Linguistic variation in the interpretation and production of Italian motion event constructions in younger and older adults
Evidence for Language Change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7903693 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Michelotti (0009-0002-3644-4909, Technische Hochschule Mannheim, corresponding author), Ioli Baroncini (0000-0002-5048-6673, Technische Hochschule Mannheim), Helen Engemann (0000-0001-5937-2819, Technische Hochschule Mannheim) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Cognition (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1866-9808 • E-ISSN: 1866-9859 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/langcog.2024.74 |
| OpenAlex | W4406769174 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 44 |
Languages vary in the way they encode motion. Following Talmy, languages can be divided into verb-framed (VF, henceforth) or satellite-framed (SF, henceforth), based on how they encode path of motion. However, this difference is not always clear-cut. Italian, for instance, is typically considered a VF language but has also been shown to display a hybrid pattern. Since variation has typically been considered a prerequisite for language change, we investigated whether variation in encoding Italian motion events could indicate incipient language change. We simulated the chain of language change adopting an apparent-time approach and investigated whether the impact of semantic properties (the manner verb’s association with directional motion) on the interpretation and productions of SF Italian constructions was affected by participants’ age. We found that, although this semantic property affects both the interpretation and production of SF constructions, younger participants more readily accepted SF constructions than older participants; this age difference, however, was not significant in the production task. We suggest that these findings might speak for incipient language change, which starts from comprehension and subsequently gradually influences production
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Economics · Language production · Linguistics · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · History · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · linguistics and terminology studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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| Citations per year | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |