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Verb and Path combinations used by Chinese and Dutch participants in encoding Path information in Endpoint-reached events: Manner verb (Ma), Path verb (Pa), Serial verb construction (Svc); Endpoint (End), Location (Loc), Trajectory (Tra).
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We study to what extent linguistic differences in grammatical aspect systems and verb lexicalisation patterns of Dutch and mandarin Chinese affect how speakers conceptualise the path of motion in motion events, using description and memory tasks. We hypothesised that speakers of the two languages would show different preferences towards the selecti...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... and video clips (stimulus items) were included in each model as random intercepts. Figures 6 and 7 show the combinations of verb and adjunct types found in descriptions in both languages, in Endpoint-reached events and Endpointoriented events, only considering sentences containing descriptions of path of motion. Typical examples of each verb and adjunct combination in each language are given in Table 2. ...
Citations
... The unmarked simple present is the major way to express ongoing events in Dutch. This is especially the case when ongoing directional motion events are described (e.g., Hij loopt naar het station-'he walks to the station'; Liao et al., 2020;von Stutterheim et al., 2009). ...
The current study aims to explore the factors that could affect people’s description of a motion event endpoint. The study conducted by Liao, Dijkstra, and Zwaan (2021, Language and Cognition, 13[2], 161–190) found that two non-linguistic factors (i.e., the actor’s goal and the interlocutor’s social status) affect people’s choice between two Dutch directional prepositions (i.e., naar and richting) during event description tasks. The current study aims to extend these findings by examining the choice between a similar pair of directional prepositions in English (i.e., to and towards). Moreover, we aim to study whether grammatical aspect (i.e., the English simple present and the English progressive aspect) affects the sensitivity to the two non-linguistic factors and consequently also affects how people describe a motion event endpoint. In Experiment 1, we used the English simple present for all sentence stimuli (e.g., he walks (?) the trash bin). We found a significant effect of Interlocutor (the interlocutor’s social status) on preposition choice, but no significant effect of Intention (the actor’s goal). In Experiment 2, we replaced the English simple present with the English progressive aspect (e.g., he is walking (?) the trash bin). We found significant main effects of both Interlocutor and Intention on preposition choice. These findings extend those reported in Liao et al. (2021) Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 35(4), 498–520 in that protagonist intention and interlocutor status were found to indeed affect motion event endpoint description. The current findings furthermore show that grammatical aspect affects people’s sensitivity to these factors, thus also affecting how a motion event endpoint is described.
... It has progressive constructions, such as the aan-het construction and postural verb constructions (e.g., zitten te + infinitive), but they are less frequently used and hence more marked than the simple forms in Dutch (Flecken, 2011). They are often constrained by more contexts and more situation types than the simple forms (see event description studies in Flecken, 2011;Liao, Flecken, Dijkstra, & Zwaan, 2020;von Stutterheim, Carroll, & Klein, 2009). For instance, von Stutterheim et al. (2009) found that, when describing a motion event in which the agent moves in relation to a reference object, Dutch speakers exclusively used the simple present tense (e.g., Hij loopt naar/richting het station) instead of a progressive construction (e.g., Hij is naar/richting het station aan het lopen). ...
Two Dutch directional prepositions (i.e., naar and richting) provide a useful paradigm to study endpoint conceptualization. Experiment 1 adopted a sentence comprehension task and confirmed the linguistic proposal that, when naar was used in motion event descriptions, participants were more certain that the reference object was the goal of the agent than when richting was used. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 used this linguistic pair to test the effect of two factors (i.e., the actor’s goal and the interlocutor’s status) on endpoint conceptualization via language production tasks. We found significant effects of both factors. First, participants chose naar more often when there was an inference in the referential situation that the reference object was the actor’s goal than when there was no such inference. Second, participants chose richting more often when they were told to describe the referential scenario to a police officer than to a friend. Participants were more cautious with their statements and were less willing to commit themselves to stating the goal of the agent when talking to a police officer than to a friend. The results are discussed in relation to relevant linguistic theories and event theories.
... However, spatiotemporal continuity of the central object was necessary to induce false recognition of the moment of release with or without additional causal implication. Whereas some work, particularly in language development, has argued that the goal or end point of a movement plays a particularly critical role in encoding events in memory (Lakusta & Landau, 2005), our results indicate that information about object trajectory itself is critical to forming a coherent event representation (see also Liao, Flecken, Dijkstra, and Zwaan, 2020). ...
Imagine you see a video of someone pulling back their leg to kick a soccer ball, and then a soccer ball soaring toward a goal. You would likely infer that these scenes are two parts of the same event, and this inference would likely cause you to remember having seen the moment the person kicked the soccer ball, even if that information was never actually presented (Strickland & Keil, 2011, Cognition, 121[3], 409-415). What cues trigger people to "fill in" causal events from incomplete information? Is it due to the experience they have had with soccer balls being kicked toward goals? Is it the visual similarity of the object in both halves of the video? Or is it the mere spatiotemporal continuity of the event? In three experiments, we tested these different potential mechanisms underlying the "filling-in" effect. Experiment 1 showed that filling in occurs equally in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, indicating that familiarity with specific event schemas is unnecessary to trigger false memory. Experiment 2 showed that the visible continuation of a launched object's trajectory is all that is required to trigger filling in, regardless of other occurrences in the second half of the scene. Finally, Experiment 3 found that, using naturalistic videos, this filling-in effect is more heavily affected if the object's trajectory is discontinuous in space/time compared with if the object undergoes a noticeable transformation. Together, these findings indicate that the spontaneous formation of causal event representations is driven by object representation systems that prioritize spatiotemporal information over other object features.
... Previously published literature concerning event segmentation across languages concentrated on self-initiated events (e.g. Bohnemeyer et al. 2007;Carroll et al. 2004;Gerwien & von Stutterheim 2018;Liao et al. 2019;von Stutterheim & N€ use 2003). However, causation in event segmentation appears to be under-examined (e.g. ...
... Sino-Tibetan languages such as Mandarin have somehow been neglected (e.g. Ji et al. 2011;Liao et al. 2019;Wolff et al. 2009). The present study therefore sets out to probe the segmentation of causal-chain events in Mandarin. ...
This study investigates how Mandarin speakers segment causal-chain motion events in a verbalization task. The results demonstrate that Mandarin shows attentional bias for the causal source and goal in causal-chain segmentation, which may be universal across languages. Furthermore, there is a correlation between directness of causation and the complexity of linguistic representations, with direct conceptualization leading to a preference for simpler constructions (e.g. causative verb construction, resultative verb construction), and indirect causation for more complex representations (e.g. causative periphrases and multi-macro-event constructions). The most salient factor for directness of causation in causal-chain segmentation is spatio-temporal contiguity. The macro-event property (MEP) is used to test the tightness of Mandarin causative constructions from a typological perspective. It is concluded that Mandarin demonstrates greater similarity with Ewe and Lao, but differs from Japanese and Yukatek regarding grammatical integration and event integration in causal-chain segmentation.
Motion event construal gives insight into the nature of the linguistic and conceptual representations underlying the encoding of events. Studies show that event descriptions differ cross-linguistically due to, amongst other factors, the absence or presence of grammatical aspect. While speakers of aspect languages generally focus on the process, speakers of non-aspect languages tend to perceive the event holistically and focus on endpoints. This investigation examines visual endpoint salience as a further factor that shapes event encoding. Thus, in this model, grammatical aspect is seen as a part of a more complex system of factors that determine event construal. The analyses, which cover German speakers, English speakers, and German-speaking learners of English, involve linguistic production data and results from memory performance tests. The findings show that the focus on endpoints increases for salient stimuli. While German speakers and learners of English show a tendency to focus on endpoints, a clear preference for focusing on the process can be observed in English speakers. Verbalizing endpoints correlates with the ability to remember them in a memorization task. The implications of these outcomes are discussed in the context of two factors which shape event encoding: grammatical aspect and endpoint salience.
This study investigates the use of the Talmy-Slobin typology of semantic components of motion verbs as applied to Bible translation. Using the Bup Kudus Baru, a new Iban translation, in comparison with a framework formed by the Hebrew original, NRSV representing English translation, and occasionally a Chinese translation, the author demonstrates the key features of verb-framed, satellite-framed, and equipollently-framed languages. The analysis of two Hebrew motion verbs, yāșā’ (path verb) and hālak (manner verb), and their respective Iban translations in Bup Kudus Baru, shows that the Iban language, much like Malay and Urak Lawoi’ from the same language family, is of path-salient nature in principle, but at the same time displays the use of serial verb constructs, a feature of equipollently-framed languages when manner verbs are required. The author concludes with some suggestions of ways to apply the Talmy-Slobin model in Bible translation, from the point of view of translators, translation officers, and their institutions.
