from “motion events” to(wards) a semantics of relocation
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Copenhagen Business School Center of Language, Cognition and Mentality. From “Motion Events” to(wards) a Semantics of Relocation. Viktor Smith [email protected]. First Conference of the Swedish Association for Language and Cognition Lund, November 29th – December 1st, 2007. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
From “Motion Events” to(wards) a Semantics of Relocation
First Conference of the Swedish Association for Language and CognitionLund, November 29th – December 1st, 2007
Viktor [email protected]
Copenhagen Business SchoolCenter of Language, Cognition and Mentality
Conceptualization, lexicalization, and verbalization of motion in terms of “moving, or being moved, from Loc1 to Loc2”
Suggested terms:
Smith (2003: 71ff; 2005)
Primary focus:
Relocation Relocation Verbs
Motion Event Research…in the Talmy-Slobin tradition
Yet: Generally accepted terms and definitions still lack in mainstream motion event research
Example:
Danish
hunden gik ind (ud etc…)
fisken svømmede ind (ud etc…)
fuglen fløj ind (ud etc…)
bilen kørte ind (ud etc…)
skibet sejlede ind (ud etc…)
French
le chien
le poisson
l’oiseau
la voiture
le navire
est entré (sorti(e))
Some standard assumptions
The cognitive variables involved appear to be universal
The linguistic means available for communicating their products display profound and systematic crosslinguistic differences
Manner or: S(atellite-framed) languagese.g. Danish, Swedish, English, German, Russian, Chinese
Path or: V(erb-framed) languages e.g. French, Italian, Spanish, Modern Greek,Turkish, Japanese
Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000); Slobin (1996a/b, 2004a/b);Mora Gutiérrez (2001); Berthele (2004).
versus
Growth points for continued research
• Refining and differentiating the typological description of particular languages
• Assessing the impact of typological differences on crosslinguistic communication and translation
• The language worldview & “thinking for speaking” dimensions
The key typology
• Providing a firmer basis for distinguishing between
(a) motion in general
(b) going from Loc1 to Loc2 relocation
Aliases: motion events, translocation, displacement; directed motion, change of location, etc. …yet the terminology remains tentative and vague
Improving the theoretical tools and metalanguagefor capturing the semantic variables of interest by:
• Specifying the intuitively attractive but vaguely specified “primitives” known as Path and Manner
Aims of this presentation
further clarifying the impact of pre-linguistic visual cognition
as extended by…
The analysis of the “cognitive anatomy” of motion events offered by Talmy (2000: 51ff)
…the principles of situation and verb classification suggested by Durst-Andersen offering an additional differentiation of the cognitive variables involved (1992; 2000; 2002)
while…
specifically addressing the variables of
(a) simple motion vs. Loc1 Loc2
(b) Path and Manner
Attempted synthesis
But: The relevant processing may be performed on two distinct cognitive levels. See Blaser & Sperling (in press) for a polemic but highly illustrative discussion
….and possibly in different parts of the human brain Dodge & Lakoff (2005)
The semantic modeling must incorporate insights on pre-linguistic visual cognition
Figure/ground segmentation is a key variable in humans’ conceptualization of the real-world situations of interest
See e.g. Palmer (1999: 281f) for a general overview
“Delay-and-compare” processingis basic to any form of motion detectionSee Borst (2000) for a condensed introduction
Basic assumptions and prerequisites
Figure Ground Path Motion (in terms of either Motion or Locatedness (i.e. non-motion))
Pre-view of suggested adjustments:
I. (Main) Motion Event
II. Co-event definable in terms of Manner or Cause
Inserting an additional level of analysis:
2 types of simple situations definable in terms of Figure, Ground, and “simple” Motion or Locatedness only I and II above
Additional level: 1 complex situation given by observed or expected interdependencies between the simple ones
Path and Relocation are variables on this level only
Talmyan basics (2000:25f)
states: stable figure on stable ground
state verbs (lie, stand, resemble, etc.)
activities: unstable figure on stable ground or vice versa
activity verbs (dance, wave, shiver, carry, flow, etc.)
actions: mental constructs linking together a certain activity (in that case conceived as a process) and a certain state (in that case conceived as an event)
action verbs (put, arrive, kill, show, etc.)
In continuation of Durst-Andersen (1992, 2000, 2002); Durst-Andersen & Herslund (1996)
Conceptualization and lexicalization of real-world situations
A cross-linguistic ontology and verb classification
Actions in which the change of state is definable in terms of spatial relationships (location) alone
Relocation processes and events
(Alternative categories Possession-based, Experience-based, and Qualification-based action verbs)
As rendered linguistically by:
Location-based action verbs
or in short: Relocation verbs
The meta-language of relocation
an activity, presenting it as a process:
She is just putting the cake on the table
In actual communication, action verbs will be referring to either:
a (change of) state, presenting it as an event:
Who put that cake on my table?
or
NB! The semantics of simplex action verbs leaves the process underdetermined (“whatever it takes”), while specifying the event only
Applying action verbs to real-world situations
The semantics of putting
Ground-propositions
Y IS ON Z (Loc2)IMPLICATIONX DO SOMETHING
Y IS WITH X (Loc1)
TELICITYGround-situations
to put
logically entails
“Time and space provide contrasting perspectives on events. A temporal perspective highlights the sequence of transition, the dynamic changes from segment to segment, things in motion. A spatial perspective highlights the sequence of states, the static spatial configuration, things caught still. Capturing the temporal and spatial at once seems elusive; like waves and particles, the dynamic and the static appear to complement each other.”
Zacks & Tversky (2001: 19, my italics)
The present approach is an attempt to embrace
“wawes” and “particles” within the same model
A related point made on pre-linguistic visual cognition
• Activity oriented (whether or not the activity is presented as part of an action, i.e. as a process)
• Specify certain properties of either the figure, the ground and/or the interrelations between them
• For transitive verbs: The Agent’s interaction with the figure and/or ground, given these properties, can also be part of the semantics
Specifying the Path/Manner distinction
Path verbs are:• (Change of) State oriented
• Specify certain properties of either the initial location, Loc1, the consequent
location, Loc2, and/or the interrelation
between them
• (the figure being a variable only in terms of its presence/absence on these locations, i.e. grounds).
Manner verbs are:
Applying the framework
Focus of the SugarTexts Project at CBS revolving around a multilingual corpus of authentic step-by-step descriptions of the processing of sugar beets into refined white sugar in a sugar factory, as found in textbooks, technical research reports, information folders, encyclopedias, sales material, on websites, etc.
That is:
Spontaneous verbalizations of uniform extralinguistic scenarios containing a wide variety of relocation processes and events in terms of both Path and Manner of motion
See Smith (in press) for an updated review…
Example for illustration: What goes on in a beet sugar factory?
But how is it conceptualized and verbalized?
What we see...
The perceived extra-linguistic reality
soilsoil
crude juicecrude juice thin juicethin juicecosettescosettesbeetsbeets
WASHING
pulppulp filter cakefilter cake
SLICING DIFFUSION
PURIFICATION
thick juicethick juicemassecuitemassecuite
steamsteam
steamsteammolassesmolasses
CRYSTALLIZATIONCENTRIFUGATION
EVAPORATION
sugar crystalssugar crystals
The SugarWorld Ontology
Actions involving a change of location in terms of presence or absence of a Figure on a particular Ground (Location)
Activities involving unstable Figure-Ground relationships on one and the same Ground (Location)
may be further specified linguistically in terms of Loc1 Loc2
Path verbs (simple or complex)
arrive, enter, etc.
may be further specified linguistically in terms of Figure Ground interaction and compatibility (+ impact of Agent, for transitive verbs) Manner verbs
roll, soak, throw, etc.
The Ontology content
PATH
aller ‘go’
entrer ‘enter’
venir ‘come’
sortir ‘exit’
Typical Path language – French Typical Manner language – Danish
simple activity verbs
MANNER
marcher ‘walk’
courir ‘run’
flâner ‘stroll’
ramper ‘crawl’
simple action verbs= relocation verbs
simple activity verbs
complex (phrasal) action verbs = relocation verbs with obligatory Manner component
MANNER
gå ‘walk’
løbe ‘run’
spadsere ’stroll’
kravle ’crawl’
PATH
ind ‘in
ud ‘out’
op ’up’
ned ’down’
Pinpointing the standard typology
Continuing Herslund’s exemplification (1998:8-9)
And hence “distributed semantics” in the sense of Sinha & Kuteva (1995) Why is “Satellite № 1” is different?
… as stressed but not fully explained by Talmy (2000:106 f.)
Examples: English: She ran out of the kitchen up to the
bedroom... etc. (infinitiveinfinitive: run out)
The first satellite/prefix “does the trick” = shifts the semantics fromactivity to action and hence relocation. word-forming function, revealed by prefix vs. free particle status in e.g. German and Russian
German: infinitivinfinitive: herauslaufen finite finite formform: ...lief ...heraus Russian: infinitive:infinitive: выбежать … finite form:finite form: выбежала
The borderland between lexicon and syntax in S-languages
Actions, satellites, and verb aspect
In Russian,, the prefix is both a Path and an Aspect marker… and only action verbs form aspect pairs
For details, see e.g. Durst-Andersen (1992)
Examples: Насос качал медленно но надежно ’The pump pumped slowly but reliably’
Насос перекачал воду в бак ’The pump pumped (over) the water into the tank’
Насос перекачивал воду в бак ’The pump was pumping (over) the water into the tank’
This can hardly be coincidental or irrelevant to understanding the mechanisms in play in other satellite-framed languages!
Extending the verb (and situation) classification beyond “pure” relocation
Relocation + Position on Loc1 or Loc2 Positioning verbs
Examples:
Relocation + Qualification
English: Put the bottle on the tablePut the book on the table
versus
Danish: Stille flasken på bordetLægge bogen på boret
English: deliver, steal, etc. (+ similar verbs in other languages)
To sum up:o Simple motion (activities) and relocation (actions)
rely on fundamentally different cognitive representations conflated and combined differently in different languages, but should not be confused
o Manner is a property of activities (though it may also be conflated as a
processes-specifying element in complex (phrasal) action verbs in S-languages)
o Path is a property of actions and hence Relocation “par excellence”
So much for the descriptive toolsWhere they might prove their worth is in providing a more stringent metalanguage for future investigations into the typological, communicative, and cognitive dimensions outlined initially… The SugarTexts being one context for doing so.
Thank you for your attention
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