Does Physical Motion Matter? The Encoding Differences between Fictive and Physical Motion Events

Abstract

This study aims to explore linguistic differences between fictive motion expressions and physical motion event expressions in Chinese. Although both types of expressions are associated with dynamic linguistic forms, they describe different types of semantic content. Using authentic data, this study examines motion verbs, motion verb constructions, the complexity of ground elements, and alternative manner expressions for Chinese fictive motion events, the results of which are compared with those of previous studies on physical motion events. It is found that Chinese fictive motion expressions are very different from Chinese physical motion event expressions in terms of the above four aspects. The results lend support to the hypothesis that fictive motion occurs more in verb-framed languages.