THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY

1. THE GRAVITATIONAL MODEL OF LINGUISTIC AVAILABILITY Daniel Gile daniel.gile@yahoo.com www.cirinandgile.com Gile Gravit Model

2. 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

3. WORKING MEMORY AND LONG-TERM MEMORY A METAPHOR EXT. STIMUL. LONG-TERM MEMORY WORKING MEMORY Gile Gravit Model

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 Gile Gravit Model

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 Gile Gravit Model

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. ZIPF’S LAW Gile Gravit Model

15. Grmmpf… Gile Gravit Model