Paul Sambre

Bio: Paul Sambre is an academic researcher from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The author has contributed to research in topics: Frame semantics & Construction grammar. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 18 publications receiving 826 citations. Previous affiliations of Paul Sambre include Catholic University of Leuven.

« Ce n’est pas très beau ce que vous avez dit ! » The activation of resonance in French parliamentary debates

Abstract: Speakers who engage in the joint activity of a conversation tend to align their utterances with those of their interlocutors by reusing, reinterpreting, hence playing with co-present linguistic material. One dimension of alignment is the activation of resonance, as recently developed within the model of ‘dialogic syntax’ (Du Bois, 2001). When speakers establish cross-turn parallelisms in the form of structural mapping relations, they engage with the form of other speakers’ utterances and activate resonance. The present paper focuses on resonance activation in one particular discourse genre: dialogic sequences evolving around interruptive comments in French parliamentary debates. In line with recent observations within the cognitive-functional context of dialogic syntax (Du Bois, 2001; Sakita, 2006; Zima et al, submitted) and psycholinguistic research on interactive alignment (Pickering & Garrod, 2004, 2006), we demonstrate that resonance can be activated both through explicit repetition of linguistic form and implicit echoing of semantic-pragmatic meaning. With regard to the specific discourse genre of parliamentary debates, we argue that parallelisms at all levels of linguistic organization are witti(ng)ly exploited to serve dissociative pragmatic purposes whereby socio-political positions and power relations are negotiated.

Vers une analyse multimodale du sens. Perspectives constructionnelles sur la gestualité co-grammaticale

Abstract: La presente contribution vise a mieux cerner le statut de la gestualite en grammaire. A cet effet sont fournies deux etudes de cas sur les gestes co-grammaticaux indexicaux et iconiques. L’idee centrale de cette grammaire multimodale est que mots et gestes, au sens large, appartenant a des canaux semiotiques a premiere vue incompatibles, se doivent d’etre integres dans une seule construction, fidele a l’hypothese cognitiviste que les constructions grammaticales assemblent des elements linguistiques materiels en une seule representation conceptuelle schematique. Cette integration du geste, situe traditionnellement en marge de la construction grammaticale, repondrait ainsi a une demande posee a la linguistique cognitive, et plus particulierement aux grammaires de construction, de la part des etudes sur la gestualite.

Resonance activation in interactional parliamentary discourse

Abstract: Speakers engaging in the joint activity of a conversation tend to align their utterances by reusing, reinterpreting, hence playing with the linguistic material that is introduced by their interlocutors. One dimension of alignment is the activation of resonance, as recently developed within the model of ‘dialogic syntax’ (Du Bois 2001, 2003). Resonance is best thought of as a process whereby parallelisms in the form of structural mapping relations are established across turns in a dialogic setting. The present paper zooms in on resonance in one particular discourse genre: interruptive comments (call-outs) in French and Austrian parliamentary debates. We demonstrate that structural relations can hold between comparable elements at any level of linguistic organization while enhancing discourse coherence. Furthermore we show that resonance activation is a powerful construal mechanism that is frequently operating in adversarial comments in political debates to serve dissociative pragmatic purposes and to negotiate social positions.

From design experiments to formative interventions

Abstract: So-called “design experiments” have been presented as a radical alternative to traditional experimental designs in behavioral sciences. A closer scrutiny of design experiments shows that they share the basic linear methodology of traditional randomized controlled trials, and thus ignore resistance and agency of learners as a source of surprise and novelty. Formative interventions based on Vygotsky’s principle of double stimulation offer an alternative that builds on and purposefully fosters learners’ agency. Formative interventions may be characterized with the help of an argumentative grammar which proposes (a) the collective activity system as a unit of analysis, (b) contradictions as a source of change and development, (c) agency as a crucial layer of causality, and (d) transformation of practice as a form of expansive concept formation. These four epistemic tenets are concretized with the help of analysis of data from a Change Laboratory formative experiment conducted in a Finnish hospital. The analys...

When Peanuts Fall in Love: N400 Evidence for the Power of Discourse

Abstract: In linguistic theories of how sentences encode meaning, a distinction is often made between the context-free rule-based combination of lexical-semantic features of the words within a sentence (“semantics”), and the contributions made by wider context (“pragmatics”). In psycholinguistics, this distinction has led to the view that listeners initially compute a local, context-independent meaning of a phrase or sentence before relating it to the wider context. An important aspect of such a two-step perspective on interpretation is that local semantics cannot initially be overruled by global contextual factors. In two spoken-language event-related potential experiments, we tested the viability of this claim by examining whether discourse context can overrule the impact of the core lexical-semantic feature animacy, considered to be an innate organizing principle of cognition. Two-step models of interpretation predict that verb-object animacy violations, as in “The girl comforted the clock,” will always perturb the unfolding interpretation process, regardless of wider context. When presented in isolation, such anomalies indeed elicit a clear N400 effect, a sign of interpretive problems. However, when the anomalies were embedded in a supportive context (e.g., a girl talking to a clock about his depression), this N400 effect disappeared completely. Moreover, given a suitable discourse context (e.g., a story about an amorous peanut), animacy-violating predicates (“the peanut was in love”) were actually processed more easily than canonical predicates (“the peanut was salted”). Our findings reveal that discourse context can immediately overrule local lexical-semantic violations, and therefore suggest that language comprehension does not involve an initially context-free semantic analysis.

Imagining and Rationalizing Opportunities: Inductive Reasoning and the Creation and Justification of New Ventures

Abstract: We argue that creating novel ventures consists of inductive analogical or metaphorical reasoning, which generates a platform for the creation and commercialization of novel ventures and facilitates the comprehension and justification of a venture. We argue that such inductive reasoning is shaped by two determinants (the applicability of prior entrepreneurial experience and the motivation to resolve uncertainty and acquire legitimacy) that interrelate to predict and explain patterns of analogical and metaphorical reasoning by which novice and experienced entrepreneurs construct meaning for themselves as well as others in the early stages of creating a venture.

Keeping One's Distance The Influence of Spatial Distance Cues on Affect and Evaluation

Abstract: Current conceptualizations of psychological distance (e.g., construal-level theory) refer to the degree of overlap between the self and some other person, place, or point in time. We propose a complementary view in which perceptual and motor representations of physical distance influence people's thoughts and feelings without reference to the self, extending research and theory on the effects of distance into domains where construal-level theory is silent. Across four experiments, participants were primed with either spatial closeness or spatial distance by plotting an assigned set of points on a Cartesian coordinate plane. Compared with the closeness prime, the distance prime produced greater enjoyment of media depicting embarrassment (Study 1), less emotional distress from violent media (Study 2), lower estimates of the number of calories in unhealthy food (Study 3), and weaker reports of emotional attachments to family members and hometowns (Study 4). These results support a broader conceptualization o...