Abstract
Numerous crosslinguistic studies on motion events have been carried out in investigating the scope of the two-fold typology “path versus manner” (Talmy 1985, 2000) and its possible implications. This typological contrast is too narrow as it stands, however, to account for the diversity found both within and across types. The present study is based on what can be termed a process-oriented perspective. It includes the analyses of all relevant conceptual domains notably the domain of temporality, in addition to space, and thus goes beyond previous studies. The languages studied differ typologically as follows: path is typically expressed in the verb in French and Tunisian Arabic in contrast to manner of motion in English and German, while in the temporal domain aspect is expressed grammatically in English and Tunisian Arabic but not in German and French. The study compares the representations which speakers construct when forming a reportable event as a response to video clips showing a series of naturalistic scenes in which an entity moves through space. The analysis includes the following conceptual categories: (1) the privileged event layer (manner vs. path) which drives the selection of breakpoints in the formation of event units when processing the visual input; (2) the privileged category in spatial framing (figure-based/ground-based) and (3) viewpoint aspect (phasal decomposition or not). We assume that each of these three cognitive categories is shaped specifically by language structure (both system and repertoire) and language use (frequency of constructions). The findings reveal systematic differences both across, as well as within, typologically related languages with respect to (1) the basic event type encoded, (2) the changes in quality expressed, (3) the total number of path segments encoded per situation, and (4) the number of path segments packaged into one utterance. The findings reveal what can be termed language-specific default settings along each of the conceptual dimensions and their interrelations which function as language specific attentional templates.
Appendix A Instructions for the four language groups:
Instructions: French
Vous allez voir maintenant quelques vidéos représentant des petites scènes. Votre tâche consiste à dire ce qui se passe dans chaque vidéo. Employez seulement des phrases complètes et concentrez-vous sur ce qui est important. Appuyez sur la barre ‘espace’ à la fin de votre enregistrement sonore pour passer à la vidéo suivante.
Instructions: German
Sie sehen jetzt eine Reihe von kurzen Video-Clips. Bitte beschreiben Sie bei jedem Video was passiert. Benutzen Sie bitte nur vollständige Sätze und konzentrieren Sie sich auf das Wesentliche. Drücken Sie die Leertaste, wenn Sie mit Ihrer Beschreibung fertig sind und Sie mit der Beschreibung des nächsten Videos fortfahren möchten.
Instructions: English
You will see a set of video clips, 40 in all, showing everyday events which are not connected with one another. Your task is to tell what is happening? It is not necessary to describe the scene in detail (e.g., sky is blue). Please use full sentences. You can start as soon as you recognize what is going on. Press the space bar, after you have finished your description. The next video will start automatically.
Instructions: Tunisian (Note that Tunisian is basically an oral variety. We provide a written version of the orally given instruction.)
beš tšūf des videos qsār. qolli šnuwwa qa‘ed ysīr fi kol video, rakkebli ǧomal kamlīn w rakkez ken ‘ala šnuwwa qa‘ed ysīr. kol ma tkammel inzel ‘ala “espace” beš yeḍhar il video illi ba‘du.
Appendix B Description of the video stimuli: Control items
A woman is passing by a fountain in a park.
A boat is slowly going up a river.
A young man is passing by a fountain while dribbling with a tennis ball.
A girl is walking up a hill approaching a cabin.
A man is walking down some stairs outdoors, approaching a wooden gate.
A woman is walking with a woven basket along a path way.
A person on a scooter is slowly driving down a street.
A person with crutches is walking up some steps.
Critical items
A woman walks past a fountain up some stairs
A young woman rushes down some stairs, and runs down the path
A tennis ball comes rolling towards some stairs and rolls down the steps
A woman pushes a stroller towards a ramp, turns right and pushes it down the ramp
A small ball bounces down some stairs and then rolls over to the right
A woman on a bike cycles down a cobbled road and goes around a corner towards an open gateway
A man passes by a parking lot, turns left and approaches the entrance of an old building
A man passes by a parked car, turns left and passes through a gateway
A man is walking on a street, turns left and approaches the entrance of a building
A man is walking down a street, turns right and walks up some stairs by taking two steps at once
An old man on a bike is slowly approaching a lamp post in front of a building and turning.
A man on a bike is changing direction and approaching the gateway of a courtyard.
Appendix C Number of segments per item - critical items
| Item | Item (Excel tables) | Segment 1 | Segment 2 | Segment 3 | Segment 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Past | Up | Away | |
| 2 | 2n | Out | Down | Change direction | Away |
| 3 | 3 | Along | Down stairs | Away | |
| 4 | 6 | Out | Change direction | Down | |
| 5 | 7n | Down | Away | Change direction | |
| 6 | 15n | Along | Change direction | into | |
| 7 | 17n | Past/along | Change direction | into | |
| 8 | 20n | Past/along | Change direction | Through | |
| 9 | 21n | Along | Change direction | Along | into |
| 10 | 25n | Along | Change direction | Up | into/through |
| 11 | 14 | into | Towards | Change direction | Away |
| 12 | 16 | Across | Towards | Through |
References
Athanasopoulos, Panos & Emanuel Bylund. 2013. Does grammatical aspect affect motion event cognition? A cross-linguistic comparison of English and Swedish speakers. Cognitive Science 37(2). 286–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12006.Search in Google Scholar
Beavers, John, Beth Levin & Shiao Wei Tham. 2009. The typology of motion expressions revisited. Journal of Linguistics 46(2). 331–377. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226709990272.Search in Google Scholar
Bennett, Jonathan. 2002. What events are. In Richard M. Gale (ed.), The Blackwell guide to metaphysics, 43–65. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1002/9780470998984.ch3Search in Google Scholar
Berthele, Raphael. 2004. The typology of motion and posture verbs: A variationist account. In Bernd Kortmann (ed.), Dialectology meets typology: Dialect grammar from a cross-linguistic perspective, 93–126. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Berthele, Raphael. 2013. Disentangling manner and path: Evidence from varieties of German and Romance. In Juliana Goschler & Anatol Stefanowitsch (eds.), Variation and change in the encoding of motion events, 55–75. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/hcp.41.03berSearch in Google Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen, Nicholas J. Enfield, James Essegbey, Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Sotaro Kita, Friederike Lüpke & Felix K. Ameka. 2007. Principles of event segmentation in language: The case of motion events. Language 83(3). 495–532. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2007.0116.Search in Google Scholar
Bylund, Emanuel, Panos Athanasopoupos & Marcelyn Oostendorp. 2013. Motion event cognition and grammatical aspect: Evidence from Afrikaans. Linguistics 51(5). 929–955. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2013-0033.Search in Google Scholar
Cardini, Fillipo-Enrico. 2008. Manner of motion saliency: An inquiry into Italian. Cognitive Linguistics 19(4). 533–570. https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2008.021.Search in Google Scholar
Cardini, Filippo-Enrico. 2012. Grammatical constraints and verb-framed languages: The case of Italian. Language and Cognition 4(3).167–201. https://doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2012-0010.Search in Google Scholar
Carroll, Mary. 2000. Representing path in language production in English and German. In Christopher Habel & Christiane von Stutterheim (eds.), Räumliche Konzepte und sprachliche Strukturen, 97–118. Tübingen: Niemeyer.10.1515/9783110952162.97Search in Google Scholar
Carroll, Mary & Christiane von Stutterheim. 2011. Event representation, time event relations, and clause structure: A cross linguistic study of English and German. In Eric Pederson & Jürgen Bohnemeyer (eds.), Event representation, 68–83. Cambridge & London: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511782039.004Search in Google Scholar
Carroll, Mary, Katja Weimar, Monique Flecken, Monique Lambert & Christiane von Stutterheim. 2012. Tracing trajectories: Motion event construal by advanced L2 French-English and L2 French-German speakers. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 3(2). 202–230. https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.3.2.03car.Search in Google Scholar
Croft, William, Jóhanna Barðdal, Willem Hollmann, Violeta Sotirova & Chiaki Taoka. 2010. Revising Talmy’s typological classification of complex event constructions. In Hans C. Boas (ed.), Contrastive studies in Construction Grammar, 201–234. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/cal.10.09croSearch in Google Scholar
Croft, William & D. Allan Cruse. 2004. Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511803864Search in Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 1980. Essays on actions and events. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Durst-Anderson, Peer, Viktor Smith & Ole Nedergaard Thomson. 2013. Towards a cognitive-semiotic typology of motion verbs. In Carita Paradis, Jean Hudson & Ulf Magnusson (eds.), The construal of spatial meaning, 118–143. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641635.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Evans, Jonathan. 2008. Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology 59. 255–278. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093629.Search in Google Scholar
Fanego, Teresa. 2012. Motion events in English: The emergence and diachrony of manner salience from Old English to Late Modern English. Folia Linguistica Historica 33. 29–85. https://doi.org/10.1515/flih.2012.003.Search in Google Scholar
Feist, Michele I. 2016. Minding your manners: Linguistic relativity in motion. Linguagem em (Dis)curso. SC 16(3). 591–602. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4017-160305-0916d.Search in Google Scholar
Flecken, Monique, Panos Athanasopoulos, Jan Rouke Kuipers & Guillaume Thierry. 2015a. On the road to somewhere: Brain potentials reflect language effects on motion event perception. Cognition 141. 41–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.04.006.Search in Google Scholar
Flecken, Monique, Mary Carroll, Katja Weimar & Christiane von Stutterheim. 2015b. Driving along the road or heading for the village? Conceptual differences underlying motion event perception and description in French, German and French-German L2 users. Modern Language Journal 99(S1). 100–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2015.12181.x.Search in Google Scholar
Flecken, Monique, Christiane von Stutterheim & Mary Carroll. 2014. Grammatical aspect influences motion event perception: Evidence from a cross-linguistic, non-verbal recognition task. Language and Cognition 6(1). 45–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2013.2.Search in Google Scholar
Gerwien, Johannes & Christiane von Stutterheim. 2018. Event segmentation: Cross-linguistic differences in verbal and non-verbal tasks. Cognition 180. 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.07.008.Search in Google Scholar
Goschler, Juliana & Anatol Stefanowitsch (eds.). 2013. Variation and change in the encoding of motion events. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/hcp.41Search in Google Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antunano, Iraide. 2010. Path salience in motion events. In Jiansheng Guo, Elena Lieven, Nancy Budwig, Susan Ervin-Tripp, Kei Nakamura & y Seyda Özçalişkan (eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language, 403–414. New York: Psychology Press.Search in Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1990. Semantic structures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Kamp, Hans. 1979. Events, instants and temporal reference. In Rainer Bäuerle, Urs Egli & Arnim von Stechow (eds.), Semantics from different points of view, 376–417. Berlin: Springer Verlag.10.1007/978-3-642-67458-7_24Search in Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1993. Ellipse. In Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld & Theo Vennemann (eds.), Syntax: Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung/An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, 1. Halbband/. vol. 1, 763–799. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110095869.1.12.763Search in Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1995. A time-relational analysis of Russian aspect. Language 71(4). 669–695. https://doi.org/10.2307/415740.Search in Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 2010. On times and arguments. Linguistics 48(6). 1221–1253. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2010.040.Search in Google Scholar
Koenig, Jean-Pierre. 2016. Event semantics. In Nick Riemer (ed.), The Routledge handbook of semantics, 387–402. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Kopecka, Anetta. 2009. L’expression du déplacement en français: L’interaction des facteurs sémantiques, aspectuels et pragmatiques dans la construction du sens spatial. Langages 173. 54–77. https://doi.org/10.3917/lang.173.0054.Search in Google Scholar
Levelt, Willem J. M. 1989. Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Search in Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 2003. Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511613609Search in Google Scholar
Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 2005. Argument realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511610479Search in Google Scholar
Louhichi, Imed. 2015. The “motionisation” of verbs: A contrastive study of thinking-for-speaking in English and Tunisian Arabic. Brighton: University of Sussex dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Lupyan, Garry. 2015. The centrality of language in human cognition. Language Learning 66(3). 516–553. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12155 (accessed 12 November 2018).Search in Google Scholar
Majid, Asifa, Melissa Bowerman, Sotaro Kita, B. M. Haun Daniel & Stephen C. Levinson. 2004. Can language restructure cognition? The case for space. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(3). 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.01.003.Search in Google Scholar
Mano, Miho, Yuko Yoshinari & Kiyoko Eguchi. 2019. Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition: Expressing motion events in English, Hungarian, and Japanese. In Ragnar Arntzen, Gisela Håkansson, Arnstein Hjelde & Jörg-U. Keßler (eds.), Teachability and learnability across Languages, 183–204. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/palart.6.09manSearch in Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Yo. 2003. Typologies of lexicalization patterns and event integration: Clarifications and reformulations. In Shuji Chiba (ed.), Empirical and theoretical investigations into language: A Festschrift for Masaru Kajita, 403–418. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Search in Google Scholar
Naigles, Letitia R., Ann. R. Eisenberg, Edward T. Kako, Melissa Highter & Nancy McGraw. 1998. Speaking of motion: Verb use in English and Spanish. Language & Cognitive Processes 13(5). 521–549. https://doi.org/10.1080/016909698386429.Search in Google Scholar
Newtson, Darren & Gretchen Engquist. 1976. The perceptual organization of ongoing behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 12(5). 436–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(76)90076-7.Search in Google Scholar
Papafragou, Anna, Justin Conor Hulbert & John Trueswell. 2008. Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements. Cognition 108(1). 155–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.02.007.Search in Google Scholar
Pourcel, Stephanie. 2005. What makes path of motion salient?. In Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society (BLS 30). 505–516.10.3765/bls.v30i1.963Search in Google Scholar
Pourcel, Stéphanie & Anetta Kopecka. 2005. Motion expression in French: Typological diversity. Durham & Newcastle Working papers in linguistics 11. 139–153.Search in Google Scholar
Radvansky, Gabriel A. & Jeffrey M. Zacks. 2014. Event cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199898138.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Schmiedtová, Barbara & Natascha Sahonenko. 2008. Die Rolle des grammatischen Aspekts in der Ereignis-Enkodierung: Ein Vergleich zwischen tschechischen und russischen Lernern des Deutschen. In Patrick Gommes & Maik Walter (eds.), Fortgeschrittene Lernervarietäten: Korpuslinguistik und Zweitspracherwerbforschung, 45–71. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Search in Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan I. 1996. Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish. In Masayoshi Shibatani & Sandra Thompson (eds.), Grammatical constructions: Their form and meaning, 195–220. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan I. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Sven Strömqvist & Luso Verhoeven (eds.), Relating events in narrative, vol. 2: Typological and contextual perspectives, 219–257. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan I. 2006. What makes manner of motion salient? Explorations in linguistic typology, discourse, and cognition. In Maya Hickmann & Stéphane Robert (eds.), Space in languages: Linguistic systems and cognitive categories, 59–81. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.66.05sloSearch in Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1975. Semantics and syntax of motion. In John Kimball (ed.), Syntax and semantics 4, 181–238. New York: Academic Press.10.1163/9789004368828_008Search in Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: semantic structure in lexical forms. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: vol. 3: Grammatical categories and the lexicon, 57–149. Cambridge & London: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics: Typology and process in concept structuring, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/6848.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Thierry, Guillaume. 2016. Neurolinguistic relativity: How language flexes human perception and cognition. Language Learning 66(3). 690–713. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12186.Search in Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1957. Verbs and times. The Philosophical Review 66(2). 143–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2182371.Search in Google Scholar
van der Zee, Emile (ed.). 2003–2013. Language and Space. 10 volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, Christiane, Martin Andermann, Mary Carroll, Monique Flecken & Barbara Schmiedtová. 2012. How grammaticized concepts shape event conceptualization in the early phases of language production. Insights from linguistic analysis, eye tracking data and memory performance. Linguistics 50(4). 833–869. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2012-0026.Search in Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, Christiane, Abbassia Bouhaous & Mary Carroll. 2017. From time to space: The impact of aspectual categories on the construal of motion events: The case of Tunisian Arabic and modern standard Arabic. Linguistics 55(1). 207–249. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2016-0038.Search in Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, Christiane, Johannes Gerwien, Abbassia Bouhaous, Mary Carroll, Monique Lambert. 2019. What makes up a reportable event in a language? Motion events as an important test domain in linguistic typology [Dataset]. heiDATA, V1, https://doi.org/10.11588/data/CLNRAU.Search in Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, Christiane & Ralf Nüse. 2003. Processes of conceptualization in language production: Language-specific perspectives and event construal. Linguistics 41(5). 851–881. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2003.028.Search in Google Scholar
Zacks, Jeffrey M. & Barbara Tversky 2001. Event structure in perception and conception. Psychological Bulletin 127(1). 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.3.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
