Words like 'this' and 'that' direct attention across languages

Attention is a powerful tool of communication, guiding our interactions and shaping our understanding of the world around us. More specifically, the little demonstrative words that direct attention – like “this” and “that” – are universal tools across all languages, serving as crucial linguistic elements that help us navigate and interpret our surroundings.

These words are known as demonstratives, and their use varies significantly from language to language, reflecting cultural and cognitive differences in how attention is directed and perceived.

English and Hebrew, for example, have two demonstratives, while Spanish and Japanese employ a more complex three-word system, offering nuanced ways to indicate proximity and focus.

Linking language to attention

Demonstratives are not merely words; they are social guides, playing a crucial role in our interactions and communication.

These words help listeners to focus on specific references and establish “joint attention,” an element that the researchers describe as a capacity that underpins shared experiences and mutual understanding.

It is this perceived interdependence between language and social cognition that makes demonstratives a fascinating and rich subject of study, offering insights into the intricate ways in which we connect with others and perceive our environment.

Connection to social cognition

“The reason why we were interested in demonstratives is because of their connection to social cognition: demonstratives are used to direct the listener’s attention to a referent and establish joint attention. Engaging in joint attention is a uniquely human capacity that links language to social cognition in communication,” noted study co-author Paula Rubio-Fernández from the Max Planck Institute.

“Because demonstratives are universal, emerged early in language evolution and are acquired early in child development, they offer an ideal test case for the interdependence between these two fundamentally human capacities.”

Demonstratives for attention

Opinions differ on whether the use of demonstratives to direct a listener’s attention is inherently part of the word’s meaning (semantics) or if it arises from broader principles of social cognition (pragmatics) that govern how we interact and communicate.

To uncover the truth, researchers from several universities, including the noted Max Planck Institute, conducted an in-depth study using computational modeling and a series of experiments.

The experiments involved participants who spoke ten different languages from eight distinct language groups, allowing for a diverse examination of linguistic patterns.

In the study, participants took on the role of a “speaker” in an online task. They observed pictures of a “listener” and were asked to choose a demonstrative from their native language to request an object.

The setup varied: the listener was either already looking at the intended object or at one of four other objects, creating different scenarios to test how demonstratives are used to direct attention and establish communication.

Beyond the spatial meaning of demonstratives

The findings of the research offer a deeper understanding of how demonstratives function. Participants were found to be sensitive not just to the physical location of the target object but also to the listener’s attention and gaze.

This sensitivity highlighted the dynamic nature of demonstratives, as their meaning indeed varied both within and across languages.

For instance, the “near” demonstrative could refer to an object “close to me,” but it could also be used to emphasize joint attention (we are both looking at) or to subtly steer the listener’s attention towards the speaker, depending on the context and the speaker’s intention.

In languages with a three-word system, the medial word often specifically indicated joint attention, providing a unique linguistic mechanism for speakers to establish a shared focus and enhance mutual understanding in communication.

“Our work sheds light on the interface between social cognition and language,” said Rubio-Fernández. “We show that representations of interlocutor attention are embedded into one of the most basic word classes that appear across all languages: demonstratives.”

“Our work also shows through Bayesian computational modeling that this form of attention manipulation cannot be explained via pragmatic reasoning external to the linguistic system, suggesting that mentalistic representations are embedded in a universal component of language.”

The research truly underlines the powerful role that language – even the simplest of words – plays in social interaction and cognition.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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