Typology Of Motion Events Research Articles

Asymmetry in the Acquisition of Directed Motion Constructions in L2 Vietnamese A Comparative Study of Chinese and Korean Learners

This paper offers a comparative overview of the expression of directed motion constructions in Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean, and explores the acquisition of these constructions by L1 Korean and L1 Chinese learners of Vietnamese, with a focus on the role of typological factors and language-specific morpho-syntactic properties in the acquisition process. This investigation not only provides valuable insights into the challenges faced by learners of L2 Vietnamese from diverse linguistic backgrounds but also enriches our understanding of the typology of motion events.

Image schemas and (point)-to-point event model for the macro-event

Abstract The macro-event is a fundamental concept in Talmyan motion event typology. A large literature has been documented concerning the status of a particular language in the two-way typology that he proposes, but relatively little literature focusing on the morphosyntactic dimension of the macro-event per se, let alone on the cognitive motivation of the macro-event. This article analyzes the types of macro-events expressed by directional complement constructions in Mandarin, and argues that the macro-events are image-schema-based. The simple image schemas give rise to a more complex three-event-semantic-model, termed (point)-to-point , or to be more particular, (point a)-to-point b, in which to represents the affecting or intervening event, point a represents the original state of point b, point b is the resulting event. point a is usually implied, not explicitly expressed, so it is put in brackets. This model has advantages over Talmy’s main event and co-event structure in that it can largely predict the meaning-form mapping, and explain more constructions. The findings have some implications for cognitive semantics: In grammar, languages generally prioritize the third event; the complex event model might be motivated by simple image schemas.

Uyghur–Chinese early successive bilingual children's acquisition of voluntary motion expressions

Abstract This study explores the implications of Talmy's (2000) motion event typology and its subsequent articulations in relation to Slobin's (1996, 2006) thinking-for-speaking hypothesis for the early successive bilingual acquisition of Uyghur (verb-framed) and Mandarin Chinese (equipollently-framed). Specifically, it examines how 4-, 6-, 8- and 10-year-old bilingual children acquire motion expressions in their L1 and L2 respectively, and how cross-linguistic influence shapes their L2 acquisition process. Results show that, in their L1 Uyghur, bilinguals follow general developmental trajectories observed for children acquiring verb-framed languages. While sensitive to the equipollent Chinese system from early on, due to L1 and other factors, bilinguals fully converge on the Chinese pattern only at age 10, a feat in place in monolinguals from age 3. Our findings highlight that bilingual children do eventually come to develop language-specific thinking-for-speaking patterns in their L2, but they traverse a distinct developmental path.

Variable motion encoding within Chinese: a usage-based perspective

AbstractLanguages differ considerably in the way they encode motion. Previous research on motion encoding has paid much attention to inter-typological variation (i.e., variation between language types) and intra-typological variation (i.e., variation within language types), but less focus on intra-linguistic variation (i.e., variation within particular languages). To fill this niche, the current study compares actual motion and metaphorical motion in Standard Mandarin Chinese with a corpus-based approach. We ask whether the typological properties in actual motion extend to metaphorical motion. The results indicate that the answer is negative. The typological properties including lexicalization patterns and the distribution of semantic components vary by both event type (actual motion vs. metaphorical motion) and genre (fiction vs. non-fiction) within Chinese. The intra-linguistic variation can be explained by additional factors – the pragmatic context and the structural property of Chinese. These findings support a constructional proposal of the motion event typology, which is a more nuanced typology that expands the binary distinction between V-languages and S-languages. In this proposal, the consideration of the scalar dimension enables more explicit descriptions of variation within languages (shift left- or rightward on the scale) and more accurate explanations for these phenomena.

Uyghur–Chinese early successive adult bilinguals’ construal of caused motion events

AbstractTalmy’s motion event typology has served as a fruitful framework for exploring bilingual cognition and language use. The present study extends this line of research to the bilingualism situation of an underrepresented Turkic language, i.e., Modern Uyghur, and Mandarin Chinese, and it does so by focusing on a relatively understudied type of motion, i.e., caused motion. The two languages are genetically and typologically distinct, and yet they share verb-framing as an important lexicalization pattern in encoding motion. This study, therefore, investigated whether and to what extent this structural overlap contributes to crosslinguistic influence in Uyghur–Chinese adult bilinguals’ construal of caused motion. Thirty Uyghur–Chinese adult bilinguals’ verbalizations were analyzed with respect to the number of semantic components expressed and the way they were syntactically packaged. Results were compared with relevant monolingual data, which showed that Uyghur–Chinese adult bilinguals displayed a strong L1 to L2 influence in syntactic packaging by overusing the verb-framed strategy in Mandarin Chinese. However, further comparisons with previous research on Uyghur–Chinese child and adult bilinguals’ motion construal revealed that, while structural overlap is a key factor motivating crosslinguistic influence, a coherent explanation of this phenomenon must consider more general principles of bilingual language processing and use.

Linguistic typology of motion events in visual narratives.

Languages use different strategies to encode motion. Some use particles or "satellites" to describe a path of motion (Satellite-framed or S-languages like English), while others typically use the main verb to convey the path information (Verb-framed or V-languages like French). We here ask: might this linguistic variation lead to differences in the way paths are depicted in visual narratives like comics? We analyzed a corpus of 85 comics originally created by speakers of S-languages (comics from the United States, China, Germany) and V-languages (France, Japan, Korea) for both their depictions of path segments (source, route, and goal) and the visual cues signaling these paths and manner information (e.g., motion lines and postures). Panels from S-languages depicted more path segments overall, especially routes, than those from V-languages, but panels from V-languages more often isolated path segments into their own panels. Additionally, comics from S-languages depicted more motion cues than those from V-languages, and this linguistic typology also interacted with panel framing. Despite these differences across typological groups, analysis of individual countries' comics showed more nuanced variation than a simple S-V dichotomy. These findings suggest a possible influence of spoken language structure on depicting motion events in visual narratives and their sequencing.

Caused motion events in Modern Uyghur: a typological perspective

AbstractTalmy’s motion event typology (Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Towards a cognitive semantics: Conceptual structuring systems, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press) has served as an influential framework for exploring event representation across languages. While confirming its basic premises, many studies argued that the typology cannot fully capture the vast intra- and inter-typological variations. Consequently, proposals have been made to expand the typology and/or reconceptualize it as a typology of constructional strategies for encoding events. This article furthers this line of inquiry by examining caused-motion expressions by adult speakers of an understudied Turkic language, Modern Uyghur. Systematic analyses of lexicalization patterns, that is, which components are typically selected for expression, how frequently they are selected, and how they are packaged in syntactic constructions, show that Uyghur is a prototypical verb-framed language. It differs most strikingly from English (considered satellite-framed) in terms of lexicalization patterns. Detailed comparisons with French and Turkish (putatively verb-framed) reveal intra-typological variations in that Uyghur speakers systematically used verb-framed constructions while French and Turkish speakers exhibit much flexibility and a general preference for satellite-framed constructions. Overall, our data lend support to Talmy’s typology conceived as a strategy-based typological framework.

Uyghur–Chinese Adult Bilinguals’ Construal of Voluntary Motion Events

The study examined the implications of Talmy motion event typology and Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking hypothesis for the context of Uyghur–Chinese early successive bilingualism. Uyghur and Chinese represent genetically distant languages (Turkic vs. Sino-Tibetan) that nonetheless share important framing properties in the motion domain, i.e., verb-framing. This study thus aimed to establish how this structural overlap would inform bilingual speakers’ construal of motion events. Additionally, it sought to offer an “end state” perspective to a previous study on Uyghur–Chinese child bilinguals and to shed light on issues around the longevity of crosslinguistic influence. Thirty adult Uyghur–Chinese early successive bilinguals were invited to describe a set of voluntary motion events (e.g., “a man runs across the road”). Their verbalizations, alongside those from 24 monolingual Uyghur and 12 monolingual Chinese speakers were systematically analyzed with regard to the kind of linguistic devices used to encode key components of motion (main verb vs. other devices), the frequency with which the components are expressed together (Manner + Path) or separately (Path or Manner) and how they are syntactically packaged. The findings show that the bilinguals’ thinking-for-speaking patterns are largely language-specific, with little crosslinguistic influence. A comparison of our findings with previous studies on Uyghur-Chinese child bilinguals revealed no developmental change either in the analyzed aspects of motion descriptions or in patterns of crosslinguistic influence. As such, the findings lend support to accounts that propose crosslinguistic influence to be a developmental phenomenon.

Typological features of Telugu: defining the parameters of post-Talmian motion event typology

ABSTRACT Recent research in motion event typology has moved beyond the binary Talmian division of “verb-framed” and “satellite-framed” languages and has established the existence of at least four distinct typological clusters, instantiated by, for example, Swedish (Germanic), French (Romance), Thai (Tai-Kadai) and Telugu (Dravidian). In this paper, we focus on characteristic features of Telugu, as a representative of the fourth cluster. In the study, 30 native Telugu speakers described video-recorded translocative events, in which the factors boundedness, viewpoint and causation were manipulated. Using the model Holistic Spatial Semantics, we show that Telugu speakers (a) preferentially used Direction verbs rather than Path verbs, (b) predominantly used case markers rather than verbs for encoding Path, (c) extensively used Landmark and Region expressions, and (d) frequently used Manner verbs in situations of “boundary-crossing” unlike speakers of typical “verb-framed” languages. We propose these features to be criterial of the fourth typological cluster mentioned above, a claim to be investigated in future research.

‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek

Abstract This paper aims to explore the main constructions showing a covert encoding of Path of motion in Classical Greek (5th–4th century BC). Based on a corpus study of five texts belonging to different literary genres, it applies the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic approaches, such as the semantic typology of motion events and Construction Grammar, to the data from an ancient language, in order to address the non-compositional expression of Path. The results of the analysis reveal that, in addition to the overt morphosyntactic encoding of Path information, Ancient Greek resorts to more implicit patterns, in which coercion, meaning extension and inference play a crucial role. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional views on motion expression, this study shows that the encoding of spatial meaning is rarely committed to a single lexical or morphological tool within the clause, but rather it distributes across different linguistic units and results from their interaction with one another.

‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek

AbstractThis paper aims to explore the main constructions showing a covert encoding of Path of motion in Classical Greek (5th–4th century BC). Based on a corpus study of five texts belonging to different literary genres, it applies the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic approaches, such as the semantic typology of motion events and Construction Grammar, to the data from an ancient language, in order to address the non-compositional expression of Path. The results of the analysis reveal that, in addition to the overt morphosyntactic encoding of Path information, Ancient Greek resorts to more implicit patterns, in which coercion, meaning extension and inference play a crucial role. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional views on motion expression, this study shows that the encoding of spatial meaning is rarely committed to a single lexical or morphological tool within the clause, but rather it distributes across different linguistic units and results from their interaction with one another.

Static locative expressions in Amharic

AbstractThis paper describes the semantics of static locative expressions in Amharic, particularly the variety spoken in Godʒdʒam. The analysis shows that the semantic category of a site subsumed under Path is exclusively expressed by an adposition. The adpositions can be specific and general locatives. The specific locatives show a specific type of topological relation (for instance, verticality as intatʃtʃ‘below, under,’ horizontality as infit‘front,’ containment as inwɨst’‘in’) between figure and ground entities, but not the general locatives. Besides, static positional verbs encode the conflation of the fact of locatedness with a manner of the positioning of a figure. Based on Talmy’s Motion event typology, the present study has identified that Amharic uses a satellite-framed pattern in static locative constructions exclusively. Moreover, based on Ameka & Levinson’s typology of locative predication, Amharic can be classified under type Ia where a language uses a dummy verb in basic locative construction.

Motion event descriptions in Swedish, French, Thai and Telugu: a study in post-Talmian motion event typology

ABSTRACT Motion-event typology has moved into a “post-Talmian” terrain of approaches focusing on an open-ended number of patterns across languages and constructions. Following a proposal to distinguish between four typological clusters, we systematically compared the motion event descriptions in four languages suggested to exemplify these clusters: Swedish, French, Thai and Telugu, with the help of an elicitation-based study. 20 adult native speakers of each language were asked to describe 52 motion events, 38 of which were translocative. The stimuli varied with respect to the parameters caused/uncaused, bounded/unbounded motion as well as the viewpoint from which they were filmed. The descriptions were analyzed following Holistic Spatial Semantics and compared with respect to the categories Path, Direction, Region, Landmark, Manner and Cause, as well as the means of expressing these. The four languages patterned differently in significant ways. In terms of Path expression, French lagged behind the other languages, but with respect to Direction, it patterned together with Swedish. We demonstrate a number of such criss-crossing patterns, showing that there is no way to group the languages, thus implying at least four distinct typological prototypes. Further, we show that different kinds of motion situations, corresponding to different constructions, need to be compared separately.

Satellite-framed or verb-framed? Towards a typology of motion events in English as a lingua franca

The present paper analyzes English as a lingua franca (ELF) from the perspective of Talmy’s (2000b) typology, which divides languages into S- and V-types. S-languages express the path of motion in a verb particle and the manner of motion in a verb, while V-languages encode the path in a verb and manner in an adverbial. Talmy’s (2000b) typology has been felicitously applied in research on standard languages. However, studies on dialects (Berthele 2004) have shown that a division into S- and V-categories may not be sufficient in the case of contact languages. To test this hypothesis, we apply Talmy’s (2000b) typological distinction to English as a lingua franca. Based on the results of a qualitative pilot study among Polish users of English, we demonstrate that although Polish and English are both classified as S-languages according to Talmy’s (2000b) typology, ELF – a contact language between them – reveals characteristics not yet classified as belonging to either S- or V-types. We thus conclude that Talmy’s (2000b, 2017) dichotomous distinction is in need of further refinements to be applicable in the context of ELF.

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

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.

How Input Processing Factors into Lexical Semantics: Motion Events with Double Particles in L3 German

Motion events are almost absent in the course syllabus of L2 German as a formally addressed structure in the classroom. Learners have merely receptive contact with this type of structure in reading texts or in aural activities. The occurrence of motion events with the so-called “double particles” is even less frequent. These are composed of the deictic morphemes hin- and her- denoting the speaker’s perspective and Path morphemes (-ein-, -aus-, -auf-, etc.). The main goal of the present study is to test a group of Portuguese L3 learners of German regarding their knowledge of double particles, and to apply VanPatten’s Processing Instruction (PI) model (VanPatten 2004; VanPatten and Williams 2015), which rests on an input-based focus-on-form approach for teaching grammar. The theoretical framework is based on Talmy’s typology of motion events (Talmy 2000a, 2000b). The empirical component of this study was divided into three parts: first, I tested the participants by means of a pretest; then, I conducted a pedagogical intervention based on the PI model; finally, a posttest determined the successful effects of PI in the participants’ knowledge of the target forms, both in interpretative and productive contexts.

An Empirical Study of Translational and Stationary Motion Events in Chinese

Studies on the place of Mandarin Chinese in Motion event typology present three different views: Chinese is a satellite-framed, a verb-framed, or an equipollently-framed language. The purpose of this research is to further investigate the typological status of Chinese and to figure out the proportion of the so-called serial verb construction by analyzing the descriptive data of translational and stationary Motion events. This study has analyzed 530 Motion event clauses from 71 video reports of natural disasters occurring frequently and pervasively in daily life. The study results show that Path components are frequently conflated in the main Path verbs in modern colloquial Chinese and the frequency of the so-called serial verb construction is quite limited. Based on these findings, it is proposed that Chinese behaves more similarly to a verb-framed language rather than to either a satellite-framed or an equipollently-framed language.

On the typology of motion events in Aymara

This paper investigates the lexicalization pattern of motion events in Aymara, an Andean language spoken in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. After providing a description of the morphosyntax of translational motion events, this study aims at a preliminary typological classification of Aymara within the framework of Talmy’s typology (Talmy 2000). With this purpose, three diagnostic tests have been used to determine the basic framing-typology of motion events. These tests consider i) the size of manner-of-motion lexicon and, more broadly, the degree of manner salience, ii) the complex-path constructions and the use of ‘plus-ground’ clauses, iii) the expression of boundary-crossing. The results of this analysis are in line with predictions of expected values according to Talmian typology, and suggest that Aymara is a predominantly satellite-framed language.

Typology of motion events in Tugen

AbstractAll human activity including motion is construed mentally with reference to different objects and spatial relations that are relevant (Waliński 2014). Following the work of Talmy (1985, 2000) on categorization of languages on the basis of motion events into verb framed languages and satellite framed languages, this paper addresses the typology of the Tugen language regarding motion events. It takes into consideration the reclassification of the V-languages into equipollent frame and the doubling frame, (Slobin 2003; Croft et al. 2010). Further it explores the hybrid system as expounded by Schröder (2016) on the categorization of V-languages so as to cater for languages that do not fit into the equipollent and the doubling frame. This paper analyses motion events in Tugen, a Kalenjin language belonging to the southern Nilotic cluster. In this analysis, Tugen is seen as both verb framed language and satellite framed as a result of prevalence of deictic directionals and the applicative. The language also bears an associated motion affix which relates simultaneous motion to non-motion events. The associated motion affix renders the motion events to be satellite framed. The occurrence of deictic directionals on motion events that are verb framed can also be taken to be instances of doubling frame.

Voluntary motion events in Uyghur: A typological perspective

Previous decades have seen many studies on the expression of motion in language. Most are based on Talmy's (1985) motion event typology. While providing robust support for the typology, variations within and across typological groups have also been reported, leading to proposals to either expand the typology (Slobin, 2004; Ameka and Essegbey, 2013) or to understand it as a set of strategies that languages avail themselves of (Beavers et al., 2010; Croft et al., 2010). To further contribute to this line of research, this article examines the expression of voluntary motion by adult speakers of a Turkic language, modern Uyghur. Our analyses reveal that Uyghur is a prototypically verb-framed language. It is different from English (considered satellite-framed) at all levels of analysis and is systematic in adopting verb-framed lexicalisation patterns alike Turkish and to a lesser extent French. Our data lend support for Talmy's (2000) typology as conceived in a strategy-based typological framework (Croft et al., 2010; Hendriks & Hickmann, 2015).