My research examines the relationship between grammatical categories and cognition and, more broadly, how wider modes of discursive representation may influence thought patterns and worldview.
One of the key aspects of my research is its focus on multimodality in communicative interactions. I use gesture analysis to explore the relationship between language, discursive patterns, and temporal thought. In several publications I provide gestural evidence which shows that speakers of Chol, a Maya language spoken in Southeastern Mexico, do not conceptualize time in terms of abstract mental timelines or axes, as speakers of tensed languages do. I argue that, instead of reflecting the metaphorical mapping of time onto space in a timeline, temporal gestures in Chol often reflect the aspectual semantics of the sentences where they occur.
I also have an interest on political discourse. Some of my research explores gesture-speech mismatches through the qualitative analysis of political performances in the media. I am interested in the structural morphology of gesture-speech mismatches, and on the possible effects that intentional deception can have in speech-accompanying gestures.
Select publications
Rodríguez Cuevas, Lydia. 2023. "Las lenguas del parlamento." In ARIES, Anuario de Antropología Iberoamericana, October 2023. doi:10.11156/aries/2023.AR0011910.
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2023. "The Languages of the Mind." In Déjà Lu (World Council of Anthropological Associations). Issue 11, March 2023.
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2022. "Dickens in Chol." Language and Cognition. Issue: Time in language and Cognition: Understudied Venues. Heng Li and Julio Santiago, eds. 14: 2, 303-331. doi:10.1017/langcog.2022.1
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2021. "Los lenguajes del pensamiento." Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana (Journal of Iberoamerican Anthropology) 2021, 16, 1: 61-87. AIBR AWARD TO THE BEST ARTICLE IN IBEROAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY.
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2019a. "Time is not a line. Temporal co-speech gestures in Chol Mayan". Journal of Pragmatics. 151 (2019): 1-17
Rodríguez, Lydia and Sergio López. 2019b. "Performing Healing: Repetition, Frequency, and Meaning Response in a Chol Maya Healing Ritual." In Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 42-63. TOP DOWNLOADED ARTICLE IN ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS DURING ITS FIRST 12 MONTHS OF PUBLICATION
Rodríguez, Lydia and Sergio López. 2019c. "The crossroads of time". In The Culture of Invention in the Americas. P. Pitarch. and J.A. Kelly, eds. 158-184. Sean Kingston.
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2016. "From Discourse to Thought: An Ethnopoetic Analysis of a Chol Mayan Folktale" Signs and Society 4 (2): 278-231. University of Chicago Press.
Rodríguez, Lydia. 2013. "Repetición y paralelismo en una ceremonia de pedida matrimonial Chol" In Entre Diversidades, 1: 121-147. Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas.