Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Γλωσσολογία: θεωρία και εφαρμογέςLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Supervisors info:
Χατζηδάκη Άννα, Λέκτορας, Τμήμα Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Γλώσσας-Γλωσσολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Γεωργιαφέντης Μιχάλης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Γλώσσας-Γλωσσολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Λαβίδας Νικόλαος, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας, Τομέας Γλώσσας-Γλωσσολογίας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Original Title:
Framing effect, Foreign Language effect and the role of Syntax: What modulates the framing effect?
Translated title:
Framing effect, Foreign Language effect and the role of Syntax: What modulates the framing effect?
Summary:
This paper explores the phenomenon of people’s choices changing according to the way a certain decision-making problem is presented (i.e. a loss or a gain situation) which is termed the “framing effect”. People tend to be risk averse (i.e. they avoid taking risks) when they are presented with a gain frame and risk seeking (i.e. they take risks) when they are presented with a loss frame situation (Tversky & Kahneman, 1986). The other phenomenon examined here is the “Foreign Language effect” which supposes that when a decision problem is presented in a foreign language the framing effect is reduced. These two phenomena have been under investigation over the last decades. The last phenomenon that is going to be investigated in the present paper is the role of syntax in the framing effect which may be a new component in the framing effect equation. This paper’s purpose is to replicate previous findings, namely that the framing effect also appears in another language not tested before, Greek, and that the framing effect will be reduced in Greek speakers’ foreign language (English). A second goal is to investigate whether the framing effect will be altered when the theme abandons its conventional initial position in Greek while this position is occupied by the rheme which will be followed by the theme. More specifically, if the framing effect is further increased when the essence of the topic (rheme) precedes the topic itself (theme) while at the same time the rheme of the clause contains an emotional word regarding health issues. The data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 242 students of the English Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). The questionnaire, apart from participants’ personal information, included a decision problem, the Asian disease problem, and the respondents had to choose either one of the two options given according to the framing of the problem (gain or loss frame scenario). Participants were presented with the decision problem either in their native language (Greek) or in their second/foreign language (English) and participants who were given the Greek texts were either presented with the decision-making problem where the theme was in initial position, or the problem where the rheme occupied the initial position. The surprising outcome of this study is that the framing effect is present in all conditions and the Foreign Language effect is absent from where it was expected to be found. What is more, the changes in the word order of the clause (theme-rheme order) did not provoke a strong enough modulation in the framing effect.
Main subject category:
Language – Literature
Keywords:
framing effect, Foreign Language effect, theme order, frame, Theme-Rheme, risk averse, risk seeking.
