Papers by Carmen Granito
Human Nature, 2022
Image-making is a nearly universal human behavior, yet the visual strategies and conventions to r... more Image-making is a nearly universal human behavior, yet the visual strategies and conventions to represent things in pictures vary greatly over time and space. In particular, pictorial styles can differ in their degree of figurativeness, varying from intersubjectively recognizable representations of things to very stylized and abstract forms. Are there any patterns to this variability, and what might its ecological causes be? Experimental studies have shown that demography and the structure of interaction of cultural groups can play a key role: the greater the degree of contact with other groups, the more recognizable and less abstract are the representations. Here we test this hypothesis on a real-world dataset for the first time. We constructed a balanced database of Indigenous Australian rock art motifs from both isolated and contact Aboriginal groups (those often in contact with other groups). We then ran a survey asking participants to judge the recognizability of the motifs and to provide interpretations. Results show that motifs from contact Aboriginal groups were more likely to be judged as inter-subjectively recognizable and also elicited more convergent descriptions than motifs from isolated groups. This is consistent with the idea that intergroup contact is likely to be an important factor in the cultural evolution of pictorial representation. We discuss the implications of these findings for the archaeology and anthropology of art, and the parallels with language evolution.
Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2019
Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour. Cultures around the world have made images to ... more Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour. Cultures around the world have made images to convey information about living kinds, objects and ideas for at least 75,000 years, in forms as diverse as cave paintings, religious icons and emojis. However, styles of pictorial representation vary greatly between cultures and historical periods. In particular, they can differ in figurativeness, i.e. varying from detailed depic-tions of subjects to stylised abstract forms. Here we show that pictorial styles can be shaped by intergroup contact. We use data from experimental microsocieties to show that drawings produced by groups in contact tended to become more figurative and transparent to outsiders, whereas in isolated groups drawings tended to become abstract and opaque. These results indicate that intergroup contact is likely to be an important factor in the cultural evolution of pictorial representation, because the need to communicate with outsiders ensures that some figurativeness is retained over time. We discuss the implications of this finding for understanding the history and anthropology of art, and the parallels with sociolinguistics and language evolution. Social media summary: Cultures develop very different styles of pictorial representation across time and space. Why do they vary from largely recognisable figures of people and things to very abstract and opaque forms? One reason could be the presence or absence of intergroup contact. A study with experimental microsocieties shows how the need to communicate with outsiders can ensure that pictorial signs retain figurativeness over time.
Plos One
While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concep... more While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a) whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b) whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c) whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand, independently from heterogeneity. Abstract
Versus - Quaderni di studi semiotici, 2014
The main purpose of this work is to propose a way to overcome the explanatory limitations of thos... more The main purpose of this work is to propose a way to overcome the explanatory limitations of those linguistic approaches based on a motivationist claim, namely the idea that the semantics and
syntax of languages are motivated/constrained by perceptual and bodily structures (Evans & Green 2006). To this purpose, I will present two forms of motivationism, both descending from the phenomenological tradition: embodied cognitive linguistics (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Talmy 2000) and Brentanian perceptual semantics (Albertazzi et al. 2010). After pointing out two problems of motivationism, namely the origin of abstract
concepts and the feedback of language, culture and natural environment on conceptualisation, I will discuss some attempts to solve them: the amalgamated cognition (Rowlands 2010) and
the external cognition (Fusaroli & Paolucci 2011) hypotheses.
Finally, as a possible solution, I will propose a minimal extension of the embodied framework by importing the notion of words as attentive and classifying social tools.
RIFL - Rivista Italiana Filosofia del Linguaggio, 2013
Grounded and embodied theories of cognition face the problem of a consistent account of abstract ... more Grounded and embodied theories of cognition face the problem of a consistent account of abstract concepts: if cognition is grounded in the brain modal systems and consists in modal simulations, where are abstract concepts from? After discussing some fully modal embodied theories of abstract concepts and two pluralistic approaches involving modal and amodal representational systems, we will present a way to account for abstractness without involving amodal formats: the Words as Tools theory. Combining embodied and extended approaches, the WAT theory holds that embodied experience is not enclosed inside the boundaries of our body; words are modal entities (they are perceivable and activate multimodal situations related to their meaning) and they also are social instruments to perform actions of selection and grouping; abstract words are grouping tools whose related sensorimotor experiences are so variable and dissimilar among them that linguistic information provides us with a necessary support to bind them together in the same category. Social and linguistic (embodied) experience is crucial for building the meaning of words, particularly of abstract ones.
Thesis Chapters by Carmen Granito
Talks by Carmen Granito
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Papers by Carmen Granito
syntax of languages are motivated/constrained by perceptual and bodily structures (Evans & Green 2006). To this purpose, I will present two forms of motivationism, both descending from the phenomenological tradition: embodied cognitive linguistics (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Talmy 2000) and Brentanian perceptual semantics (Albertazzi et al. 2010). After pointing out two problems of motivationism, namely the origin of abstract
concepts and the feedback of language, culture and natural environment on conceptualisation, I will discuss some attempts to solve them: the amalgamated cognition (Rowlands 2010) and
the external cognition (Fusaroli & Paolucci 2011) hypotheses.
Finally, as a possible solution, I will propose a minimal extension of the embodied framework by importing the notion of words as attentive and classifying social tools.
Thesis Chapters by Carmen Granito
Talks by Carmen Granito
syntax of languages are motivated/constrained by perceptual and bodily structures (Evans & Green 2006). To this purpose, I will present two forms of motivationism, both descending from the phenomenological tradition: embodied cognitive linguistics (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Talmy 2000) and Brentanian perceptual semantics (Albertazzi et al. 2010). After pointing out two problems of motivationism, namely the origin of abstract
concepts and the feedback of language, culture and natural environment on conceptualisation, I will discuss some attempts to solve them: the amalgamated cognition (Rowlands 2010) and
the external cognition (Fusaroli & Paolucci 2011) hypotheses.
Finally, as a possible solution, I will propose a minimal extension of the embodied framework by importing the notion of words as attentive and classifying social tools.