scholarly journals Semantic Categories in the Domain of Motion Verbs by Adult Speakers of Danish, German, and Turkish

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moiken Jessen
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Space ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
The World ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Vector Orientation ◽  
Verb Lexicon

Languages differ in the ways they divide the world. This study applies cluster analysis to understand how and why languages differ in the way they express motion events. It further lays out what the parameters of the structure of the semantic space of motion are, based on data collected from participants who were adult speakers of Danish, German, and Turkish. The participants described 37 video clips depicting a large variety of motion events. The results of the study show that the segmentation of the semantic space displays a great deal of variation across all three groups. Turkish differs from German and Danish with respect to the features used to segment the semantic space – namely by using vector orientation. German and Danish differ greatly with respect to (a) how fine-grained the distinctions made are, and (b) how motion verbs with a common Germanic root are distributed across the semantic space. Consequently, this study illustrates that the parameters applied for categorization by speakers are, to some degree, related to typological membership, in relation to Talmy's typological framework for the expression of motion events. Finally, the study shows that the features applied for categorization differ across languages and that typological membership is not necessarily a predictor of elaboration of the motion verb lexicon.

Tracing trajectories

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Carroll ◽  
Katja Weimar ◽  
Monique Flecken ◽  
Monique Lambert ◽  
Christiane von Stutterheim
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions

Although the typological contrast between Romance and Germanic languages as verb-framed versus satellite-framed (Talmy 1985) forms the background for many empirical studies on L2 acquisition, the inconclusive picture to date calls for more differentiated, fine-grained analyses. The present study goes beyond explanations based on this typological contrast and takes into account the sources from which spatial concepts are mainly derived in order to shape the trajectory traced by the entity in motion when moving through space: the entity in V-languages versus features of the ground in S-languages. It investigates why advanced French learners of English and German have difficulty acquiring the use of spatial concepts typical of the L2s to shape the trajectory, although relevant concepts can be expressed in their L1. The analysis compares motion event descriptions, based on the same sets of video clips, of L1 speakers of the three languages to L1 French-L2 English and L1 French-L2 German speakers, showing that the learners do not fully acquire the use of L2-specific spatial concepts. We argue that encoded concepts derived from the entity in motion vs. the ground lead to a focus on different aspects of motion events, in accordance with their compatibility with these sources, and are difficult to restructure in L2 acquisition.

scholarly journals The influence of language-specific and universal factors on acquisition of motion verbs

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 927
Author(s):  
Rebecca Smyder ◽  
Kaitlyn Harrigan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Universal Distribution ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Verb Acquisition ◽  
Manner Verbs

This study explores children’s encoding of novel verbs referring to motion events, and finds influence of both language-specific and universal constraints on meaning. Motion verbs fall into two categories—manner verbs encode how a movement happens (run, swim), and path verbs encode the starting and ending point of a motion (enter, fall). Some languages express path more frequently in the verb (Spanish, Hebrew), and others manner more frequently (English, German). Our study expands on this previous work demonstrating sensitivity to these language-specific distributions, as well as expanding to test environmental factors representing a predictable universal distribution. We find that children are sensitive to both the language-specific factors as well as the universal factors in motion verb acquisition.

scholarly journals The Image of the Patient as a Component of the World’s Image of Students of Medical University

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-138
Author(s):  
N.V. Samoilenko ◽  
E.V. Dyachenko
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Clinical Teaching ◽  
Semantic Space ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Clinical Decisions ◽  
Educational Module ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Methodological Foundation ◽  
The World ◽  
Medical University

The article provides data on the study of the patient’s image as a component of the image of the world among students of a medical university. The theoretical and methodological foundation was the provision that the image of the patient is implicitly represented in the semantic space of future doctors by semantic categories in the structure of a holistic multi-level system of ideas about the world, other people, about themselves and their activities, i.e. image of the world. The patient’s image was studied as a factor in the effectiveness of the interaction between the doctor and the patient in the provision of medical care. The effectiveness of interaction is one of the tools for making relevant clinical decisions, taking into account the opinion of the patient, which ensures patient-oriented medical consultation. 300 students of the 1 and 6 courses of the Ural State Medical University of the Faculty of Medicine were examined. The patient’s image was experimentally studied using methods: semantic personality differential, color metaphors and color choices. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that the image of a patient in medical students is represented by various kinds of semantic categories (friendly, irrational, irritable, etc.). The content of the semantic categories of the patient’s image differs at the beginning and at the end of training: from multidirectional characteristics to ordered in the form of a typical and ideal patient. It has been established that the content of the patient’s image can be purposefully formed when mastering the educational program. The inclusion of an educational module in clinical teaching disciplines on the skills of professional communication with the patient (as one of the tools for making clinical decisions in the provision of medical care) affects the change in the content of the patient’s image in future doctors.

scholarly journals Where do all the motion verbs come from?

Diachronica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annemarie Verkerk
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Verb Lexicon ◽  
Huge Progress ◽  
Manner Verbs

The last four decades have seen huge progress in the description and analysis of cross-linguistic diversity in the encoding of motion (Talmy 1985, 1991, Slobin 1996, 2004). Comparisons between satellite-framed and verb-framed languages suggest that satellite-framed languages typically have a larger manner of motion verb lexicon (swim, dash), while verb-framed languages typically have a larger path of motion verb lexicon (enter, cross) (Slobin 2004, Verkerk 2013, 2014b). This paper investigates how differences between the motion verb lexicons of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages emerge. Phylogenetic comparative methods adopted from biology and an etymological study are used to investigate manner verb lexicons and path verb lexicons in an Indo-European dataset. I show that manner verbs and path verbs typically have different types of etymological origins and that manner verbs emerge faster in satellite-framed subgroups, while path verbs emerge faster in verb-framed subgroups.

Motion-Verb Generalizations in English and Spanish: Influences of Language and Syntax

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 363-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Letitia R. Naigles ◽  
Paula Terrazas
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Motion Verb

English and Spanish speakers differ in the ways they talk about motion events, but how have these different modes of expression become instantiated as differing generalizations—as syntactic rules, lexical patterns, or both? In two studies, we asked English- and Spanish-speaking adults to interpret novel motion verbs presented in three types of sentence frames. Overall, English speakers expected novel verbs to encode the manner of motion, whereas Spanish speakers expected the verbs to encode the path of motion. The sentence frames also significantly affected how the speakers interpreted the novel verbs. We conclude that speakers of different languages represent their different generalizations about the composition of motion verbs both lexically and syntactically, and discuss how these generalizations might be important for issues of language acquisition and linguistic relativity.

scholarly journals Scramble, Scurry and Dash: The Correlation between Motion Event Encoding and Manner Verb Lexicon Size in Indo-European

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annemarie Verkerk
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Verb Lexicon ◽  
Over Time

In recent decades, much has been discovered about the different ways in which people can talk about motion (Talmy, 1985, 1991; Slobin, 1996, 1997, 2004). Slobin (1997) has suggested that satellite-framed languages typically have a larger and more diverse lexicon of manner of motion verbs (such as run, fly, and scramble) when compared to verb-framed languages. Slobin (2004) has claimed that larger manner of motion verb lexicons originate over time because codability factors increase the accessibility of manner in satellite-framed languages. In this paper I investigate the dependency between the use of the satellite-framed encoding construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon. The data used come from 20 Indo-European languages. The methodology applied is a range of phylogenetic comparative methods adopted from biology, which allow for an investigation of this dependency while taking into account the shared history between these 20 languages. The results provide evidence that Slobin’s hypothesis was correct, and indeed there seems to be a relationship between the use of the satellite-framed construction and the size of the manner verb lexicon.

scholarly journals Hacia una clasificación de grano fino de los verbos de movimiento. El caso de los verbos intransitivos del español

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-117
Author(s):  
Sergio Ibáñez Cerda ◽  
Bertha Lecumberri Salazar
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Reference Location ◽  
Detailed Classification ◽  
The World ◽  
Point Of Reference

Based on the lexicalization patterns presented in Talmy’s pioneering work (1985), motion verbs classifications for Spanish mainly recognize two groups: verbs of manner and verbs of direction (Lamiroy, 1991; Cifuentes Honrubia, 1988-1989; Crego García, 2000; Morimoto, 2001, among others). This research offers a much more detailed classification, by means of the use of a finer set of features and semantic participants that may be lexicalized by motion verbs in any language of the world, namely: the aspectual features of punctuality and telicity; the participants theme, source, path, goal, point of reference, location-path and trajectory; and the parametric features of displacement, movement, manner, change of place and direction. The result is a classification of eight different verb groups that account for the lexical and syntactic mechanisms present in the encoding of the Spanish motion events.

General conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Huber
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Similar Degree ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Verb Lexicon ◽  
Manner Verbs

Chapter 10 offers a general conclusion of the findings of the book: Old and Middle English are strongly satellite-framing languages, whose intransitive motion construction can also accommodate verbs which inherently do not evoke a meaning of motion. The size of the manner verb lexicon in medieval English, as well as the use of manner verbs in the texts analysed, point to a similar degree of manner salience as in Present-Day English. The path verbs from French and Latin are shown to be borrowed initially not for expressing general literal motion events, but mostly in abstract or manner-enriched uses more peripheral to their meaning in the donor languages. The study also points out effects of the intertypological contact situation with Middle English on motion verb use in Anglo-Norman. Potential further effects yet to be investigated are suggested in this chapter.

Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Michael Herweg
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Frame Structure ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The Core ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Motion Verb

AbstractThis paper offers a frame-semantic account of some of the manifold phenomena that can be observed in motion expressions in typologically diverse languages. The core of the proposed approach is a basic locomotion frame complemented with a mechanism of profiling that operates on this frame. The locomotion frame provides a rich structure which features the pivotal elements beneficial for the semantic representation of different types of motion descriptions. The profiling mechanism allows one to select, deselect and augment elements of this frame structure, as well as to specify significant relations between distinct parts of the frame. With these means, the profiling mechanism facilitates fine-grained differentiations among motion verbs that considerably exceed the classic dichotomy of path and manner-of-motion verbs. The proposed theory is applied to different kinds of path and manner-of-motion verbs, including those typically found in path-dominant and manner-dominant languages, as well as in languages which exhibit a pronounced diversity of motion verbs lined up in serial verb constructions. The suggested frame-semantic analyses thus reveal intricate differentiations in a multifaceted linguistic domain.

The semantics of the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Cifuentes-Férez
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Account ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Linguistic Expression ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Vast Amount ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions

Talmy’s (e.g., 1985, 2000) seminal work has engendered a great deal of research and debate in the literature on motion event descriptions over the last decades. Despite the vast amount of research on the linguistic expression of motion events, the fact that motion verb roots might encode information apart from Path and Manner of motion is often overlooked. The present paper addresses the semantics of 376 English and 257 Spanish motion verbs by exploring the general conflations which are conveyed by these verbs. In this regard, both crosslinguistic similarities and differences will be pointed out. My research concludes that path-conflating and manner-conflating verbs amount to the largest part of their lexicons but that other minor patterns such as ground conflations, in contradiction to Talmy’s speculations on the lack of ground-conflating verbs, are present as well. Taken as a whole, this paper provides a rich and detailed account on the semantic nature of the English and the Spanish motion verb lexicons, and emerges as a helpful reference for researchers in this field.

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