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

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Diglossia; Generics; Language; Natural pedagogy; Universality.