Browsing by Author "Ogelo, Awino"

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    Investigating evidence of linguistic relativity in Dholuo
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Ogelo, Awino; Spangberg, Manne Bylund; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: An age old question within the language sciences has been whether linguistic experience influences how people perceive reality. The possible linguistic influence on thought is what is known as linguistic relativity. Experimentally rigorous psycholinguistic approaches provide an understanding of this kind of relationship between language and thought. These empirical techniques have been adopted in this study to investigate evidence of linguistic relativity in Dholuo. The study specifically explores relativity effects as evidenced in the behaviour of Dholuo-EnglishKiswahili (DEK) multilingual individuals. The investigations were carried out under the linguistic domains of stasis (spatial frames) and kinesis (motion events), both wrapped within the spatial realm. Each of the domains was probed both at a linguistic and a non-linguistic level. A total of two hundred and thirty DEK multilingual speakers were engaged through the photo-object spatial reference frames task, the mirror image task, the verbal motion event construal task and the nonverbal motion event categorization task. Additionally, forty first language (L1) Kiswahili speakers were also engaged through the verbal motion event construal task and the non-verbal motion event categorization task. The latter group was included for comparison. These experiments were conducted under different language contexts; for the DEK group, the spatial reference tasks were carried out both in Dholuo and English; the motion event tasks were performed under Dholuo, English and Kiswahili contexts; while the L1-Kiswahili group performed under Kiswahili context. The results of the investigations were analysed and interpreted through the theoretical lenses of the thinking-for-speaking hypothesis, the grammatical aspect approach, multicompetence theory as well as cognitive grammar. For the investigations on spatial reference frames, the findings revealed an unrestricted availability of multiple spatial reference frames in Dholuo – a state referred to as “referential promiscuity”. The multiplicity of the spatial reference frames was linked to but not directly attributed to the multicompetence of the DEK participants. The linguistic promiscuous state of Dholuo provides multiple options for Dholuo speakers to spatially encode phenomena in a way that is missing in other languages which have a single spatial frame. This is a case of linguistic relativity at the linguistic level. In the motion event experiments, the findings revealed that Dholuo construes motion events by focussing on the ongoing phase of the events, a behaviour that is typical of languages that grammatically mark aspectual distinctions. The grammatical aspect hypothesis attributes the preference for the restricted viewpoint to the imperfective (progressive) aspect in these languages. Dholuo thus aligns with grammatical aspect hypothesis as would be expected of aspect languages. The restricted viewpoint of motion event obligatorily imposed on the Dholuo speakers by the imperfective (progressive aspect) in the language is proof of linguistic relativity at the linguistic level. The L1-Kiswahili group’s findings were similar to those of the DEK group. The study however failed to show sufficient evidence of linguistic relativity at the non-linguistic level for both the spatial reference and the motion event investigations. Instead there was evidence of conceptual convergence due to possibly a shared grammatical category of Dholuo, English and Kiswahili at the non-linguistic level of the motion event tasks.