Elephants are Gray: Linguistic Sensitivity and the Use of Generic Utterances in Pedagogical and Nonpedagogical Contexts

• Published in: Cognitive science Vol. 46; no. 7; pp. e13173 - n/a
• Main Authors: Markwalder, Ursina, Saalbach, Henrik, Schalk, Lennart
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley 01.07.2022; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Cross Cultural Studies; Dialects; Diglossia; Educational Environment; Effect Size; Foreign Countries; Generics; German; Language; Language Usage; Language Variation; Metalinguistics; Natural pedagogy; Regular; Sensitivity analysis; Speech Communication; Teaching Methods; Universality; Switzerland; Germany
• ISSN: 0364-0213; 1551-6709
• DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13173

Prior research indicates that humans adapt their language depending on context. This linguistic sensitivity has been suggested to indicate a natural pedagogy shared by all humans. This sensitivity has, however, only been demonstrated with English‐speaking samples thus far. In two studies, we followed the experimental procedure of the original study to replicate their findings with German‐speaking samples. With Study 2 conducted in the diglossic environment of the German‐speaking part of Switzerland, we were additionally able to provide a first test for whether this sensitivity is restricted to the language spoken in formal educational settings or occurs also in everyday language. Across both studies, we found a more frequent use of generic utterances in the pedagogical context than in the nonpedagogical context, both in Germany (Study 1) and in Switzerland (Study 2). These results and the strong effect sizes provide clear support for a natural pedagogy.