Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions

Thinking-for-translating

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-329
Author(s):  
Paula Cifuentes Férez
Keyword(s):  
Control Group ◽  
Physical Motion ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Thinking For Speaking ◽  
Narrative Fragments ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
And Control ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Manner Verbs

The present paper examines the acquisition of English physical motion constructions by Spanish translators in training. Drawing from Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) typological framework for motion event descriptions and Slobin’s (1996, 2003) thinking-for-speaking hypothesis, the main aim of this research is to study whether the acquisition of English lexicalization patterns by Spanish translators in training could be facilitated by instructing them to think-for-translating into English. To this end, first, participants in the experimental and control group were told to translate some narrative fragments from Spanish into English. Then, once they completed the task, participants in the experimental group were instructed on the typological differences between English and Spanish with regard to the domain of physical motion and on how to render typical Spanish motion descriptions into English motion constructions. Finally, after a one week delay they were told to translate new fragments from Spanish into English. We observed that participants in the experimental group produced a higher number of manner verbs plus path expressions than the control group which, in turn, favoured the use of non-manner verbs plus path expressions. The results show that, overall, instruction contributes to better performance in the production of satellite-framed constructions but translators in training still have problems with the use of satellites and prepositional phrases.

Tracing trajectories

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Carroll ◽  
Katja Weimar ◽  
Monique Flecken ◽  
Monique Lambert ◽  
Christiane von Stutterheim
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions

Although the typological contrast between Romance and Germanic languages as verb-framed versus satellite-framed (Talmy 1985) forms the background for many empirical studies on L2 acquisition, the inconclusive picture to date calls for more differentiated, fine-grained analyses. The present study goes beyond explanations based on this typological contrast and takes into account the sources from which spatial concepts are mainly derived in order to shape the trajectory traced by the entity in motion when moving through space: the entity in V-languages versus features of the ground in S-languages. It investigates why advanced French learners of English and German have difficulty acquiring the use of spatial concepts typical of the L2s to shape the trajectory, although relevant concepts can be expressed in their L1. The analysis compares motion event descriptions, based on the same sets of video clips, of L1 speakers of the three languages to L1 French-L2 English and L1 French-L2 German speakers, showing that the learners do not fully acquire the use of L2-specific spatial concepts. We argue that encoded concepts derived from the entity in motion vs. the ground lead to a focus on different aspects of motion events, in accordance with their compatibility with these sources, and are difficult to restructure in L2 acquisition.

scholarly journals Within-type variation in Satellite-framed languages: The case of Serbian

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-660
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fagard ◽  
Dejan Stosic ◽  
Massimo Cerruti
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Language ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions ◽  
Do So

Abstract After a wealth of studies on motion event descriptions, it seems hard to say something new: the Verb-framed/Satellite-framed typology proposed by Talmy has spawned a long debate. Among other things, previous work has shown within-type variation for one of the two language types defined by Talmy, namely Verb-framed languages. In this paper, we address this debate, showing within-type variation for the other type, Satellite-framed languages, with new data elicited from native speakers of Serbian. In order to do so, we compare it with five other languages, from three Indo-European language families (Romance, Germanic and Slavic). Our data show that Serbian is a particularly interesting case, since it is structurally Satellite-framed, but behaves like Verb-framed languages in that speakers do not always express manner and path jointly (i.e. manner in the verb and path in the satellite), as expected on the basis of Talmy’s typology. The main result of our paper is thus that there is a good deal of within-type variation for both language types identified by Talmy.

scholarly journals The roles of language mode and dominance in French–German bilinguals’ motion event descriptions

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladina Stocker ◽  
Raphael Berthele
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Null Results ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions ◽  
Manner Verbs

AbstractJuggling with structurally and semantically different language systems leads to constructions that differ from the typical patterns in a language. Typical patterns in the domain of motion are characterized by more verbs encoding path in French; and more verbs encoding the manner of motion in German. An increase of manner verbs in French, for instance, can be ascribed to an influence from German. The extent of typical or reversed patterns depends on interrelated factors such as speaker-related idiosyncrasies, language dominance configurations, and – arguably – the degree of language activation. Drawing on data from 154 French–German bilinguals who described motion events in different language modes, this paper combines interrelated questions on the role of language dominance, language mode manipulation and how these factors interact. Quantitative analyses on the use of motion verbs do not show the expected effects. The null results are discussed by comparing preceding studies showing contradictory findings.

scholarly journals Directional prepositions and event endpoint conceptualization: a study of naar and richting in Dutch

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
YIYUN LIAO ◽  
KATINKA DIJKSTRA ◽  
ROLF A. ZWAAN
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Reference Object ◽  
Study Endpoint ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions

abstract Two Dutch directional prepositions (i.e., naar and richting) provide a useful paradigm to study endpoint conceptualization. Experiment 1 adopted a sentence comprehension task and confirmed the linguistic proposal that, when naar was used in motion event descriptions, participants were more certain that the reference object was the goal of the agent than when richting was used. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 used this linguistic pair to test the effect of two factors (i.e., the actor’s goal and the interlocutor’s status) on endpoint conceptualization via language production tasks. We found significant effects of both factors. First, participants chose naar more often when there was an inference in the referential situation that the reference object was the actor’s goal than when there was no such inference. Second, participants chose richting more often when they were told to describe the referential scenario to a police officer than to a friend. Participants were more cautious with their statements and were less willing to commit themselves to stating the goal of the agent when talking to a police officer than to a friend. The results are discussed in relation to relevant linguistic theories and event theories.

The effect of language mode on motion event descriptions in German–French bilinguals

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAPHAEL BERTHELE ◽  
LADINA STOCKER
Keyword(s):  
Video Clips ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions ◽  
French Model ◽  
Manner Verbs

abstractWhen describing motion in space, speakers of French and German are known to show different preferences. In French, the verb typically encodes the path, whereas in German the manner in which the figure moves is mapped onto the verb. In this paper, this difference between the two languages is investigated, drawing on the data produced by forty participants. All participants are multilinguals, with German and French as their two strongest languages. They described fifty video clips in two sessions, once in monolingual and once in bilingual mode. The critical stimuli were always described in German in both language modes, the fillers in German in monolingual mode but in French in bilingual mode. The analyses of the manner and path verb uses show that, in a bilingual mode, speakers significantly converge towards the French model, that is, they reduce the preference for manner verbs and increase the proportion of path verbs.

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

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Jordan Zlatev ◽  
Johan Blomberg ◽  
Simon Devylder ◽  
Viswanatha Naidu ◽  
Joost van de Weijer
Keyword(s):  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions
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