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.
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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.
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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.
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Rodríguez, Lydia. 2023. "The Languages of the Mind." In Déjà Lu (World Council of Anthropological Associations). Issue 11, March 2023.
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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
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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.
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Rodríguez, Lydia. 2019a. "Time is not a line. Temporal co-speech gestures in Chol Mayan". Journal of Pragmatics. 151 (2019): 1-17
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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
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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.
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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.
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Rodríguez, Lydia. 2013. "Repetición y paralelismo en una ceremonia de pedida matrimonial Chol" In Entre Diversidades, 1: 121-147. Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas.