On the different uses of linguistic abstractness: from LIB to LEB and beyond

✍ Scribed by Klaus Fiedler; Matthias Bluemke; Malte Friese; Wilhelm Hofmann

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 124 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.158

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Linguistic abstractness has been shown to mediate persuasive and attributional effects of communication. The linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) refers to the tendency to describe positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviors more abstractly than negative ingroup and positive outgroup behavior. Recently, the LIB was shown to reflect to a large extent a linguistic expectancy bias (LEB). Abstract language need not have an ingroup‐serving function, but may be used to communicate expected information in a concise and condensed manner. The present research shows that the reverse may also be true. When the interaction goal is not merely to convey information that is shared anyway because it is typical of the communication target but to transmit unshared information (known to the communicator but new to the recipient), then it may be necessary to express (explain, teach, interpret) unexpected ideas or deviant attitudes in abstract, interpretive terms. The joint operation of both principles was demonstrated within the same experimental task. In communications about East Germans, more abstract predicates were used in typically East German domains (LEB). However, more abstract terms were also used when messages deviated from the recipient's prior attitude. A conceptual framework is proposed to integrate these findings. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.