New horizons in the study of multilingualism and thought
The purpose of this sabbatical is to synthesise the substantial body of conceptual and empirical research on the relationship between language and thought that I have carried out together with my team over the past decade. Our programme deals with whether the lexical and grammatical categories of the language you speak influence the way you think, and if so, whether learning a new language involves learning new ways of thinking. To gain insight into these fundamental questions, we have implemented new standards of methodological rigor and applied these to the study of under-researched languages and multilingual populations. In this way, it has been possible to better understand the internal (e.g., lexical frequency) and external (e.g., age of acquisition) factors that modulate the way in which language influences cognitive processing. The time is now ripe to spell out the broader implications of these findings and chart the directions for future research. Four journal articles generated during the sabbatical will be dedicated to this task, focusing on topics such as epistemological scope and validity. Two stays (tot 1.5 months) are planned at Bangor University (UK) and Turku University. These will serve to gauge the state of the field with world-leading scholars and initiate collaborative projects between our universities, involving both staff and students.
Final report
The aim of this sabbatical has been to write syntheses of the linguistic relativistic research that I have carried out together with my team over the past decade. More specifically, this research deals with whether lexical and grammatical categories influence the way humans think about reality, and whether learning a new language entails acquiring a new way of thinking. The present project has generated three accepted publications, and two studies that are currently undergoing peer-review in scholarly journals (which is one manuscript more than what the original project plan included).
The project has also included two visits abroad. The first was at Bangor University, Wales, UK, and the second at Turku University, Finland. These visits entailed stimulating interactions with central researchers of the field, and constituted a very important component in the writing-up of the project manuscripts. The contact with these scholars has resulted in, among other things, an invitation to give a talk at an international conference on language and thought. Discussions are also under way concerning an application for a joint research grant.
The scientific work produced in the project has filled an important function in creating birds-eye overviews of extant research, which will ultimately serve to identify under-researched areas with significant potential for the future development of the field. The scholarly work has moreover served to pinpoint and analyse specific empirical questions with far-reaching conceptual implications.
The project has also included two visits abroad. The first was at Bangor University, Wales, UK, and the second at Turku University, Finland. These visits entailed stimulating interactions with central researchers of the field, and constituted a very important component in the writing-up of the project manuscripts. The contact with these scholars has resulted in, among other things, an invitation to give a talk at an international conference on language and thought. Discussions are also under way concerning an application for a joint research grant.
The scientific work produced in the project has filled an important function in creating birds-eye overviews of extant research, which will ultimately serve to identify under-researched areas with significant potential for the future development of the field. The scholarly work has moreover served to pinpoint and analyse specific empirical questions with far-reaching conceptual implications.