Conferenza del Prof. Minoru Karasawa

29 gennaio alle ore 10.00 presso via venezia 15

29.01.2015

Abstract:
Research in causal attribution and blame has identified psychological processes that govern responsibility judgments across different cultures with a substantial level of universality. Specifically, the locus of causality and perceived controllability seem to be among the fundamental causal dimensions that commonly determine judgment of responsibility and blameworthiness. In contrast, specific patterns of relationship between these psychological processes and the use of language expressing blame are likely to be constrained by language-specific rules. On the basis of experimental data collected from Japanese and French speakers, I will discuss such commonalities as well as indigenous aspects of inferential processes and linguistic behavior. Our data suggests that responsibility judgments may follow universal principles of causal attribution and blaming, whereas linguistic choices, such as the use of transitive versus intransitive verbs, showed a great deal of variations, even within the same language, depending on specific contexts of the event. However, French speakers showed greater consistency in the association between the cognitive and linguistic representations than did Japanese. Potential sources of these cross-linguistic/cultural differences will be discussed, including the limitation of applying the grammatical framework mainly developed on the basis of Western languages to other languages.