The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognition and language.

TLDR: In this article, the authors examined the cognitive implications of linguistic categories in the interpersonal domain, and proposed a four-level classification that distinguishes between verbs and adjectives in interpersonal domain.

Abstract: Three studies examined the cognitive implications of linguistic categories in the interpersonal domain. On the basis of conceptual and linguistic criteria, we advance a four-level classification that distinguishes between verbs and adjectives in the interpersonal domain. These four levels (in terms of increasing abstractness) are descriptive action verbs, interpretive action verbs, state verbs, and adjectives. Results from the first two studies reveal a systematic relation between the respective linguistic category and the temporal stability of the quality expressed in the sentence, the sentence's infonnativeness about the subject, the sentence's verinability and disputability, and the sentence's informativeness about a specific situation. Results from the last study support the four-level linguistic classification and its differential cognitive functions. Implications for social cognition and personality research are discussed. In the three studies reported in this article, we examine the cognitive functions of different linguistic categories used to describe persons and their behaviors. The aim is to elucidate how language mediates between social cognition and social reality. The interface between language and social cognition remains a relatively neglected issue in the burgeoning field of social cogni

Full text

VU Research Portal
The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognition
and language
Semin, G.R.; Fiedler, K.
published in
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
1988
DOI (link to publisher)
10.1037/0022-3514.54.4.558
document version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Link to publication in VU Research Portal
citation for published version (APA)
Semin, G. R., & Fiedler, K. (1988). The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social
cognition and language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 558-568.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.4.558
General rights
Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners
and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.
• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.
• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain
• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ?
Take down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately
and investigate your claim.
E-mail address:
vuresearchportal.ub@vu.nl
Download date: 10. Aug. 2022