Variable motion event encoding within languages and language types: a usage-based perspective

WOJCIECH LEWANDOWSKI

doi:10.1017/langcog.2020.25

Abstract

AbstractSpeakers of the world’s languages differ in the ways they talk about directed motion. Speakers of satellite-framed languages (S-languages; e.g., English) typically conflate Path and Manner in a single clause (e.g., run out), whereas speakers of verb-framed languages (V-languages; e.g., Spanish) tend to convey Path and Manner in two different clauses (e.g., salir corriendo ‘exit running’). Herein, we ask whether speakers also show systematic variability within particular languages and language types in their directed motion descriptions. We examine this question by comparing oral narratives of adult native speakers of one V-language (Spanish) and two S-languages (German, Polish) (N = 15), where each subject provided a simultaneous description of an ongoing animated video depicting self- (e.g., jump into the river) and caused-motion (e.g., throw a stone into the river) events. Our results showed strong evidence for both intra-typological and language-internal variability, especially in the extent to which the Manner component is encoded. Overall, the locus of Path encoding (e.g., verb, prefix, particle) and the conceptual structure of motion events (i.e., self-motion, caused-motion) were two key factors that influenced the speakers’ choice of lexicalization pattern. We discuss the implications of our findings, which (i) suggest a more nuanced typology of motion events that expands the binary distinction between V- vs. S-languages – in line with earlier work on intra-typological variability, and (ii) highlight the relevance of such a nuanced typology for motion cognition.

Highlights

The expression of directed motion has been one of the topics that has caught researchers’ attention for the past four decades
We explore the possibility that caused-motion events will show the same pattern of similarities and differences
3.1. tokens Starting with verb tokens, we first looked at inter-typological variation and found the expected differences in the encoding of motion events

Summary

Introduction

The expression of directed motion has been one of the topics that has caught researchers’ attention for the past four decades. Starting with inter-typological variation, following earlier work (e.g., Berman & Slobin, 1994; Strömqvist & Verhoeven, 2004; Talmy, 2000), we expect German and Polish speakers to display greater reliance on manner tokens (i.e., number of manner verbs) and types (i.e., variety of manner verbs) than Spanish speakers in their descriptions of self-motion. Turning last to intra-linguistic variation, we predict that speakers of all three languages will display greater reliance on manner tokens in their causedmotion descriptions as compared to their self-motion descriptions This prediction is based on earlier studies on physical and metaphorical motion (e.g., Hendriks & Hickmann, 2015; Özçalışkan, 2005), suggesting that speakers of both V- and S-languages increase the number of manner verbs (i.e., manner tokens) in describing events from a caused motion perspective. We cannot predict if the same pattern of intra-linguistic variation applies to the variety of manner verbs (i.e., manner types), given the lack of systematic of evidence in earlier work on this subject

Methods

Results

Discussion

Mann wirft den

Findings

Manner verb