Words at the tip-of-the-tongue: inferences to the study of relations among language, memory and consciousness

• Grant number: 12/18291-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: January 15, 2013
• End date: July 14, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Philosophy of Language
• Principal Investigator: Rosana Do Carmo Novaes Pinto
• Grantee: Marcus Vinicius Borges Oliveira
• Supervisor: Susan Petrilli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università degli Studi di Bari - Aldo Moro, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/08868-4 - The "Tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon: a neurolinguistic approach, BP.DR

Abstract

Despite the extensive neuropsychological literature produced about the phenomenon known as TOT (Tip of the Tongue), i.e., the words at the tip of the tongue, little has been discussed concerning the conceptions of language and even of word in its approach. After being in contact with the works of Augusto Ponzio and Susan Petrilli, researchers and professors in the fields of Philosophy of Language and Semiotics, respectively (authors who dialogue with the works of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Pierce, Sebeok, Morris, Welby and Freud, among others), we understand that a new horizon is open to approach the TOTs, making it possible to advance in the description and explanation of the phenomenon in so-called normality but, mainly, in pathology. The project to spend some time with these researchers at the University of Bari (Italy) aims to deepen the dialogue which started when both of them were in Brazil, in 2010 and 2012, but now with the possibility of discussing questions related to my focus of research, the TOTs. Besides, I would be able to attend the disciplines they teach and to participate in the weekly meetings with their research groups. Without any doubt, the reflections will allow to refine the analysis of the TOTs, in dialogical episodes, which are the locus where the phenomena occur. We believe it is an unprecedented approach of the phenomenon, which does not restrict it to the phonetic-phonological and semantic interfaces of lexical production, which will in turn contribute for a better understanding of how language, memory and conscience are related when the target-word does not come for production. (AU)