Abstract
This study adopts Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) theory of linguistic typology and Slobin’s(2003, 2004) hypothesis of Thinking-for-Speaking to investigate the use of additional expressions of Manner in the expression of Motion events by Chinese EFL learners in comparison with French EFL leaners. The aim is to find out the Thinking-for-Speaking effect in the acquisition of the English Motion event expressions for speakers with typologically different L1 background. It is revealed that Chinese EFL leaners benefit from the Thinking-for-Speaking in L1 compared with French EFL learners. Chinese Language teachers can emphasise the similarities between Chinese and English to enhance English learners’ acquisition of motion event expressions.
Highlights
The field of the relationship between language and thought has always been controversial
This study adopts Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) theory of linguistic typology and Slobin’s(2003, 2004) hypothesis of Thinking-for-Speaking to investigate the use of additional expressions of Manner in the expression of Motion events by Chinese EFL learners in comparison with French EFL leaners
It is revealed that Chinese EFL leaners benefit from the Thinking-for-Speaking in L1 compared with French EFL learners
Summary
The field of the relationship between language and thought has always been controversial. The shift away from the focus on colour to the study of other domains, such as Motion (e.g., Talmy 1985) and time (e.g., Boroditsky 2001), lead to the discovery of new evidence for the effects of language on cognition. The present study is based on this new research strand developed by Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000) and Slobin (2003, 2004), which focuses on the way in which lexicalisation patterns in typologically different languages influence our way of verbalising Motion events. In particular the study is on the use of additional expressions of Manner in the expression of Motion events by Chinese EFL learners both in Chinese and in English with the aim to investigate the influence of native language in this process. Chinese English leaners’ data is compared with French English learners’ data because Motion is expressed in different ways in Chinese, English and French
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