THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY

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THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY

• Daniel Gile
• daniel.gile_at_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

• STARTS WITH SOUNDS
• TRANSMITS THEM TO WORKING MEMORY
• IDENTIFIES THEM BY COMPARING THEM
• WITH KNOWN SOUND PATTERNS
• INTERPRETS THEIR MEANING
• TRANSFERS THIS MEANING TO LONG-TERM MEMORY

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LANGUAGE AVAILABILITYWRITTEN 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
WM span
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 INTERPRETERS 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 INTERPRETERS 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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ZIPFS LAW
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• Grmmpf