Language typologies in our language use: The case of Basque motion events in adult oral narratives

Abstract

This article confronts the typology of motion lexicalization proposed by Len Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000a) with elicited narrative data from Basque. According to Talmy’s typology, the characteristic expression of motion in Basque corresponds to that of verb-framed languages, where the semantic components of motion and path are conflated in the verb and the manner component is conveyed in a separate expression. On a packaging typology level such as Talmy’s, Basque is adequately classified in this group; however, when we look at the description of motion events in language use a la Slobin (1987, 1991, 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 2000a), at how the semantic components of path and manner are elaborated in real narratives, the picture changes. As far as manner is concerned, Basque behaves as expected for verb-framed languages such as Spanish with a scarce and poor description of this component, but with respect to path, Basque shows a di¤erent behavior. The description and elaboration of this semantic component is so pervasive and rich that Basque seems to be more similar to satellite-framed languages such as English than to those akin to its group. This tendency cannot be considered an individual-based feature but a typological one, and consequently, we suggest that Talmy’s typology needs to be revised. In order to support this claim, we present data from L1 Basque Frog Stories and compare them with English and Spanish ones. In addition, we also use data from Basque novels and L2 Basque Frog Stories.