Conceptualising voluntary motion events beyond language use: A comparison of English and Chinese speakers’ similarity judgments

Ji, Yun; Hohenstein, Jill

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2017.05.007

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…ascend stairs (Gerwien & Stutterheim, 2018). As we have mentioned above, Chinese exhibits characteristics of verb-framed languages (Beavers et al, 2010;Ji et al, 2011;Ji & Hohenstein, 2017). Chinese also shows the pattern that when manner verbs are used alone to describe a motion event, a locative adjunct is preferred over a trajectory adjunct by speakers.…”

Section: Manner Verb + Perfective (Maperf)mentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Based on the observations discussed above, we adopt the view in Ji et al (2011) that this language is of a mixed type, containing features of satellite-framed languages and verb-framed languages (see similar views in Beavers et al, 2010;Ji & Hohenstein, 2017; see also Shi & Wu, 2014, claiming that historically Chinese was a typical verb-framed language which is now in the process of transforming into a satellite-framed language).…”

Section: Verb Lexicalisation Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we study how speakers of Dutch and Mandarin Chinese, languages that differ in terms of verb lexicalisation patterns as well as grammatical aspect, conceptualise the path of motion in both Endpoint-reached and Endpoint-oriented (not-reached) events. Concerning verb semantics, Dutch is a typical satellite-framed language, whereas Chinese is often characterised as sharing features of a satellite-framed and a verbframed language (Beavers et al, 2010;Ji & Hohenstein, 2017; see detailed description below). Regarding aspect, Chinese is an aspectual language, in which markers of both the progressive as well as the perfective aspect are frequently used (Klein, Li, & Hendriks, 2000;Li & Thompson, 1981;Xiao & McEnery, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Going places in Dutch and mandarin Chinese: conceptualising the path of motion cross-linguistically

Liao

Flecken

Dijkstra

et al. 2019

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study to what extent linguistic differences in grammatical aspect systems and verb lexicalisation patterns of Dutch and mandarin Chinese affect how speakers conceptualise the path of motion in motion events, using description and memory tasks. We hypothesised that speakers of the two languages would show different preferences towards the selection of endpoint-, trajectory-or location-information in Endpoint-oriented (not reached) events, whilst showing a similar bias towards encoding endpoints in Endpoint-reached events. Our findings show that (1) groups did not differ in endpoint encoding and memory for both event types; (2) Dutch speakers conceptualised Endpoint-oriented motion focusing on the trajectory, whereas Chinese speakers focused on the location of the moving entity. In addition, we report detailed linguistic patterns of how grammatical aspect, verb semantics and adjuncts containing path-information are combined in the two languages. Results are discussed in relation to typologies of motion expression and event cognition theory. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

Section: Manner Verb + Perfective (Maperf)mentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Verb Lexicalisation Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Going places in Dutch and mandarin Chinese: conceptualising the path of motion cross-linguistically

Liao

Flecken

Dijkstra

et al. 2019

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The stimuli consisted of short video clips, comprising a set of 48 motion events (Ji and Hohenstein 2017c). These video clips were organised as a set of 16 triads: 16 targets and 32 alternates (two for each of the target events).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

English and Chinese children’s motion event similarity judgments

Hohenstein

2018

Cognitive Linguistics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explores the relationship between language and thought in similarity judgments by testing how monolingual children who speak languages with partial typological differences in motion description (English and Chinese) respond to visual motion event stimuli. Participants were either Chinese-or English-speaking, 3-year-olds, 8-year-olds and adults (32 in each group) who judged the similarity between caused motion scenes in a match-to-sample task. The results suggest, first of all, that the two younger groups of 3-year-olds are predominantly path-oriented, irrespective of language, as evidenced by their significantly longer fixation on path-match videos rather than manner-match videos in a preferential looking scheme. Using categorical measurement of overt choices, older children and adults also showed a shared tendency of being more path-oriented. However, the analysis using continuous measurement of reaction time revealed significant variations in spatial cognition that can be related to linguistic differences: English speakers tended to be more manner-oriented while Chinese speakers were equally manner-and path-oriented. On the whole, our findings indicate a likelihood that children's non-linguistic thought is similar prior to internalising the lexicalisation pattern of motion events in their native languages, but shows divergences after such habitual use, thus suggesting that the pattern of non-linguistic thought may be linked, among other things, to linguistic structure.

show abstract

“…This rich diversity in linguistic encoding of spatial events (motion in particular) has been widely documented in previous studies (Choi and Bowerman, 1991; Berman and Slobin, 1994; Slobin, 2004; Allen et al, 2007; Beavers et al, 2010; Ji et al, 2011a,b,c; Filipović and Jaszczolt, 2012, to name a few). It has been suggested that this effect of language can penetrate to the cognitive level, affecting how speakers of different languages conceptualize motion events in non-linguistic tasks (see, for instance, Slobin, 1996; Levinson, 2003; Hohenstein, 2005; Gullberg, 2011; Athanasopoulos and Bylund, 2013; Flecken et al, 2014; Ji and Hohenstein, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Representation of Spontaneous Motion in a Second Language: An Exploration of Chinese Learners of English

2019

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study tests whether Chinese learners of English can reconstruct their cognitive pattern in the direction of the target system when judging the similarity between spontaneous motion screens in a match–to–sample task. English main verbs encode Manner of motion only, while Chinese verb compounds express Manner and Path simultaneously. Chinese monolinguals are thus predicted to develop a motion cognition pattern highlighting both Manner and Path salience whereas English monolinguals are more likely to be Manner-oriented. Our research findings are twofold. First, when assessed by the explicit measure of selection strategies (i.e., either Manner–match or Path-match), both monolingual and L2 learners show a general preference for the Path–match. However, when gauged by the implicit measure of processing speed (i.e., reaction time), Chinese monolinguals reacted significantly quicker than their English counterparts, particularly in making Path-matched judgments. Further, the L2 English learners across proficiencies responded significantly more slowly than their monolingual counterparts even at an advanced stage of acquisition, suggesting that the process of conceptual reconstructing, as demonstrated in our experiment, can be cognitively demanding and needs a longer period of time to complete. These findings are generally consistent with a weak version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.

show abstract

Conceptualising voluntary motion events beyond language use: A comparison of English and Chinese speakers’ similarity judgments

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Going places in Dutch and mandarin Chinese: conceptualising the path of motion cross-linguistically

Going places in Dutch and mandarin Chinese: conceptualising the path of motion cross-linguistically

English and Chinese children’s motion event similarity judgments

Cognitive Representation of Spontaneous Motion in a Second Language: An Exploration of Chinese Learners of English

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About