OR SAYS THEM
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LANGUAGE AVAILABILITY LISTENING COMPREHENSION
-
TRANSMITS THEM TO WORKING MEMORY
-
-
STARTS WITH SOUNDS
IDENTIFIES THEM BY COMPARING THEM
WITH KNOWN SOUND PATTERNS
- INTERPRETS THEIR MEANING
TRANSFERS THIS ‘MEANING’ TO LONG-TERM MEMORY
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LANGUAGE AVAILABILITY
WRITTEN COMPREHENSION
-
-
STARTS WITH IMAGES (LETTERS),
-
PUTS THEM IN WORKING MEMORY
IDENTIFIES THEM BY COMPARING THEM WITH KNOWN IMAGE
PATTERNS RETRIEVED FROM LONG TERM MEMORY
-
- INTERPRETS THEIR MEANING
TRANSFERS IT TO LONG-TERM MEMORY
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AVAILABILITY IN PRODUCTION
LOW AVAILABILITY SLOWS DOWN PRODUCTION
NOT A MAJOR PROBLEM IN EVERYDAY CONVERSATION
BIG PROBLEM IN SIMULTANEOUS
LESS PROBLEMATIC IN CONSECUTIVE
IN SIMULTANEOUS, IT IS VITAL TO ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN
HIGH LANGUAGE AVAILABILITY IN PRODUCTION
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AVAILABILITY IN COMPREHENSION
LOW AVAILABILITY SLOWS DOWN PROCESSING OF INCOMING
SIGNAL
BIG PROBLEM IN SIMULTANEOUS
AND IN CONSECUTIVE
MAY RESULT NOT IN SLOWER COMPREHENSION
BUT
IN NON-COMPREHENSION
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SPEAKER
HIGH AVAILABILITY
LOW AVAILABILITY
time
t1
t2
t3
At t1, high availability listener (HAL) has finished processing more than 2
words and keeps one in WM – low availability listener (LAL) has finished
processing 1 word
At t2, speaker is uttering 7th word, HAL has finished processing 6 words –
LAL has finished processing 2 words, and must keep 5 words in WM.
At t3, LAL is probably saturated
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THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC
AVAILABILITY
THE CLOSER TO CENTER, THE MORE AVAILABLE
DYNAMIC, NOT STATIC
EVERY UNIT OF
LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE
1. DRIFTS OUTWARDS
IF NOT USED
2. INWARDS IF USED
3. ESCORT EFFECT
4. INTERFERENCE EFFECT
5. WRITTEN AND ORAL
SYSTEM NOT IDENTICAL
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THE INTERPRETER’S LINGUISTIC
AVAILABILITY – ACTIVE LANGUAGES
ACTIVE LANGUAGES
- IN COUNTRY WHERE LIVE
(NOT NECESSARILY IN A LANGU.)
RICH FOR PRODUCTION
- IN OTHER COUNTRY
(LESS ABUNDANT MENTAL LEXICON
HIGHLY AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION
PERHAPS LITTLE VARIABILITY)
- AFTER A WHILE, SOME OF THE VOCABULARY NOT VERY AVAILABLE EVEN IN A LANGUAGE
- WHEN GOING GETS ROUGH, USE HIGHLY AVAILABLE WORDS
- BEWARE OF INTERFERENCE IN B
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THE INTERPRETER’S LINGUISTIC
AVAILABILITY – PASSIVE LANGUAGES
PASSIVE LANGUAGES
- COMPR. AVAILABILITY DEPENDS ON ACTUAL USE
- NEED TO GET USED TO STRANGE ACCENTS
- NOT NECESSARILY PRODUCTION AVAILABILITY
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ENHANCING LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY
BY USING LANGUAGE
- REPEATEDLY
(STRENGTHENING NEURAL CONNECTIONS
DECREASES PC REQUIREMENTS)
- ORALLY FOR COMPREHENSION IN INTERPRETING
- IN CONTEXT
(NEWSPAPERS? PLAIN IMMERSION?)
- REHEARSING IS LEGITIMATE AND USEFUL
- LEARNING STANDARD PHRASES IS LEGITIMATE AND
USEFUL (Ilg)
- PERHAPS SEVERAL INTERPRETATIONS OF SAME
SPEECH
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ZIPF’S LAW
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1000
2000
2000
4000
5000
6000
7000
FREQU. RANK
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Grmmpf…
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