What makes up a reportable event in a language? Motion events as an important test domain in linguistic typology

Bibliographic Data

ID3988476
AuthorsChristiane Von Stutterheim (Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, Universität Heidelberg , Plöck 55, 69117 Heidelberg , Germany, corresponding author), Johannes Gerwien (0000-0002-6207-8167, Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, Universität Heidelberg , Plöck 55, 69117 Heidelberg , Germany), Abassia Bouhaous (Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, Universität Heidelberg , Plöck 55, 69117 Heidelberg , Germany), Mary Carroll (0000-0001-5396-221X, Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprachenphilologie, Universität Heidelberg , Plöck 55, 69117 Heidelberg , Germany), Monique Lambert (Centre CNRS , 59 rue Pouchet, 75017 Paris , France)
Year2020
Volume58
Issue6
Pages1659-1700
Publication date2020-11-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling-2020-0212
OpenAlexW3049643962
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited50

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 aprocess-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:pathis typically expressed in the verb in French and Tunisian Arabic in contrast tomanner of motionin English and German, while in the temporal domainaspectis 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 eventlayer(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 aslanguage specific attentional templates

Cognition · Cognitive grammar · Cognitive linguistics · Event (particle physics) · Framing (construction) · German · Linguistic typology · Linguistics · Temporality · Typology · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · History · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · linguistics and terminology studies · Psychology

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