Increased low-certainty modal verb use in English relative to Dutch may decrease subjective representations of the probability of future events Public

Abstract

This study examines future time reference (FTR) in Dutch and English speakers and its effects on subjective representations of the probability of future events. FTR refers to any linguistic utterance that refers to a future event (Chen, 2013; Robertson, 2022). Dutch speakers, whose language doesn’t oblige the usage of FTR to speak about future events, value future events more than English speakers, whose language obliges the usage of FTR. The hypothesized reason is that English speakers use more low-certainty verbs when referencing future events, causing them to have less subjective feelings about the probability of future events and value them less. A FTR elicitation task and a subjective certainty rating task were used to test the hypotheses. Participants were asked to conjugate main verbs according to the context of the situation and information about the likelihood of the situation happening. They were then asked to look at a series of images with differing proportions of red and blue dots. After, participants were asked how likely a random dot selected from those images would be red. The results offered inconclusive support for the hypotheses. Dutch and English speakers differed in their usage of low-certainty modal verbs with English speakers using more low-certainty modal verbs. The mediation analysis results showed an effect that went in the predicted direction but fell short of significance. It is suggested the study may be underpowered. This study provides an initial glimpse into how talk about future events might impact people’s judgments the probability of their occurrence.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                        

LITERATURE REVIEW                                                                                                            

Linguistic Relativity and Future Time: Benjamin Whorf, the Hopi Time Controversy 

Linguistic Savings Hypothesis (Keith Chen, 2013)                                                        

The Modal Hypothesis (Robertson, 2022)                                                                      

The Grammar of Future Time Reference: Tense and Modality                                       

Certainty Language                                                                                                          

Hypotheses                                                                                                                      

METHOD                                                                                                                                    

           Ethics Approval                                                                                                                

Participants                                                                                                                       

           Materials and Measures                                                                                                    

           Procedure and Design                                                                                                       

RESULTS                                                                                                                                      

           Data Preparation                                                                                                               

           Overall Descriptives of Measures                                                                                     

           Test of Hypotheses                                                                                                           

DISCUSSION                                                                                                                               

           Limitations                                                                                                                        

           Implications                                                                                                                       

           Future Directions                                                                                                              

REFERENCES                                                                                                                              

APPENDICES                                                                                                                               

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Linguistics and Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Linguistics Psychology, Cognitive
Mot-clé	Cross-linguistic differences Non-linguistic Cognition Linguistic Relativity
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Phillip Wolff, Emory University
Committee Members	Philip Kragel, Emory University Marjorie Pak, Emory University

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