Learning to think, talk, and gesture about motion in language-specific ways

Abstract

Languages differ systematically in the way they express spatial motion, rendering it as a highly relevant domain to examine effects of language on nonverbal representation of events. In this chapter, we focus on Turkish and English, the two languages that differ strongly in their expression of motion events. Our review of existing work – spanning across adult and child native speakers of the two languages (as well as several others) – suggests early emergence of language-specific patterns in speech, and possibly in gesture. Our review also highlights some key areas of further research that could shed new light on the effect of language on nonverbal representation of motion, particularly at the early ages.

How language type influences patterns of motion expression in bilingual speakers

“…Another possible reason for the exclusion of manner in V-languages could be the increased processing demands associated with including manner. The added processing demand in V-languages – be it first or second language – is likely incurred by the use of low frequency verb forms such as gerunds and more complex syntactic constructions typically involving a main verb and a subordinate clause, both of which require greater cognitive effort than encoding manner using a high-frequency finite verb, typical in S-languages (Özçalışkan, 2009, 2016; Özçalışkan and Slobin, 2003; for further discussion, see also Donoso and Bylund, 2015; Pavlenko and Volynsky, 2015).…”

“…Most of the earlier work focused on expression of motion in languages that belong to different language types (V-language vs. S-language) largely in first language learning contexts, and provided evidence for the aforementioned patterns of inter-typological differences (Allen et al, 2007; Berman and Slobin, 1994; Hickmann et al, 2009; Naigles et al, 1998; Özçalışkan, 2015; Özçalışkan et al, 2016a, 2016b; Strömqvist and Verhoeven, 2004; for a recent review, see Özçalışkan and Emerson, 2016). Previous research also focused on inter-typological variation in second language learning contexts, examining patterns of motion expression in languages that belong to different language types.…”

“…For example, Spanish and Basque are both classified as V-languages. However, while speakers of Spanish typically limit themselves to encode path in the verb, speakers of Basque commonly offer more extended path descriptions by expressing additional spatial information such as source and goal of motion outside the verb (Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2009; for a similar pattern in Turkish, see Özçalışkan, 2009; for further discussion of intra-typological variation in V-languages, see Berthele, 2006; Ibarretxe-Antuñano et al, 2017).…”

Does language shape silent gesture?

“…However, languages also vary systematically in how they express each element type, displaying for the most part a binary split across the world’s languages (Talmy, 2000). Speakers of English—a satellite-framed language—use a conflated strategy in speech; they typically express manner and path components in a compact description with manner in the verb ( crawl ) and path outside the verb ( into ), both expressed within a single clause, as in ‘baby crawls into the house.’ In contrast, speakers of Turkish—a verb-framed language—use a separated strategy in speech, with path in the verb in one clause (‘girer’ = enter), and manner outside of the verb and, importantly, in a subordinate separate clause (‘sürünerek’ = crawl), as in ‘bebek eve girer sürünerek ’ = baby house-to enters by crawling; Turkish-speakers often express only the path, omitting manner entirely (Allen et al, 2007; Özçalışkan, 2009; Özçalışkan & Slobin, 1999). In addition to these differences in type and packaging of motion elements, the two languages also differ in where the primary motion element (i.e., the main verb, be it manner or path) is placed within a sentence; the motion verb is typically situated at the end of a sentence in Turkish (‘Bebek ev-e GÍRER’ = baby house-to ENTERS; Figure-Ground-MOTION), but in the middle of the sentence in English (Figure-MOTION-Ground, ‘Baby CRAWLS into house’).…”

The linguistic expression of causal relations in picture-based narratives: A comparative study of bilingual and monolingual children with TLD and DLD

“…Overall, children with TLD and DLD at the ages studied here only begin to elaborate on the expression of motion events in specific ways at the clausal and inter-clausal levels (Guo & Chen, 2009; Hickmann, 2003; Özçalişkan, 2009). From the first phase of the motion chain, children with DLD seemed particularly disadvantaged when narrating the ‘jumping scene’, which demanded complex language forms to encode multiple perspectives on motion, causality and reference.…”