{"id":229,"date":"2018-10-31T07:06:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T14:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2021-04-25T20:08:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T20:08:42","slug":"pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin-pumpkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Halloween!<\/p>\n<p>In tribute to the holiday (my favorite), here\u2019s a smidge of spooky linguistics. Ever play that game where you repeat some word so many times it starts to lose its meaning? That\u2019s actually a thing, called <strong>semantic satiation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Semantic satiation is a psychological phenomenon where a person temporarily loses the meaning of the repeated word and perceives only nonsensical sounds. It can happen via reading as well as at the verbal\/aural level. The term was coined by psychology professor Leon Jakobovits James in his 1962 dissertation<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>. His and later research shows that word repetition activates peripheral sensorimotor and central neural activity repeatedly in the cortex (activity corresponding with the meaning of a particular expression), which in turn causes <strong>reactive inhibition<\/strong>. Consequently, the strength of activity for each new repetition diminishes. More recent semantic verification studies have confirmed that this satiation legitimately falls under semantic memory, and is not just a byproduct of exhaustion of pre-semantic sensory\/perceptual processes (for example, the acoustic system).<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s all well and good, but how is it spooky? In answer I say,<em>\u00a0see this movie\u00a0\u2013 <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1226681\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pontypool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In case you don\u2019t have time to view it right this minute, my non-spoiler summary:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pontypool\u201d is a low-budget psychological thriller that I found delightfully horrifying. The premise revolves around a virus that is infecting people in a small, remote Canadian town. The virus spreads\u2026through language. When people hear an infected word, they begin repeating it until their entire speech grows garbled, they turn insane and zombie-like, and finally start attacking others in gory fashion.<\/p>\n<p>I highly recommend leaving the office early today to go watch the film. Or to go trick-or-treating. Or something. Since everyone knows that all work and no play\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-232 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/linguamonium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/drost_tv-e1540964053245.png?resize=179%2C179&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"drost_tv\" width=\"179\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/linguamonium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/drost_tv-e1540964053245.png?w=333&amp;ssl=1 333w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/linguamonium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/drost_tv-e1540964053245.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/linguamonium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/drost_tv-e1540964053245.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 179px) 100vw, 179px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/digitool.library.mcgill.ca\/R\/?func=dbin-jump-full&amp;object_id=113683&amp;local_base=GEN01-MCG02\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Effects of repeated stimulation on cognitive aspects of behavior: some experiments on the phenomenon of semantic satiation&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> See \u201cIntroduction \u2013 Recent Studies\u201d in <a href=\"http:\/\/a. https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20010125084700\/http:\/\/neurocog.psy.tufts.edu\/papers\/semsatMC.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;On the Locus of the Semantic Satiation Effect: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>*Photo attributions: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixels.com\/featured\/all-work-and-no-play-makes-jack-a-dull-boy-florian-rodarte.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Shining painting<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sockrotation\/4184457636\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Droste effect tv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Halloween! In tribute to the holiday (my favorite), here\u2019s a smidge of spooky linguistics. Ever play that game where you repeat some word so many times it starts to lose its meaning? That\u2019s actually a thing, called semantic satiation. Semantic satiation is a psychological phenomenon where a person temporarily loses the meaning of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,25,28],"tags":[56,65,85,101,122,148],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fun-games","category-psycholinguistics","category-semantics","tag-cognitive-psychology","tag-creepy","tag-halloween","tag-language-as-virus","tag-movies","tag-repetition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin\u2026 - Linguamonium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=229\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin\u2026 - Linguamonium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy Halloween! In tribute to the holiday (my favorite), here\u2019s a smidge of spooky linguistics. Ever play that game where you repeat some word so many times it starts to lose its meaning? That\u2019s actually a thing, called semantic satiation. 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