Céline Pozniak

This project is funded by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (n° ANR-25-CE28-0525).

The SoPHIa project aims to refine psycholinguistic models by integrating the social factor into language processing. Current models, such as the noisy channel models, focus primarily on linguistic aspects, neglecting the social meaning of linguistic expressions. SoPHIa proposes to adapt these models to include social dimensions, suggesting that sentence meaning retrieval during interaction is influenced by social persona, a social identity conveyed by linguistic expressions. The project will investigate several phenomena of variation, such as subject inversion in French object relative clauses, French inclusive writing and French variable liaison. Phase 1 will explore the social persona constructed from linguistic productions, while Phase 2 will test the revised noisy channel model by examining how identified social personae affect language processing. Experimental methods, including picture association experiments, recall tasks, and eye-tracking experiments, will be employed. The outcomes will contribute to a more fine-grained psycholinguistic model, clarifying the influence(s) of social persona on language processing. Additionally, the project will raise societal awareness about the connections between linguistic features and social persona, with pedagogical applications in university methodology courses.