publications | Elisabeth Norcliffe

Under review

Frozen complexity in Barbacoan nouns

Elisabeth Norcliffe, Martine Bruil, and Simeon Floyd

Under review

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The proposal for the genetic unity of the Barbacoan languages has, to date, rested on a limited set of lexical correspondences. We argue that the case for affiliation is considerably strengthened by looking beneath the level of the word. Drawing on a new comparative lexical database, we demonstrate that many synchronically simplex nouns in the Barbacoan languages were historically polymorphemic, originating in compound constructions whose constituent roots remain partially recoverable. These frozen roots show correspondences across the family, substantially expanding the evidence for shared inheritance. We also find that some Barbacoan nominal roots, particularly from the botanical domain, developed shape-based classifying functions in the lexicon, shedding new light on the origins of the grammatical classifier systems found today only in the Southern Barbacoan languages. More broadly, our findings highlight the value of sub-word comparison for historical linguistic reconstruction.
@article{norcliffe_et_al_underreview, title = {Frozen complexity in Barbacoan nouns}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Bruil, Martine and Floyd, Simeon}, year = {Under review} }
Verbal event semantics and word order guide anticipatory processing during verb-initial sentence comprehension in Tseltal

Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez, Javier E. Garrido Guillén, Falk Huettig, Penelope Brown, Stephen C. Levinson, and Elisabeth Norcliffe

Under review

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We present a visual world eye-tracking study of Tseltal (Mayan), examining anticipatory processing during verb-initial sentence comprehension. Tseltal active transitive sentences follow Verb-Patient-Agent order, while passives are Verb-Agent-Patient; in both, the final argument is the grammatical subject. These properties let us test whether, after the verb, listeners’ predictions are guided by event semantics (agent preference), grammatical function (subject preference), or constituent order. Participants heard sentences varying in voice (active/passive) and verb type (predictive/general) while viewing displays depicting potential agents, patients, and distractors. We analysed fixations to agents and patients following the sentence-initial verb. Predictive verbs elicited fixations to both agents and patients regardless of voice, but fixation timing varied by voice, with attention prioritised toward whichever argument was mentioned next. These results show listeners rapidly extract both event structure and constituent-order information from the verb, allowing pre-assignment of thematic roles and anticipation of their linear order before they are explicitly mentioned.
@article{garrido_et_al_underreview, title = {Verbal event semantics and word order guide anticipatory processing during verb-initial sentence comprehension in Tseltal}, author = {Garrido Rodriguez, Gabriela and Guillén, Javier E. Garrido and Huettig, Falk and Brown, Penelope and Levinson, Stephen C. and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, year = {Under review} }

2026

The Lexical Typology of Sensory Perception

Asifa Majid and Elisabeth Norcliffe

Annual Review of Linguistics , 2026

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Sensory language has fascinated researchers, as it is here that meaning most clearly straddles biology and culture. Since the seminal work on colour vocabularies, typologists have attempted to describe and explain worldwide linguistic patterns in this area. One proposal that has captured the attention of many is the idea that there is a hierarchy of the senses that can account for as diverse phenomena as lexicalisation patterns, frequency of use, diachronic stability, order of acquisition, and more. We argue, to the contrary, that a universal sensory hierarchy is no longer tenable. Emerging cross-linguistic data do not support a single hierarchy of the senses that is applicable across distinct linguistic and psycholinguistic properties. This does not mean we must abandon sensory language typology altogether. Alternative methods for identifying cross-linguistic regularities—such as semantic maps—show considerable promise. Moreover, while the preoccupation with a sensory hierarchy has led to an overly-narrow research focus, moving beyond it opens up new avenues of research in this area. Future research has potential to uncover new patterns of sensory language structure and use across diverse languages, account for their distribution over cultures, and deepen our understanding of how language interfaces with cognition.
@article{majid_norcliffe_2026, title = {The Lexical Typology of Sensory Perception}, journal = {Annual Review of Linguistics}, author = {Majid, Asifa and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, year = {2026}, }
The Grammar of Perception: A Case Study of Guambiano (Namtrik) and Duna

Elisabeth Norcliffe and Lila San Roque

Topics in Cognitive Science , 2026

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Although the senses provide a common basis for our experience of the world, cross-linguistic research has revealed substantial diversity across languages in how perceptual experiences are encoded in words. Such variability is also present at the level of grammatical structure, though the project of charting the parameters and limits of cross-linguistic diversity at this level is still in its relative infancy. We contribute to this goal by presenting a comparative study of the grammar of perception in two under-studied and endangered languages, Guambiano (a Barbacoan language spoken in southern Colombia), and Duna (a Duna-Bogaia language of the Papua New Guinean highlands). Our study is based on primary fieldwork and draws on spoken language data collected using the Grammar of Perception Questionnaire. We document the lexical and constructional resources available in the two languages for describing events of perception and examine how sensory meanings are packaged and distributed across different elements of these constructions. The results reveal previously undocumented patterns of perception event encoding, underscoring the multifaceted and complex relationship between language and perception.
@article{norcliffe_sanroque_2026, title = {The Grammar of Perception: A Case Study of Guambiano (Namtrik) and Duna}, journal = {Topics in Cognitive Science}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and San Roque, Lila}, year = {2026}, pages = {1265--1270}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.70079}, }

2024

Verbs of perception: A quantitative typological study

Elisabeth Norcliffe and Asifa Majid

Language , 100 (1) , 2024

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Awarded Best Paper in Language by the Linguistics Society of America

Previous studies have proposed that the lexicalization of perception verbs is constrained by a biologically grounded hierarchy of the senses. Other research traditions emphasize conceptual and communicative factors instead. Drawing on a balanced sample of perception verb lexicons in 100 languages, we found that vision tends to be lexicalized with a dedicated verb, but that nonvisual modalities do not conform to the predictions of the sense-modality hierarchy. We also found strong asymmetries in which sensory meanings colexify. Rather than a universal hierarchy of the senses, we suggest that two domain-general constraints—conceptual similarity and communicative need—interact to shape lexicalization patterns.
@article{norcliffe_verbs_2024, title = {Verbs of perception: {A} quantitative typological study}, volume = {100}, issn = {1535-0665}, shorttitle = {Verbs of {Perception}}, url = {https://muse.jhu.edu/article/922000}, doi = {10.1353/lan.2024.a922000}, language = {en}, number = {1}, urldate = {2024-05-16}, journal = {Language}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Majid, Asifa}, year = {2024}, pages = {81--123}, }
Word formation patterns in the perception domain: A typological study of cross-modal semantic associations

Elisabeth Norcliffe and Asifa Majid

Linguistic Typology , 28 (3) , 2024

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The lexicalization of perception verbs has been of widespread interest as a route into understanding the relationship between language and cognition. A recent study finds global biases in colexification patterns, suggesting recurrent conceptual associations between sensory meanings across languages. In this paper, drawing on a balanced sample of 100 languages, we examine cross-modal semantic associations in word formation. Confirming earlier proposals, we find derived verbs are lower on a proposed Sense Modality Hierarchy (sight > hearing > touch > taste, smell) than the source perception verbs on which they are based. We propose these findings can be explained by verb frequency asymmetries and the general tendency for sources of derivations to be more frequent than their targets. Moreover, it appears certain pairings (e.g., hear–smell) are recurrently associated via word formation, but others are typologically rare. Intriguingly, the typological patterning partially diverges from the patterning reported for colexification in the same domain. We suggest that while colexification is driven by conceptual resemblance between sensory meanings, cross-modal word formations tend to arise from grammaticalization processes of lexical specification, where additional material (e.g., a sensory noun) is collocated to a polysemous verb in order to disambiguate it in context. Together, these processes can account for the typological similarities and divergences between the two phenomena. More generally, this study highlights the need to consider conceptual, communicative and diachronic factors together in the mapping between words and meanings.
@article{norcliffe_word_2024, title = {Word formation patterns in the perception domain: {A} typological study of cross-modal semantic associations}, volume = {28}, number = {3}, issn = {1430-0532, 1613-415X}, shorttitle = {Word formation patterns in the perception domain}, url = {https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingty-2023-0038/html}, doi = {10.1515/lingty-2023-0038}, language = {en}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Linguistic Typology}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Majid, Asifa}, year = {2024} }
Vision verbs emerge first in English aquisition but touch, not audition, follows second

Lila San Roque, Elisabeth Norcliffe, and Asifa Majid

Cognitive Science , 48 (6) , 2024

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Words that describe sensory perception give insight into how language mediates human experience, and the acquisition of these words is one way to examine how we learn to categorize and communicate sensation. We examine the differential predictions of the typological prevalence hypothesis and embodiment hypothesis regarding the acquisition of perception verbs. Studies 1 and 2 examine the acquisition trajectories of perception verbs across 12 languages using parent questionnaire responses, while Study 3 examines their relative frequencies in English corpus data. We find the vision verbs see and look are acquired first, consistent with the typological prevalence hypothesis. However, for children at 12–23 months, touch—not audition—verbs take precedence in terms of their age of acquisition, frequency in child‐produced speech, and frequency in child‐directed speech, consistent with the embodiment hypothesis. Later at 24–35 months old, frequency rates are observably different and audition begins to align with what has previously been reported in adult English data. It seems the initial orientation to verbalizing touch over audition in child–caregiver interaction is especially related to the control of physically and socially appropriate behaviors. Taken together, the results indicate children’s acquisition of perception verbs arises from the complex interplay of embodiment, language‐specific input, and child‐directed socialization routines.
@article{san_roque_vision_2024, title = {Vision verbs emerge first in English aquisition but touch, not audition, follows second}, volume = {48}, issn = {0364-0213, 1551-6709}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.13469}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.13469}, language = {en}, number = {6}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Cognitive Science}, author = {San Roque, Lila and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Majid, Asifa}, year = {2024}, pages = {e13469} }
Experimental research in cross-linguistic psycholinguistics

Sebastian Sauppe, Caroline Andrews, and Elisabeth Norcliffe

In The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics , edited by Zufferey, Sandrine and Gygax, Pascal , Routledge , 2024

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In recent years, the field of psycholinguistics has seen an increased focus on the study of typologically diverse languages. Expanding cross-linguistic coverage is critical to tease apart those aspects of language processing that are general to the architecture of the human language processing system compared to those that are fine-tuned to the properties of the specific language one speaks. In this chapter, we present an overview of research in this area and describe in detail the kinds of experimental methods that are employed, with a particular focus on methods and procedures that have been developed for undertaking research on language processing outside of more familiar lab-based settings.
@incollection{sauppe_et_al_experimental_2024, address = {London ; New York}, series = {Routledge {Handbooks} in {L}inguistics}, title = {Experimental research in cross-linguistic psycholinguistics}, isbn = {978-1-00-339297-2}, booktitle = {The {Routledge} {H}andbook of {E}xperimental {L}inguistics}, publisher = {Routledge}, author = {Sauppe, Sebastian and Andrews, Caroline and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, editor = {Zufferey, Sandrine and Gygax, Pascal}, year = {2024}, keywords = {Essays, Linguistics, Experimental} }

2023

Anticipatory Processing in a Verb‐Initial Mayan Language: Eye‐Tracking Evidence During Sentence Comprehension in Tseltal

Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Penelope Brown, Falk Huettig, and Stephen C. Levinson

Cognitive Science , 47 (1) , 2023

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Abstract We present a visual world eye‐tracking study on Tseltal (a Mayan language) and investigate whether verbal information can be used to anticipate an upcoming referent. Basic word order in transitive sentences in Tseltal is Verb–Object–Subject (VOS). The verb is usually encountered first, making argument structure and syntactic information available at the outset, which should facilitate anticipation of the post‐verbal arguments. Tseltal speakers listened to verb‐initial sentences with either an object‐predictive verb (e.g., “eat”) or a general verb (e.g., “look for”) (e.g., “Ya slo’/sle ta stukel on te kereme,” Is eating/is looking (for) by himself the avocado the boy / “The boy is eating/is looking (for) an avocado by himself”) while seeing a visual display showing one potential referent (e.g., avocado) and three distractors (e.g., bag, toy car, coffee grinder). We manipulated verb type (predictive vs. general) and recorded participants’ eye movements while they listened and inspected the visual scene. Participants’ fixations to the target referent were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models. Shortly after hearing the predictive verb, participants fixated the target object before it was mentioned. In contrast, when the verb was general, fixations to the target only started to increase once the object was heard. Our results suggest that Tseltal hearers pre‐activate semantic features of the grammatical object prior to its linguistic expression. This provides evidence from a verb‐initial language for online incremental semantic interpretation and anticipatory processing during language comprehension. These processes are comparable to the ones identified in subject‐initial languages, which is consistent with the notion that different languages follow similar universal processing principles.
@article{garrido_rodriguez_anticipatory_2023, title = {Anticipatory {Processing} in a {Verb}‐{Initial} {Mayan} {Language}: {Eye}‐{Tracking} {Evidence} {During} {Sentence} {Comprehension} in {Tseltal}}, volume = {47}, issn = {0364-0213, 1551-6709}, shorttitle = {Anticipatory {Processing} in a {Verb}‐{Initial} {Mayan} {Language}}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.13219}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.13219}, language = {en}, number = {1}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Cognitive Science}, author = {Garrido Rodriguez, Gabriela and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Brown, Penelope and Huettig, Falk and Levinson, Stephen C.}, year = {2023}, pages = {e13292}, file = {Full Text:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/A5U4CJWU/Garrido Rodriguez et al. - 2023 - Anticipatory Processing in a Verb‐Initial Mayan La.pdf:application/pdf} }

2021

Neural signatures of syntactic variation in speech planning

Sebastian Sauppe, Kamal K. Choudhary, Nathalie Giroud, Damián E. Blasi, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Shikha Bhattamishra, and 5 more authors

PLOS Biology , 19 (1) , 2021

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Planning to speak is a challenge for the brain, and the challenge varies between and within languages. Yet, little is known about how neural processes react to these variable challenges beyond the planning of individual words. Here, we examine how fundamental differences in syntax shape the time course of sentence planning. Most languages treat alike (i.e., align with each other) the 2 uses of a word like “gardener” in “the gardener crouched” and in “the gardener planted trees.” A minority keeps these formally distinct by adding special marking in 1 case, and some languages display both aligned and nonaligned expressions. Exploiting such a contrast in Hindi, we used electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking to suggest that this difference is associated with distinct patterns of neural processing and gaze behavior during early planning stages, preceding phonological word form preparation. Planning sentences with aligned expressions induces larger synchronization in the theta frequency band, suggesting higher working memory engagement, and more visual attention to agents than planning nonaligned sentences, suggesting delayed commitment to the relational details of the event. Furthermore, plain, unmarked expressions are associated with larger desynchronization in the alpha band than expressions with special markers, suggesting more engagement in information processing to keep overlapping structures distinct during planning. Our findings contrast with the observation that the form of aligned expressions is simpler, and they suggest that the global preference for alignment is driven not by its neurophysiological effect on sentence planning but by other sources, possibly by aspects of production flexibility and fluency or by sentence comprehension. This challenges current theories on how production and comprehension may affect the evolution and distribution of syntactic variants in the world’s languages.
@article{sauppe_neural_2021, title = {Neural signatures of syntactic variation in speech planning}, volume = {19}, issn = {1545-7885}, url = {https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001038}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3001038}, language = {en}, number = {1}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {PLOS Biology}, author = {Sauppe, Sebastian and Choudhary, Kamal K. and Giroud, Nathalie and Blasi, Damián E. and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Bhattamishra, Shikha and Gulati, Mahima and Egurtzegi, Aitor and Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina and Meyer, Martin and Bickel, Balthasar}, editor = {Poeppel, David}, year = {2021}, pages = {e3001038}, file = {Full Text:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/65VHDLDH/Sauppe et al. - 2021 - Neural signatures of syntactic variation in speech.pdf:application/pdf} }

2018

Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs are grounded in interaction

Lila San Roque, Kobin H. Kendrick, Elisabeth Norcliffe, and Asifa Majid

Cognitive Linguistics , 29 (3) , 2018

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Apart from references to perception, words such as see and listen have shared, non-literal meanings across diverse languages. Such cross-linguistic meanings have not been systematically investigated as they appear in their natural home — informal spoken interaction. We present a qualitative examination of the semantic associations of perception verbs based on recorded everyday conversation in thirteen diverse languages. Across these diverse communities, spontaneous interaction provides evidence for two commonly-discussed extensions of perception verbs — perception~cognition, hearing~linguistic communication — as well as illustrating other meanings and functions (e.g., the use of perception verbs as discourse markers) that have been less appreciated heretofore. The range of usage that is readily observable in informal conversation makes it clear that this type of data must take center stage for the empirically grounded study of semantics. Moreover, these data suggest that commonalities in polysemous meanings may rely not only on universal cognition, but also on the universal exigencies of social interaction.
@article{san_roque_universal_2018, title = {Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs are grounded in interaction}, volume = {29}, issn = {1613-3641, 0936-5907}, url = {https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cog-2017-0034/html}, doi = {10.1515/cog-2017-0034}, language = {en}, number = {3}, urldate = {2021-07-28}, journal = {Cognitive Linguistics}, author = {San Roque, Lila and Kendrick, Kobin H. and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Majid, Asifa}, year = {2018}, pages = {371--406}, file = {Full Text:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/VZ4F7XXI/San Roque et al. - 2018 - Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs a.pdf:application/pdf} }
Egophoricity and evidentiality in Guambiano (Nam Trik)

Elisabeth Norcliffe

In Egophoricity , edited by Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and San Roque, Lila , John Benjamins , 2018

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Egophoric verbal marking is a typological feature common to Barbacoan languages, but otherwise unknown in the Andean sphere. he verbal systems of three out of the four living Barbacoan languages, Cha’palaa, Tsaiki and Awa Pit, have previously been shown to express egophoric contrasts. he status of Guambiano has, however, remained uncertain. In this chapter, I show that there are in fact two layers of egophoric or egophoric-like marking visible in Guambiano’s grammar. Guambiano patterns with certain other (non-Barba- coan) languages in having ego-categories which function within a broader evidential system. It is additionally possible to detect what is possibly a more archaic layer of egophoric marking in Guambiano’s verbal system. his marking may be inherited from a common Barbacoan system, thus pointing to a potential genealogical basis for the egophoric patterning common to these languages. he multiple formal expressions of egophoricity apparent both within and across the four languages reveal how egophoric contrasts are susceptible to structural renewal, suggesting a pan-Barbacoan preoccupation with the linguistic encoding of self-knowledge.
@incollection{floyd_egophoricity_2018, address = {Amsterdam}, title = {Egophoricity and evidentiality in {Guambiano} ({Nam} {Trik})}, volume = {118}, isbn = {978-90-272-0699-2 978-90-272-6554-8}, url = {https://benjamins.com/catalog/tsl.118.10nor}, language = {en}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, booktitle = {Egophoricity}, publisher = {John Benjamins}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, editor = {Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and San Roque, Lila}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1075/tsl.118.10nor}, pages = {305--345} }

Egophoricity

Simeon Floyd, Elisabeth Norcliffe and Lila San Roque (editors)

John Benjamins , 2018

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  address = {Amsterdam},
  series = {Typological {Studies} in {Language}},
  title = {Egophoricity},
  volume = {118},
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  publisher = {John Benjamins},
  editor = {Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and San Roque, Lila},
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}

Egophoricity: An introduction

Lila San Roque, Simeon Floyd, and Elisabeth Norcliffe

In Egophoricity , edited by Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and San Roque, Lila , John Benjamins , 2018

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@incollection{floyd_egophoricity_2018-2,
  address = {Amsterdam},
  title = {Egophoricity: {An} introduction},
  volume = {118},
  isbn = {978-90-272-0699-2 978-90-272-6554-8},
  shorttitle = {Chapter 1. {Egophoricity}},
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  pages = {1--78}
}

2017

Evidentiality and interrogativity

Lila San Roque, Simeon Floyd, and Elisabeth Norcliffe

Lingua , 186-187 , 2017

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Understanding of evidentials is incomplete without consideration of their behaviour in interrogative contexts. We discuss key formal, semantic, and pragmatic features of cross-linguistic variation concerning the use of evidential markers in interrogative clauses. Cross-linguistic data suggest that an exclusively speaker-centric view of evidentiality is not sufficient to explain the semantics of information source marking, as in many languages it is typical for evidentials in questions to represent addressee perspective. Comparison of evidentiality and the related phenomenon of egophoricity emphasises how knowledge-based linguistic systems reflect attention to the way knowledge is distributed among participants in the speech situation.
@article{san_roque_evidentiality_2017, title = {Evidentiality and interrogativity}, volume = {186-187}, issn = {00243841}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0024384114002630}, doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2014.11.003}, language = {en}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Lingua}, author = {San Roque, Lila and Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, year = {2017}, pages = {120--143}, file = {Full Text:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/V7SIST3A/San Roque et al. - 2017 - Evidentiality and interrogativity.pdf:application/pdf} }

2016

Switch reference systems in the Barbacoan languages and their neighbors

Simeon Floyd and Elisabeth Norcliffe

In Switch Reference 2.0 , edited by Van Gijn, Rik and Hammond, Jeremy , John Benjamins , 2016

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This chapter surveys the available data on Barbacoan languages and their neighbors to explore a case study of switch reference within a single language family and in a situation of areal contact. To the extent possible given the available data, we weigh accounts appealing to common inheritance and areal convergence to ask what combination of factors led to the current state of these languages. We discuss the areal distribution of switch reference systems in the northwest Andean region, the different types of systems and degrees of complexity observed, and scenarios of contact and convergence, particularly in the case of Barbacoan and Ecuadorian Quechua. We then cover each of the Barbacoan languages’ systems (with the exception of Totoró, represented by its close relative Guambiano), identifying limited formal cognates, primarily between closely-related Tsafiki and Cha’palaa, as well as broader functional similarities, particularly in terms of topic/focus markers. We account for the current state of affairs with a complex scenario of areal prevalence of switch reference combined with deep structural family inheritance and formal restructuring of the systems over time.
@incollection{van_gijn_switch_2016, address = {Amsterdam}, title = {Switch reference systems in the {Barbacoan} languages and their neighbors}, volume = {114}, isbn = {978-90-272-0695-4 978-90-272-6677-4}, url = {https://benjamins.com/catalog/tsl.114.06flo}, language = {en}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, booktitle = {Switch Reference 2.0}, publisher = {John Benjamins}, author = {Floyd, Simeon and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, editor = {Van Gijn, Rik and Hammond, Jeremy}, year = {2016}, doi = {10.1075/tsl.114.06flo}, pages = {207--230} }
Predicting head-marking variability in Yucatec Maya relative clause production

Elisabeth Norcliffe and T. Florian Jaeger

Language and Cognition , 8 (2) , 2016

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Recent proposals hold that the cognitive systems underlying language production exhibit computational properties that facilitate communicative efficiency, i.e., an efficient trade-off between production ease and robust information transmission. We contribute to the cross-linguistic evaluation of the communicative efficiency hypothesis by investigating speakers’ preferences in the production of a typologically rare head-marking alternation that occurs in relative clause constructions in Yucatec Maya. In a sentence recall study, we find that speakers of Yucatec Maya prefer to use reduced forms of relative clause verbs when the relative clause is more contextually expected. This result is consistent with communicative efficiency and thus supports its typological generalizability. We compare two types of cue to the presence of a relative clause, pragmatic cues previously investigated in other languages and a highly predictive morphosyntactic cue specific to Yucatec. We find that Yucatec speakers’ preferences for a reduced verb form are primarily conditioned on the more informative cue. This demonstrates the role of both general principles of language production and their language-specific realizations.
@article{norcliffe_predicting_2016, title = {Predicting head-marking variability in {Yucatec} {Maya} relative clause production}, volume = {8}, copyright = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms}, issn = {1866-9808, 1866-9859}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980814000398/type/journal_article}, doi = {10.1017/langcog.2014.39}, language = {en}, number = {2}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Language and Cognition}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Jaeger, T. Florian}, year = {2016}, pages = {167--205} }

2015

Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultures, but the ranking of non-visual verbs varies

Lila San Roque, Kobin H. Kendrick, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Penelope Brown, Rebecca Defina, Mark Dingemanse, and 8 more authors

Cognitive Linguistics , 26 (1) , 2015

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To what extent does perceptual language reflect universals of experience and cognition, and to what extent is it shaped by particular cultural preoccupations? This paper investigates the universality~relativity of perceptual language by examining the use of basic perception terms in spontaneous conversation across 13 diverse languages and cultures. We analyze the frequency of perception words to test two universalist hypotheses: that sight is always a dominant sense, and that the relative ranking of the senses will be the same across different cultures. We find that references to sight outstrip references to the other senses, suggesting a pan-human preoccupation with visual phenomena. However, the relative frequency of the other senses was found to vary cross-linguistically. Cultural relativity was conspicuous as exemplified by the high ranking of smell in Semai, an Aslian language. Together these results suggest a place for both universal constraints and cultural shaping of the language of perception.
@article{san_roque_vision_2015, title = {Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultures, but the ranking of non-visual verbs varies}, volume = {26}, issn = {1613-3641, 0936-5907}, url = {https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cog-2014-0089/html}, doi = {10.1515/cog-2014-0089}, number = {1}, urldate = {2021-07-27}, journal = {Cognitive Linguistics}, author = {San Roque, Lila and Kendrick, Kobin H. and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Brown, Penelope and Defina, Rebecca and Dingemanse, Mark and Dirksmeyer, Tyko and Enfield, Nj and Floyd, Simeon and Hammond, Jeremy and Rossi, Giovanni and Tufvesson, Sylvia and van Putten, Saskia and Majid, Asifa}, year = {2015}, pages = {31--60}, file = {Submitted Version:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/RFV9X5WL/San Roque et al. - 2015 - Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultu.pdf:application/pdf} }
Cross-linguistic psycholinguistics and its critical role in theory development: early beginnings and recent advances

Elisabeth Norcliffe, Alice C. Harris, and T. Florian Jaeger

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience , 30 (9) , 2015

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Recent years have seen a small but growing body of psycholinguistic research focused on typologically diverse languages. This represents an important development for the field, where theorising is still largely guided by the often implicit assumption of universality. This paper introduces a special issue of Language, Cognition and Neuroscience devoted to the topic of cross-linguistic and field-based approaches to the study of psycholinguistics. The papers in this issue draw on data from a variety of genetically and areally divergent languages, to address questions in the production and comprehension of phonology, morphology, words, and sentences. To contextualise these studies, we provide an overview of the field of cross-linguistic psycholinguistics, from its early beginnings to the present day, highlighting instances where cross-linguistic data have significantly contributed to psycholinguistic theorising.
@article{norcliffe_cross-linguistic_2015, title = {Cross-linguistic psycholinguistics and its critical role in theory development: early beginnings and recent advances}, volume = {30}, issn = {2327-3798, 2327-3801}, shorttitle = {Cross-linguistic psycholinguistics and its critical role in theory development}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23273798.2015.1080373}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2015.1080373}, language = {en}, number = {9}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Harris, Alice C. and Jaeger, T. Florian}, year = {2015}, pages = {1009--1032} }
Word order affects the time course of sentence formulation in Tzeltal

Elisabeth Norcliffe, Agnieszka E. Konopka, Penelope Brown, and Stephen C. Levinson

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience , 30 (9) , 2015

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The scope of planning during sentence formulation is known to be flexible, as it can be influenced by speakers’ communicative goals and language production pressures (among other factors). Two eye-tracked picture description experiments tested whether the time course of formulation is also modulated by grammatical structure and thus whether differences in linear word order across languages affect the breadth and order of conceptual and linguistic encoding operations. Native speakers of Tzeltal [a primarily verb–object–subject (VOS) language] and Dutch [a subject–verb–object (SVO) language] described pictures of transitive events. Analyses compared speakers’ choice of sentence structure across events with more accessible and less accessible characters as well as the time course of formulation for sentences with different word orders. Character accessibility influenced subject selection in both languages in subject-initial and subject- final sentences, ruling against a radically incremental formulation process. In Tzeltal, subject-initial word orders were preferred over verb-initial orders when event characters had matching animacy features, suggesting a possible role for similarity-based interference in influencing word order choice. Time course analyses revealed a strong effect of sentence structure on formulation: In subject-initial sentences, in both Tzeltal and Dutch, event characters were largely fixated sequentially, while in verb-initial sentences in Tzeltal, relational information received priority over encoding of either character during the earliest stages of formulation. The results show a tight parallelism between grammatical structure and the order of encoding operations carried out during sentence formulation.
@article{norcliffe_word_2015, title = {Word order affects the time course of sentence formulation in {Tzeltal}}, volume = {30}, issn = {2327-3798, 2327-3801}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23273798.2015.1006238}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2015.1006238}, language = {en}, number = {9}, urldate = {2024-09-11}, journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Konopka, Agnieszka E. and Brown, Penelope and Levinson, Stephen C.}, year = {2015}, pages = {1187--1208}, file = {Full Text:/Users/elisabethnorcliffe/Zotero/storage/WSVLNGQC/Norcliffe et al. - 2015 - Word order affects the time course of sentence for.pdf:application/pdf} }

2013

Dependencies first: Eye tracking evidence from sentence production in Tagalog

Sebastian Sauppe, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Agnieszka. E. Konopka, Robert D. Jr. Van Valin, and Stephen. C. Levinson

In Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , edited by Knauff, M. and Pauen, M. and Sebanz, N. and Wachsmuth, I. , Cognitive Science Society , 2013

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We investigated the time course of sentence formulation in Tagalog, a verb-initial language in which the verb obligatorily agrees with one of its arguments. Eye-tracked participants described pictures of transitive events. Fixations to the two characters in the events were compared across sentences differing in agreement marking and post-verbal word order. Fixation patterns show evidence for two temporally dissociated phases in Tagalog sentence production. The first, driven by verb agreement, involves early linking of concepts to syntactic functions; the second, driven by word order, involves incremental lexical encoding of these concepts. These results suggest that even the earliest stages of sentence formulation may be guided by a language’s grammatical structure.
@inproceedings{sauppe_dependencies_2013, address = {Austin, Texas}, title = {Dependencies first: {Eye} tracking evidence from sentence production in {Tagalog}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 35th {Annual} {Meeting} of the {Cognitive} {Science} {Society}}, publisher = {Cognitive Science Society}, author = {Sauppe, Sebastian and Norcliffe, Elisabeth and Konopka, Agnieszka. E. and Van Valin, Robert D. Jr. and Levinson, Stephen. C.}, editor = {Knauff, M. and Pauen, M. and Sebanz, N. and Wachsmuth, I.}, year = {2013}, pages = {1265--1270}, }

The core and the periphery: data-driven perspectives on syntax inspired by Ivan A. Sag

Philipp Hofmeister and Elisabeth Norcliffe (editors)

CSLI Publications , 2013

Bib

@book{hofmeister_core_2013,
  address = {Stanford},
  series = {{CSLI} lecture notes},
  title = {The core and the periphery: data-driven perspectives on syntax inspired by {Ivan} {A}. {Sag}},
  isbn = {978-1-57586-721-2 978-1-57586-720-5},
  shorttitle = {The core and the periphery},
  language = {eng},
  number = {210},
  publisher = {CSLI Publications},
  editor = {Hofmeister, Philipp and Norcliffe, Elisabeth},
  year = {2013},
  annote = {Includes bibliographical references and index}
}

Does resumption facilitate sentence comprehension?

In The core and the periphery: data-driven perspectives on syntax inspired by Ivan A. Sag , edited by Hofmeister, Philipp and Norcliffe, Elisabeth , CSLI Publications , 2013

Bib

@incollection{hofmeister_does_2013,
  address = {Stanford},
  series = {{CSLI} lecture notes},
  title = {Does resumption facilitate sentence comprehension?},
  isbn = {978-1-57586-721-2 978-1-57586-720-5},
  language = {eng},
  number = {210},
  booktitle = {The core and the periphery: data-driven perspectives on syntax inspired by {Ivan} {A}. {Sag}},
  publisher = {CSLI Publications},
  editor = {Hofmeister, Philipp and Norcliffe, Elisabeth},
  year = {2013}
}

2009

Revisiting Agent Focus in Yucatec

Elisabeth Norcliffe

In New perspectives in Mayan Linguistics , edited by Avelino, Heriberto and Coon, Jessica and Norcliffe, Elisabeth , MIT Working Papers in Linguistics , 2009

Bib

@incollection{norcliffe_revisiting_2009,
  title = {Revisiting {Agent} {Focus} in {Yucatec}},
  volume = {59},
  booktitle = {New perspectives in {Mayan} {Linguistics}},
  publisher = {MIT Working Papers in Linguistics},
  author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth},
  editor = {Avelino, Heriberto and Coon, Jessica and Norcliffe, Elisabeth},
  year = {2009}
}

Head-marking in usage and grammar: A study of variation and change in Yucatec Maya

Elisabeth Norcliffe

Stanford University, 2009

Bib

@phdthesis{norcliffe_head-marking_2009,
  title = {Head-marking in usage and grammar: {A} study of variation and change in {Yucatec} {Maya}},
  school = {Stanford University},
  author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth},
  abtract = {Many Mayan languages make use of a special dependent verb form (the Agent Focus, or AF verb form), which alternates with the normal transitive verb form (the synthetic verb form) of main clauses when the subject of a transitive verb is focused, questioned or relativized. It has been a centerpiece of research in Mayan morphosyntax over the last forty years, due to its puzzling formal and distributional properties. In this dissertation I show how a usage-oriented approach to the phenomenon can provide important insights into this area of grammar which resists any categorical explanation.},
  year = {2009}
}

The Cross-linguistic Study of Sentence Production

T. Florian Jaeger and Elisabeth Norcliffe

Language and Linguistics Compass , 3 (4) , 2009

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The mechanisms underlying language production are often assumed to be universal, and hence not contingent on a speaker’s language. This assumption is problematic for at least two reasons. Given the typological diversity of the world’s languages, only a small subset of languages has actually been studied psycholinguistically. And, in some cases, these investigations have returned results that at least superficially raise doubt about the assumption of universal production mechanisms. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the need for more psycholinguistic work on a typologically more diverse set of languages. We summarize cross-linguistic work on sentence production (specifically: grammatical encoding), focusing on examples where such work has improved our theoretical understanding beyond what studies on English alone could have achieved. But cross-linguistic research has much to offer beyond the testing of existing hypotheses: it can guide the development of theories by revealing the full extent of the human ability to produce language structures. We discuss the potential for interdisciplinary collaborations, and close with a remark on the impact of language endangerment on psycholinguistic research on understudied languages.
@article{jaeger_cross-linguistic_2009, title = {The {Cross}-linguistic {Study} of {Sentence} {Production}}, volume = {3}, number = {4}, journal = {Language and Linguistics Compass}, author = {Jaeger, T. Florian and Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, year = {2009}, pages = {866--887} }

2007

Constructing Spanish complex predicates

Elisabeth Norcliffe

In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar , edited by Mueller, S. , CSLI Publications , 2007

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Abeillé and Godard (2007) describe a variety of Spanish whose complex predicates differ structurally from the more familiar flat VP type of complex predicate common to other varieties of Spanish and Romance. I present a verb cluster analysis of this variety which both captures these structural differences, and at the same time preserves those features that are common across both construction types. Coupled with a simple morphological treatment of affixation, this analysis predicts the range of ‘clitic climbing’facts. The parsimony of the affixation analysis is afforded by an alternative approach to the constraints on reflexive affix distribution in Spanish complex predicates. I depart radically from previous morpho-lexical approaches to the phenomenon, instead showing how the constraints follow from independently motivated binding principles. This approach not only handles more of the Spanish data, but also has the potential to provide a unified account of the phenomenon across Romance.
@inproceedings{norcliffe_constructing_2007, title = {Constructing {Spanish} complex predicates}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 14th {International} {Conference} on {Head} {Driven} {Phrase} {Structure} {Grammar}}, publisher = {CSLI Publications}, author = {Norcliffe, Elisabeth}, editor = {Mueller, S.}, year = {2007}, pages = {194--213} }