Source-Goal (a)symmetry in Romanian

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiana Papahagi
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Motion Path ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Motion Event

Abstract According to Talmy (2000), a motion event has four conceptual components: Figure, Motion, Path and one or more Grounds. Path can be further decomposed into Source, Medium and Goal (or: departure, passing and arrival). In many languages, intuitive pairs of motion events such as come/go seem to indicate that Source and Goal are equally able to build the image of the Path. However, numerous studies have pointed to an asymmetry in favor of Goal in motion descriptions. Using the corpus elicited during the Trajectoire project, this paper explores Source-Goal asymmetries in Romanian; this concerns adposition inventories (which are symmetrical for Source and Goal), adposition-verb combinations, and the attention payed by speakers to Source viz. Goal-oriented motion. The paper postulates possible semantic causes of Source-Goal asymmetry not identified in previous literature, such as the bounded nature of the Ground, and motion being associated with a particular human activity.

Going beyond motion events typology: The case of Basque as a verb-framed language

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
High Tolerance ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
New Information ◽  
Different Types

AbstractThe concept of motion is present in all the world’s languages. However, the ways in which speakers of different languages codify motion do not seem to be so universal. Languages offer different types of structures to express motion, and speakers pay attention to different elements within the motion event. The goal of this paper is to examine in great detail how motion events are described and expressed in Basque oral and written narratives. This study focuses on three main areas: motion verbs, elaboration of Manner and elaboration of Path. Although Basque can be classified in Talmy’s terms as a verb-framed language, it is argued that it is not a prototypical example of this group with respect to the lexicalisation of Path. Unlike other verb-framed languages, the description of Path in Basque motion events is very frequent and detailed, not only in situations when it adds new information, but also in pleonastic cases. This characteristic seems to be related to Basque’s rich lexical resources for motion and space, as well as to its high tolerance for verb omission. On the basis of these data, the scope of Talmy’s binary typology is questioned. It is suggested that the verb- and satellite-framed language typology should be revised in order to account for these intra-typological differences.

Translation and contact languages

Babel ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-555
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Rottet
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Good Exemplar ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Celtic Languages ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of

In this study we use a translation corpus of English novels translated into two closely related Celtic languages, Welsh and Breton, as one way of shedding light on the extent to which languages can influence each other over time: Welsh has a long history of contact with English, and Breton with French. Ever since the work of Leonard Talmy (1991, 2000 etc.), linguists have recognized that languages fall into a small number of types with respect to how they prefer to talk about motion events. English is a good exemplar of the satellite-framed type, whereas French exemplifies the verb-framed type. Translation scholars have observed that translating between languages of two different types raises interesting questions (Slobin 2005; Cappelle 2012), and the topic is also of interest from the perspective of language contact: is it possible for a language of one type, in a situation of prolonged and intense bilingualism with a language of another type, to be influenced or perhaps even to change its own rhetorical preferences? The translation corpus provides a body of data which holds constant the starting point – the cue in each case was an English motion event in the source text. We do indeed find that Welsh and Breton have diverged in important ways in terms of their preferences for encoding motion events: Breton is revealed to have moved significantly in the direction of French with respect to these preferences.

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 Absentives or ambidirectionals?

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 109-193
Author(s):  
Axel Holvoet ◽  
Vaiva Žeimantienė
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
External Observer ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
The Past ◽  
Motion Event

The present article introduces the ambidirectional, a construction (or sometimes just a distinct type of use of a gram basically serving another function) referring to two-way motion events in the past. The discussion starts out from the notion of absentive, which has already established itself in the literature since de Groot (2000). In many languages the construction ‘be’ + INF, claimed to be an absentive, exists only in a past-tense variety. It is argued that such constructions do not meet the definitional criteria for absentives. We here propose to describe them as ambidirectionals, by which we understand a construction (or a specific type of use of a gram with a broader array of functions) denoting two-way motion-cum-purpose events in the past. The absentive can be characterised as a particular type of use of an ambidirectional construction, which allows different focusing: either a holistic view is given of the motion event or its outward point is focused upon, and in the latter case the presence of an external observer yields the absentive interpretation. The fact that the constructions involved are basically ambidirectional explains why in many languages they are restricted to the past, while other languages allow occasional or regular extensions to the domain of the present.

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.

You can't cry your way to candy: Motion events and paths in the x's way construction

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Szczesniak
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Constructionist Approach ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Event Schemas

AbstractThis paper examines previous analyses of the x's way construction, focusing on the readings attributed to it within the Construction Grammar framework and constraints on the types of verbs allowed in the construction. It questions some of the characterizations of the construction and offers an alternative view that accounts for uses of the construction that have not been considered before. Specifically, it will demonstrate that metaphoric uses, particularly those with obtainment readings, reveal interesting properties of the construction that define how it assembles motion events and paths in these events. These will be shown to follow constraints of differing rigidity. While motion events can involve disparate subevents blended together, paths do not allow any integration of incongruous elements. The construction follows universal principles which govern how complex event schemas can be blended out of simpler schemas in linguistic constructions. More generally, as a closed-class form, not only does the construction conform to event-schema protocol, but its meaning associated with a motion event is a spare reading typical of a closed-class form. Thus the present analysis attempts to reconcile its constructionist approach to the way construction with the traditional division into closed- and open-class forms.

Does Physical Motion Matter? The Encoding Differences between Fictive and Physical Motion Events

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-157
Author(s):  
Sai Ma
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Physical Motion ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Fictive Motion ◽  
Authentic Data

This study aims to explore linguistic differences between fictive motion expressions and physical motion event expressions in Chinese. Although both types of expressions are associated with dynamic linguistic forms, they describe different types of semantic content. Using authentic data, this study examines motion verbs, motion verb constructions, the complexity of ground elements, and alternative manner expressions for Chinese fictive motion events, the results of which are compared with those of previous studies on physical motion events. It is found that Chinese fictive motion expressions are very different from Chinese physical motion event expressions in terms of the above four aspects. The results lend support to the hypothesis that fictive motion occurs more in verb-framed languages.

Reliable Motion Detection, Location and Audit in Surveillance Video

2011 ◽  
pp. 277-289
Author(s):  
Samaan Poursoltan ◽  
Matthew J. Sorell
Keyword(s):  
Motion Detection ◽  
Surveillance Video ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Average Brightness ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Video Frames ◽  
Filter Approach ◽  
Tracking Filter ◽  
Objective Description ◽  
Background Motion

The review of video captured by fixed surveillance cameras is a time consuming, tedious, expensive and potentially unreliable human process, but of very high evidentiary value. Two key challenges stand out in such a task; ensuring that all motion events are captured for analysis, and demonstrating that all motion events have been captured so that the evidence survives being challenged in court. In previous work (Zhao, Poursoltanmohammadi & Sorell, 2008), it was demonstrated that tracking the average brightness of video frames or frame segment provided a more robust metric of motion than other commonly hypothesized motion measures. This paper extends that work in three ways; by setting automatic localized motion detection thresholds, by maintaining a frame-by-frame single parameter normalized motion metric, and by locating regions of motion events within the footage. A tracking filter approach is used for localized motion analysis, which adapts to localized background motion or noise within each image segment. When motion is detected, location and size estimates are reported to provide some objective description of the motion event.

Non-canonical objects, motion events, and verb/satellite-framed typology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhui Hu
Keyword(s):  
Head Position ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
The Common

Based on the Synchronic Grammaticalisation Hypothesis and the theory of the syntax of events, this chapter explores the syntactic nature of the Chinese non-canonical object construction. The object in this construction is introduced by a null P, which is incorporated into the verbal head position, and a lexical verb serves as a functional item, vDO. This account is extended to the analysis of the motion event construction in Chinese. It involves the incorporation of a P into the verbal head position filled with a vDO in the form of a lexical verb. The only difference is that this P is phonologically overt. Therefore, the [V+Path] chunk in Chinese is a single lexical item. This means that the Chinese motion event construction by nature patterns with its counterpart in verb-framed languages, a conclusion that goes against the common assumption that Chinese is a satellite-framed language.

The relation between the encoding of motion event information and viewpoint in English-accompanying gestures

Gesture ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fey Parrill
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Event Information ◽  
Selection Of

Properties of motion events (e.g., path, manner) and point of view (e.g., character’s point of view, observer’s point of view) can both be encoded in co-speech gestures. How are these two dimensions of meaning associated? In an examination of English narrative data collected under controlled circumstances, we found that gestures encoding manner of motion were significantly more likely to appear in character viewpoint. Gestures encoding path (but not manner), on the other hand, were significantly more likely to occur in observer viewpoint. Gestures encoding both path and manner simultaneously were also significantly more likely to occur in observer viewpoint. We suggest that selection of point of view may have effects on the encoding of certain semantic features in gesture.

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