What are the most important words? On average, one in every seven utterances in any conversation features small words like ‘m-hmm’, ‘oh’, or ‘huh?’. These humble words streamline our conversations, enable complex language, and help children grasp the fundamentals of the language system. They are, to use a metaphor developed in this project, “words below the waterline”: easily overlooked technologies that help keep language balanced, agile, and easy to steer while in motion. In...| Elementary particles of conversation
Panel A illustrates the notion of structure mapping. A sound wave representing the spoken Korean word tuˈgɯndugɯn ‘heartbeat’ is compared to another sound wave showing an actual heartbeat. Nodes and edges point out linkages across repeated structures for both. There are at least three levels and structures at which mappings can be made, yielding a cumulative iconicity score of 3.| Mark Dingemanse
