Verb-framed Languages Research Articles

Motion events in Changana spoken narrative

This article examines the expression of motion events in Changana. The typological classification of this southern African Bantu language is proposed based on the results collected from the elicited narrative of Mayer’s picture book Frog, where are you?. Fifteen frog stories narrated by adult Changana speakers from Mozambique were analysed. In the light of Talmy’s typology expanded by Slobin, the results suggest that Changana falls into the domain of verb-framed languages (or Path languages), a typology that is shared by most languages across Africa. However, it differs fundamentally from the prototypical verb-framed language in terms of the expression of manner. In its turn, Changana is a manner-salient language, with a diversified lexicon of manner verbs and a dense lexicon of motion ideophones, which makes it a non-prototypical verb-framed language.

Speaking and gesturing guide event perception during message conceptualization: Evidence from eye movements

Speakers' visual attention to events is guided by linguistic conceptualization of information in spoken language production and in language-specific ways. Does production of language-specific co-speech gestures further guide speakers' visual attention during message preparation? Here, we examine the link between visual attention and multimodal event descriptions in Turkish. Turkish is a verb-framed language where speakers' speech and gesture show language specificity with path of motion mostly expressed within the main verb accompanied by path gestures. Turkish-speaking adults viewed motion events while their eye movements were recorded during non-linguistic (viewing-only) and linguistic (viewing-before-describing) tasks. The relative attention allocated to path over manner was higher in the linguistic task compared to the non-linguistic task. Furthermore, the relative attention allocated to path over manner within the linguistic task was higher when speakers (a) encoded path in the main verb versus outside the verb and (b) used additional path gestures accompanying speech versus not. Results strongly suggest that speakers' visual attention is guided by language-specific event encoding not only in speech but also in gesture. This provides evidence consistent with models that propose integration of speech and gesture at the conceptualization level of language production and suggests that the links between the eye and the mouth may be extended to the eye and the hand.

Minding the manner: attention to motion events in Turkish–Dutch early bilinguals

AbstractLanguages differ in the way motion events are encoded. In satellite-framed languages, motion verbs typically encode manner, while in verb-framed languages, path. We investigated the ways in which satellite-framed Dutch and verb-framed Turkish co-determine one’s attention to motion events in early bilinguals. In an EEG oddball paradigm, Turkish–Dutch bilinguals (n = 25) and Dutch controls (n = 27) watched short video clips of motion events, followed by a still picture that matched the preceding video in four ways (oddball design: 10% full match, 10% manner match, 10% endpoint match, and 70% full mismatch). We found that both groups showed similar oddball P300 effects, associated with task-related attention. Group differences were revealed in a late positivity (LP): The endpoint-match elicited a larger LP than the manner-match in the bilinguals, which may reflect language-driven attention. Our results indicate that cross-linguistic manner encoding difference impacts attention at a later stage.

Manner-of-speaking in a corpus-based translation study of narrative texts

This contribution examines manner-of-speaking (e.g. murmur, mutter) in a German>Spanish parallel corpus of narrative texts. This research was prompted by the fact that this phenomenon had not yet been paid due attention in the “Thinking-for-Translating” framework, in comparison with the phenomenon of manner-of-motion (e.g. limp, run). The starting point of this paper is thus the widely confirmed fact that, in previous works focusing on the translation of manner-of-motion between languages belonging to different typologies, some alterations regarding manner have been identified (e.g. omission, addition), and that this is mainly due to typological differences between source and target language. More precisely, speakers of satellite-framed languages (including German) often encode manner, while users of verb-framed languages (including Spanish) usually devote more attention to the lexicalization of path, sometimes at the expense of manner. Thus the aim of this paper is twofold: first, to examine translators’ behaviour regarding manner-of-speaking in a satellite-framed language>verb-framed language translation scenario (German>Spanish), specifically focusing on the translation of reporting verbs in a corpus of narrative texts; second, to compare the resulting data with findings from previous comparable studies dealing with the communication and motion frames. In the translation scenario studied here, the results suggest that translator behaviour differs when dealing with these two frames: while manner-of-motion is often omitted in translations into Spanish (from German), manner-of-speaking is usually transferred, or even added.

언어유형론적 관점에서 본 한국어와 일본어의 사역이동 - 사역 수단을 나타내는 선행동사(V1)를 중심으로 -

This paper aims to point out the possibility that the verb-framed languages of Japanese and Korean are prone to express the co-event of caused motion, according to Talmy’s typology. In this paper, I examine the frequency of co-events which will be expressed as V1, in particular the Japanese verb infinitive forms and the Korean conjunctive morpheme ‘-e’ and ‘-a’. As a result, this examination shows that the means of caused motion were greater than that of the manner. It can be said that the importance is low in the expression of caused motion. Additionally, there were many V1 expressions in this study that were neither means nor manner, they were mainly action verbs, verbs including foreground or background information, and verbs of spontaneous motion. Completing the entirety of caused motion by specifying other aspects of caused motion can be seen as a competent strategy. The results of sub-classifying the caused motion of the two languages can be linked to the results of this paper in that the means were greater than the manner of caused motion.

Propuesta de interacción entre el verbo y la preposición en la codificación de los eventos de desplazamiento. Estudio contrastivo entre el español y el chino mandarín

Spanish and Mandarin Chinese have been classified as verb-framed language and satellite-framed language respectively (Talmy: 1991, 2000). However, in Spanish, manner verbs are compatible with hacia and hasta, and a small group of them can do so with a. The typological discussion on Mandarin Chinese focuses on the serial verb construction of “manner verb + path word”, in which the second constituent lacking morphological variation can also function independently as path verb. To try to shed light on these discussions, we propose that the core scheme —the directional path— of the motion event is generated through the interaction between the verb and the preposition, in which the manner verb with external movement implies a non- directional path which plays a primary role, while the preposition and the second constituent of the Chinese serial verb construction are only direction indicators that do not contribute any path. The analysis of the combinatory between manner verbs and hacia, hasta, a, as well as their equivalent Chinese expressions, support our hypothesis and they let conclude that: a is locative; Chinese serial verb construction belongs to the satellite-framed language type; the extensive value of hasta does not favor the generation of the directional path, but that of its Chinese equivalent can do so.

Q 방법론을 활용한 언어 구조 인지 패턴과 한국어 언어 유형 연구

This paper investigates the typology of the Korean language according to the cognitive role of semantic components in a sentence. In order to carry out this research, Q methodology is adopted, which can allow us to measure human subjectivity. Although Korean is classified as a verb- framed language by many scholars, a lot of Koreans are authentically using Korean as a satellite-frame. There are four types of cognition patterns about the role of semantic language components. Both Types 1 and 3 are verb-framed languages, and they are divided again by the semantic component of the co-events, CAUSE or MANNER. Type 2 accepts only sentences in which MANNER exists regardless of the language frameworks of the sentence. That is, both frames are used in Type 2. Finally, Type 4 accepts only satellite-framed sentences, as opposed to Types 1 and 3.

Bejalai in Iban: A Study on Translating Motion Verbs in Bup Kudus Baru

This study investigates the use of the Talmy-Slobin typology of semantic components of motion verbs as applied to Bible translation. Using the Bup Kudus Baru, a new Iban translation, in comparison with a framework formed by the Hebrew original, NRSV representing English translation, and occasionally a Chinese translation, the author demonstrates the key features of verb-framed, satellite-framed, and equipollently-framed languages. The analysis of two Hebrew motion verbs, yāșā’ (path verb) and hālak (manner verb), and their respective Iban translations in Bup Kudus Baru, shows that the Iban language, much like Malay and Urak Lawoi’ from the same language family, is of path-salient nature in principle, but at the same time displays the use of serial verb constructs, a feature of equipollently-framed languages when manner verbs are required. The author concludes with some suggestions of ways to apply the Talmy-Slobin model in Bible translation, from the point of view of translators, translation officers, and their institutions.

Trailing Harry Potter into Romanian

Characteristic of English and other Germanic languages, Goal of Motion constructions represent a challenge for any translator rendering them into a Romance language. This is because to express the motion of an entity to/towards a Goal in a particular manner, English typically combines a manner-of-motion verb or a verb of sound emission with a dynamic preposition like into in He ran into the park. However, the combination is not generally available in Romanian and other Romance languages, since they not only lack dynamic prepositions, but also have far fewer manner-of-motion verbs. Consequently, to render Goal of Motion into Romanian with as little loss as possible, a translator will have to resort to various translation techniques to compensate not only for the lack of dynamic prepositions in this language, but also for its far poorer class of manner-of-motion verbs. This paper proposes several strategies for the translation of Goal of Motion constructions into Romanian and shows that they depend on the lexical and syntactic resources available in this language. An analysis of the techniques employed in a selected sample from two Romanian translations of the Harry Potter series indicates that the translators' strategies generally mirror Talmy's (1985, 2000) typological classification of Germanic and Romance languages into satellite-framed and verb-framed languages, respectively.

Unlearning the boundary-crossing constraint: Processing Instruction and the acquisition of motion event construal

This study explores the effects of instruction on the acquisition of motion event construal among learners of English as a second language. The challenge for learners with Verb-framed first languages is that they need to 'unlearn' the boundary-crossing constraint and conflate manner and motion in the main verb, as in "she ran into the bank", however, there is little research on how this domain can be taught. We evaluate performance on story-telling productive tasks using three experimental treatments involving 1) an input-only approach based on the principles of Processing Instruction, 2) combined input and output training and 3) explicit information only about the target construction. The findings show that boundary-crossing constructions expressing manner can be taught and learning effects generalised to non-boundary-crossing structures not included in the training material. The effectiveness of input-only instruction persists over a two-week period, and compares positively with that of an input+output teaching package.

The adventure of a third way: Motion events in Mandarin

Drawing on Talmy's analysis of lexicalization patterns (1985, 1991, 2000) and Slobin's “Thinking for Speaking” hypothesis (1991, 1996a, 2000), we examined the linguistic characteristics of habitual descriptions of motion events in Mandarin and found that the structural and discourse characteristics of Mandarin exhibited patterns that were not entirely the same as those of either Satellite-framed languages or Verb-framed languages but showed instead hybrid patterns. The results were in turn applied to a set of properties proposed by Talmy (2005, 2016) for identifying the main verb status in a construction. The analysis reveals that Equipollent framing holds a dominant position in Mandarin.

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

Abstract We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

AbstractWe respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g.Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PPto death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanishhasta la muerteand Englishto deathconstructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the Englishto deathPP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the SpanishhastaPP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction withhasta la muertefully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

Ways of looking: Lexicalizing visual paths in verbs

The packaging of meaning in verbs varies widely across languages since verbs are free to encode different aspects of an event. At the same time, languages tend to display recurrent preferences in lexicalization, e.g. verb-framing vs. satellite-framing in motion. It has been noted, however, that the lexicalization patterns in motion are not carried over to the domain of vision, since gaze trajectory (‘visual path’) is coded outside the main verb even in verb-framed languages. This ‘typological split’ (Matsumoto 2001), however, is not universal. This article contains the first extensive report of verb-framing in the domain of vision based on data from Maniq (Austroasiatic, Thailand). The verbs are investigated using a translation questionnaire and a picture-naming task, which tap into subtle semantic detail. Results suggest the meanings of the verbs are shaped by universal constraints linked to earth-based verticality and bodily mechanics, as well as local factors such as the environment and the cultural scenarios of which looking is a salient part. A broader look across the whole Maniq verb lexicon reveals further cases of verbally encoded spatial notions and demonstrates a pervasive cross-domain systematicity, pointing to the language system itself as an important shaping force in lexicalization.

Roll up / venez: an invitation to corpus-based research in motion typology

This paper highlights some facets of motion typology, applied here to mainly English and French. These two languages are not perfect examples of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages, in Leonard Talmy’s well-known typology, but they can nonetheless be shown to differ in a number of related respects: compared to English (and other Germanic languages), French (like other Romance languages) is quite constrained in its use of Manner-of-motion verbs. French also lacks true particles – Path satellites without a Ground that can be syntactically detached from the verb. Drawing on some of my previous research, I briefly discuss two simple but apparently sufficiently efficient corpus -based translation studies that reveal that these differences show up when we compare English texts originally written in English with English texts translated from French vs. English texts translated from German (or other Germanic languages). A third, more recent, study contrasts a single English novel with its French and Dutch translations, focusing on expressions of visual motion. Here, too, some of the basic encoding preferences (satellite-framed vs. verb-framed) that these languages exhibit for actual motion appear to apply, by and large, for visual motion. This paper also lists some precursors of Talmy, one of whom is famously linked with the linguistic relative hypothesis. It is suggested that French, because of its typological nature, may not urge its speakers to convey much detail (neither of Manner nor of Path) in the encoding of motion. It remains an open question, one that goes beyond the purview of corpus linguistics, whether this stylistic difference is matched with a deeper cognitive one.

An Event Integration Approach to Lexicalizations of Action Correlating Events— A Case Study of “V + Dào” Construction in Mandarin

This paper investigates the lexicalization patterns of action correlating events from the perspective of Talmy’s Macro-event theory and its revised event integration model. Based on the case study “V + Dào” construction in Mandarin, which is a rather pervasive structure in CCL corpus with high frequency, the event semantics, syntactic properties as well as the event integration patterns of “V + Dào” construction are fully explored by the means of correlation analysis and its visualization. The research results indicate that: 1) Both the internal and external event integration processes indicate the event integration hierarchy “V + Dào” construction in the domain of action corelating event. 2) In the process of the internal event integration, on the one hand, two or three conceptual primitives can be conflated in “V” and “Dào” respectively. On the other hand, both “V” and “Dào” share one common conceptual primitive of “act”, and others provide the elaboration sites with each other in the process of the external event integration. 3) Based on the core schema of “correlation” mainly encoded in the verb root of “V”, this paper claims that Mandarin Chinese, different from the motion event, exhibits the verb-framed language in the domain of the action correlating event. 4) Further, the semantic resonance and its (dis)appearance of “correlation” encoded in the different linguistic components simultaneously deserves further discussion. In a nutshell, these results support the event integration model hierarchically distributed in “V + Dào” construction with the conceptual primitives mapping in common and elaborating with each other between “V” and “Dào”. This study of the action correlating event, covering the term of “reciprocity” of human mutual acts, reflects and provides an insight into human social cognition from the perspective of linguistics.

Towards a unified analysis of three cross-linguistically correlated telic constructions in Romanian

Recent approaches to the theory of aspectuality assume that there is a conceptual similarity and cross-linguistic correlation between the (un)availability of goal-of-motion, strong resultative and aspectual cognate object constructions. This paper, examining Romanian data, brings further evidence in favour of the parallel between these three telic constructions and supports the tight correlation between them. It shows that although, at first glance, this verb-framed language shows patterns that seem to argue against the above correlation and especially against the unavailability of these structures, they prove to be only apparent counterexamples to it. Moreover, without questioning the typological classification of Romanian as a verb- framed language or the validity of the cross-linguistic correlation between these constructions, it reveals that a more detailed analysis of aspectual cognate object constructions in Romanian requires a different and more careful approach, which also takes into consideration the source of the diachronic data.

Codificación del movimiento por aprendices checos de españo: influencia de los patrones de pensar para hablar de la L1 en la L2

Motion encoding by Czech learners of Spanish: Influence of L1 Thinking-for-Speaking patterns in L2 This paper studies verbal encoding of motion events by Czech advanced learners of Spanish and Spanish native speakers. Since these languages differ in terms of Talmy’s (2000) typology of motion encoding, the study aims to assess to what extent the learners acquired the Thinking-for-Speaking patterns (Slobin 1996) of the L2. To this end, written narratives by natives and learners are examined and compared. The results show that the construction “path verb + manner complement”, a typical structure for verb-framed languages such as Spanish, is used significantly less often by the learners compared with the natives. The results also indicate that L1 interference happens when expressing boundary crossing situations in Spanish by the learners, since they tend to use a Manner of motion verb.

Motion events again: Delimiting constructional patterns

Languages can be divided into two main types depending on how they express motion (Talmy, 1991, 2000). Satellite-framed languages (S-languages; e.g., English, German, Polish) express path outside the verb root leaving the verb free to encode manner (e.g., The bottle floated into the cave), while verb-framed languages (V-languages; e.g., Japanese, Spanish, Turkish) lexicalize path in the verb root and manner in an adjunct (e.g., Spanish La botella entró en la cueva flotando ‘The bottle entered the cave floating’). However, recent works suggest that languages also exhibit intratypological variation, i.e., variation within the same typological affiliation as well as intralinguistic variation, i.e., variation within particular languages. This paper aims to further delimit motion encoding patterns by focusing on the interplay between abstract argument structure constructions, verbs, and directional satellites. Based on data from Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages, we propose that (i) Talmy's (2000) typology can be better accounted for in terms of verb-construction combinability constraints and (ii) intertypological, intratypological, and intralinguistic variability in the expression of motion can be regarded as a byproduct of the availability of particular verb-construction mappings in the world's languages.

Temporal Expressions in English and Spanish: Influence of Typology and Metaphorical Construal.

This study investigates how typological and metaphorical construal differences may affect the use and frequency of temporal expressions in English and Spanish. More precisely, we explore whether there are any differences between English, a satellite-framed language, and Spanish, a verb-framed language, in the use of certain temporal linguistic expressions that include a spatial, deictic component (Deictic Time), a purely temporal relation between two events (Sequential Time) or the expression of the duration of an event (Duration). To achieve this, we perform two different types of studies. First, we conduct an informational gain or loss analysis of 1,650 of English-to-Spanish translations extracted from parallel corpora. Secondly, we compare the frequency of 33 English and 27 Spanish temporal expressions in two similar written online corpora (EnTenTen and EsTenTen, respectively) and a television news spoken corpus (NewsScape). Our results suggest that English uses “deictic expressions with directional language” (explicitly stating the spatial location of the temporal event, e.g., back in those days/in the future ahead) much more frequently than Spanish, to the extent that such directional information is often excluded in English-to-Spanish translations. Also, sequential expressions (such as before that/later than) and duration expressions (during the whole day) are much more frequent in Spanish. These usage differences, explained by the variability in motion typology and metaphoric construal, open up the interesting question of how these differences in linguistic usage could affect the conceptualization of time of English and Spanish speakers.