The Expression of Motion Events: A Quantitative Study of Six Typologically Varied Languages

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:More than two decades of intense research on motion event typology, emanating from the influential proposal of Talmy (1991, 2000) of a universal binary classification of languages into verb-framed (VF), such as French, and satellite-framed (SF), such as English, still leaves many questions unresolved. One such question is whether serial-verb languages such as Thai should be considered a third type (Zlatev and David 2003; Zlatev and Yangklang 2004), generalized by Slobin (2004) as equipollently-framed (EF). A second question is whether these two or three types should be regarded as in some sense ‘distinct’ (even if they have minor expression patterns conflicting the dominant, type-characteristic ones), or rather as forming continua with respect to certain dimensions, such as the propensity to express MANNER (Slobin 2004) or PATH (Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2009). A third and related question is whether the notion of language types (with respect to motion typology or in general) should not be abandoned, and languages rather be described as conglomerates of constructions and strategies, with complex overlaps (Kopecka 2006; Beavers, Levin & Tham 2010; Croft et al. 2010). In the research reported here, we address these questions, using an empirical approach based on elicited data from six carefully chosen languages. Two of these are the Romance languages French and Piedmontese, which can both reasonably be expected to be of the VF type. We also analyzed the Germanic languages Swedish and German and the Slavic language Polish, all three typically considered as SF. Finally, we included Thai (Tai-Kadai), classified as EF by Slobin (2004).

Verbs in speech framing expressions: Comparing English and Spanish

“…2014, Fagard et al. 2016). In addition to the alleged complexity of meanings lexicalized in English verbs, it has also been argued that rather than profiling manner of motion, as is the case in English verbs, Spanish verbs tend to profile path through the finite verb of motion [3] .…”

“…sashay/contornearse and swagger/fanfarronear. Research on the topic of lexicalization patterns in Germanic and Romance languages with focus on motion meanings was initiated by Talmy (1985Talmy ( , 1988Talmy ( , 1991Talmy ( , 2000, and has since then given rise to a lot of research also on other languages and other language families (Levinson & Wilkins 2006, Filipović 2007, Zlatev, Blomberg & David 2010, Slobin et al 2014, Fagard et al 2016. In addition to the alleged complexity of meanings lexicalized in English verbs, it has also been argued that rather than profiling MANNER of motion, as is the case in English verbs, Spanish verbs tend to profile PATH through the finite verb of motion.…”

Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling

“…Zubizarreta and Oh, 2007). 4 Fagard et al (2013) observed, however, that Thai speakers used manner-of-motion verbs more frequently than both path and deictic verbs in elicited descriptions of motion scenes. The authors furthermore observed a distinct propensity of Thai speakers to express manner of motion even when the exhibited manner was unmarked, i.e., was not related to a more specific gait (e.g., a simple walking in contrast to a more specific running).…”

The expression of path in three satellite-framed languages

“…verb-framed types since the differences between the two groups are expected to be the most significant (e.g. Slobin 1996;Cardini 2008;Özçalışkan & Slobin 2003;Kopecka 2004;Fargard et al 2013). Fewer studies seem to be concerned with intra-typological comparisons of motion lexicalization (some notable exceptions include e.g.…”