Two decades of research on the linguistic category model (LCM) have resulted in considerable empirical evidence that can be organized by distinct paradigms: the linguistic intergroup bias, the linguistic expectancy bias, the question-answering paradigm, and language-based attribution. The present article explicates the metatheory underlying the research that was actually conducted within these paradigms. This metatheory provides the organizing structure for a review of potential LCM research that has not been conducted yet because it does not fit the common metatheory. Untapped LCM research encompasses communication failures, deception, the inclusion of measures of effective communication, and the joint determination of language and cognition by social roles and ecological constraints. Because many of these often overlooked topics are theoretically important and practically useful, they suggest themselves as prominent goals of future research.
Bargh, J.A. (1994). The four horsemen of automaticity. In R. S. Wyer & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (pp. 1-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
2.
Brown, R., & Fish, D. (1983). The psychological causality implicit in language . Cognition, 14, 233-274.
3.
Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
4.
DePaulo, B.M., Kashy, D.A., Kirkendol, S.E., Wyer, M.M., & Epstein, J.A. (1996). Lying in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 979-995.
5.
Douglas, K.M., & Sutton, R.M. (2003). Effects of communication goals and expectancies on language abstraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 682-696.
6.
Douglas, K.M., & Sutton, R.M. (2006). When what you say about others says something about you: Language abstraction and inferences about describers' attitudes and goals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 500-508.
7.
Fiedler, K. (in press). Language-A toolbox for sharing and influencing social reality . Perspectives on Psychological Science.
8.
Fiedler, K., Armbruster, T., Nickel, S., Walther, E., & Asbeck, J. (1996). Constructive biases in social judgment: Experiments on the self-verification of question contents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 861-873.
9.
Fiedler, K., & Schenck, W. (2001). Spontaneous inferences from pictorially presented behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1533-1546.
10.
Fiedler, K., Schenck, W., Watling, M., & Menges, J. (2005). Priming trait inferences through pictures and moving pictures: The impact of open and closed mindsets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 229-244.
11.
Fiedler, K., & Semin, G.R. (1988). On the causal information conveyed by different interpersonal verbs. Social Cognition, 6, 21-39.
12.
Fiedler, K., Semin, G.R., & Koppetsch, C. (1991). Language use and attributional biases in close personal relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 147-156.
13.
Fisher, R.P., & Geiselman, R.E. (1988). Enhancing eyewitness memory with the cognitive interview. In M. M. Gruneberg, P.E. Morris, & R. N. Sykes (Eds.), Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (Vol. 1, pp. 34-39). New York: Wiley.
14.
Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.
15.
Hansen, J., Dechêne, A., & Wänke, M. (2007). Abstractness of language and subjective truth . Paper presented at the Ninth European Social Cognition Network Meeting in Brno, Czech Republic.
16.
Johnson, M.K., Bush, J.G., & Mitchell, K.J. (1998). Interpersonal reality monitoring: Judging the sources of other people's memories. Social Cognition , 16, 199-224.
17.
Kashima, Y., Klein, O., & Clark, A.E. (2007). Grounding: Sharing information in social interaction . In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 27-77). New York: Psychology Press.
18.
Maass, A. (1999). Linguistic intergroup bias: Stereotype perpetuation through language. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 31, pp. 79-121). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
19.
Maass, A. (in press). Nomina sunt omina: On the inductive potential of nouns and adjectives in person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
20.
Maass, A., Salvi, D., Arcuri, L., & Semin, G.R. (1989). Language use in intergroup contexts: The linguistic intergroup bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 57, 981-993.
21.
Pennebaker, J.W., & King, L.A. (1999). Linguistic styles: Language use as an individual difference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1296-1312.
22.
Schmid, J., & Fiedler, K. (1998). The backbone of closing speeches: The impact of prosecution versus defense language on juridical attributions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1140-1172.
23.
Semin, G.R. (2000). Communication: Language as an implementational device for cognition. European Journal of Social Psychology , 30, 595-612.
24.
Semin, G.R. (2007). The regulation of distance. In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 389-408). New York: Psychology Press.
25.
Semin, G.R., & Fiedler, K. (1988). The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognition and language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 558-568.
26.
Semin, G.R., & Fiedler, K. (1991). The linguistic category model, its bases, applications, and range. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 1-30). Chichester , England: Wiley.
27.
Semin, G.R., Higgins, T., de Montes, L.G., Estourget, Y., & Valencia, J.F. (2005). Linguistic signatures of regulatory focus: How abstraction fits promotion more than prevention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 36-45.
28.
Semin G. R., & Poot, C. J. de (1997). You might regret it if you don't notice how a question is worded!Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 472-480.
29.
Semin, G.R., Rubini, M., & Fiedler, K. (1995). The answer is in the question: The effect of verb causality on locus of explanation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 834-841.
30.
Stapel, D.A., & Semin, G.R. (2007). The magic spell of language: Linguistic categories and their perceptual consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 23-33.
31.
Tajfel, H. (1969). The cognitive aspect of prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 25, 79-97.
Wentura, D., Rothermund, K., & Bak, P. (2000). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of approach- and avoidance-related social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 1024-1037.
35.
Wigboldus, D.H.J., & Douglas, K. (2007). Language, stereotypes and intergroup relations . In K. Fiedler (Ed.), Social communication (pp. 79-106). New York: Psychology Press.
36.
Wigboldus, D.H.J., Semin, G.R., & Spears, R. (2000). How do we communicate stereotypes? Linguistic biases and inferential consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 5-18.
