In everyday conversation, understanding the context in which words are spoken is as crucial as the words themselves. Imagine it’s pouring rain and someone comments on the “lovely weather.” Without recognizing the sarcasm, the true meaning is lost. This skill of interpreting non-literal language is known as pragmatic language ability, encompassing the understanding of sarcasm, metaphors, and conversational nuances.
According to Evelina Fedorenko, an MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, “Pragmatics is trying to reason about why somebody might say something, and what is the message they’re trying to convey given that they put it in this particular way.” New research led by Fedorenko and her colleagues has identified that these abilities can be categorized based on the types of inferences they require. The study, involving 800 participants, revealed three clusters of pragmatic skills, suggesting similar underlying neural processes.
The Importance of Context in Language
Historically, research on language comprehension has focused on the literal meanings of words and their syntactic arrangements. However, to fully grasp what someone is saying, context is essential. Fedorenko emphasizes, “Language is about getting meanings across, and that often requires taking into account many different kinds of information – such as the social context, the visual context, or the present topic of the conversation.”
Edward Gibson, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences, illustrates this with a simple phrase like “people are leaving.” Depending on the context, this could indicate the end of a party or suggest that the event is not enjoyable. “When you say a sentence, there’s a literal meaning to it, but how you interpret that literal meaning depends on the context,” Gibson explains.
Research Methodology and Findings
A decade ago, with support from the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT, Fedorenko and Gibson embarked on a study to delineate the processing involved in pragmatic language skills. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a common tool for such research, the tasks designed for this study were not suitable for scanning. Instead, the researchers employed an “individual differences” approach, analyzing a large group of people performing various tasks to identify common brain processes.
The study’s first phase, led by Olessia Jouravlev, involved assembling and creating tasks requiring pragmatic skills, totaling 20. These tasks included understanding humor, sarcasm, and intonation changes. “People really find ways to communicate creatively and indirectly and non-literally, and this battery of tasks captures that,” says Sammy Floyd, a former MIT postdoc.
Components of Pragmatic Ability
Participants were recruited via an online platform to complete the tasks, which took approximately eight hours. The initial analysis of 400 participants revealed three task clusters: social context, general world knowledge, and intonation. The findings were corroborated with another group of 400 participants, confirming that general intelligence or auditory processing ability did not influence the results.
Future research aims to use brain imaging to explore correlations between these pragmatic components and brain activity in specific regions. Previous studies suggest that brain imaging often reflects distinctions found in individual difference studies and can link abilities to neural systems like the core language or theory of mind systems.
Implications and Future Directions
This research could significantly impact studies of individuals with autism, who may struggle with social cues, by pinpointing the nature and extent of these challenges. Additionally, examining cultural differences could provide insights into how language processing varies across cultures. Jouravlev notes, “In Russian, which happens to be my native language, people are more direct. So perhaps there might be some differences in how native speakers of Russian process indirect requests compared to speakers of English.”
The study was supported by the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. As researchers continue to unravel the complexities of pragmatic language, their findings promise to enhance our understanding of communication and its neural underpinnings, offering potential applications in education, therapy, and cross-cultural communication.
