THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY

Daniel Gile [email protected]

www.cirinandgile.com

Gile Gravit Model 1

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 Gile Gravit Model 2

WORKING MEMORY AND LONG-TERM MEMORY A METAPHOR EXT. STIMUL.

LONG-TERM MEMORY WORKING MEMORY

Gile Gravit Model 3

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 Gile Gravit Model 4

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 Gile Gravit Model 5

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 Gile Gravit Model 6

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 Gile Gravit Model 7

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

Gile Gravit Model 8

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 Gile Gravit Model 9

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 Gile Gravit Model 10

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 Gile Gravit Model 11

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 Gile Gravit Model 12

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 Gile Gravit Model 13

ZIPF’S LAW

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1000 2000 2000 4000 5000 6000 7000 FREQU. RANK

Gile Gravit Model 14

Grmmpf…

Gile Gravit Model 15