Previous research on motion expression indicates that typological properties influence how speakers select and express information in discourse (Slobin, 2004; Talmy, 2000). The present study further addresses this question by examining the expression of caused motion by adults and children (three to ten years) in French (Verb-framed) vs. English and German (Satellite-framed). Participants narrated short animated cartoons showing an agent displacing objects and varying along several dimensions (Path, Manner). A significant increase with age was found in the number of expressed motion components in all languages, as well as an influence of Path (vertical > boundary crossing). However, at all ages, participants encoded more information in English and German than in French, where more variation and structural changes occurred with increasing age. These findings highlight both cognitive and typological factors impacting the expression of caused motion in development. Implications of our findings are sketched in the 'Discussion'.

The present chapter shares the interest of preceding contributions in the consequences of cross-linguistic diversity for language acquisition. We explore the implications of Talmy’s motion event typology (see also Luk and Vidaković, this volume) for bilingual first and adult second language acquisition. In line with previous contributions, we address the role of typological and general cognitive factors, with a particular focus on cross-linguistic interactions (see also Chan et al. and Saddour, this volume). A bidirectional production experiment indicated that bilingual children’s motion descriptions display parallels both with monolinguals and second language learners. Unidirectional cross-linguistic interactions suggest that typological properties affect online production strategies in both acquisition situations. Finally, we discuss implications for the dynamics of event processing in bilingualism.

No abstract

The present study compares (1) monolingual English vs. French adults and children and (2) simultaneous French-English bilingual children who describe caused motion events. The results concerning L1 speakers showed developmental progressions in both languages, e.g. utterance complexity increases with age. However, response patterns differed considerably across languages in that responses were denser and more compact in English than in French. The results concerning bilingual children showed unidirectional crosslinguistic interactions. Responses elicited in English paralleled monolingual developmental patterns, whereas bilinguals’ French productions differed from those of monolingual French peers. The findings suggest that bilingual children transfer lexicalisation patterns from one of their languages to the other when the former provides more transparent means of achieving high semantic density.

No abstract