Dynamic event words: From common cognition to varied linguistic expression

Abstract

Interpretation of single dynamic event words through the lens of motion-event semantics yields a picture of continuity across development. A claim of continuity from children's pre-linguistic cognition through the single-word period to first sentences might seem to imply a reliance on early ‘concepts’. In contrast, the cognitive structure of the sensorimotor period is characterized here as nonconceptual, with children dependent on language to mold this consistent early cognition toward concepts. Single dynamic event words comprise the same basic domains across languages, but vary in their analysis of those domains in response to characteristics of the ambient language. Dynamic event word meanings based on pre-linguistic cognition further provide the foundation for meanings observed in the verbs of early sentences. These same early verbs are those most likely to be grammaticalized across the world's languages, yielding an interesting correspondence between meanings derived from sensorimotor cognition and those contributing to grammatical expression (Ninio, 1999a). Given their central status in early language expression, dynamic event words should be recognized as comprising a critical category of single-word meanings.