Cover not available
Part of
The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French: Descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression
Edited by Michel Aurnague and Dejan Stosic
[Human Cognitive Processing 66] 2019
► pp. 250–288

Casting an eye on motion events

Eye tracking and its implications for linguistic typology

| STL, Université de Lille & CNRS, France
| SFL, Université Paris 8 & CNRS, France
| University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

In the last few decades there have been several attempts to connect language use with cognitive mechanisms underlying event representation. This language-thought interface is difficult to capture and highly debated. This chapter provides an overview of empirical and experimental studies relevant to this debate, focusing on the relation between eye movements, categorization and linguistic variation in the domain of motion events. It raises theoretical and methodological questions that have important implications for linguistic typology and cognitive studies more generally.

Keywords: typological differences, language-thought debate, categorization, similarity judgments, production, eye tracking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Linguistic and cognitive theories
    • 2.1Motion components in cognitive linguistics: The Path-Manner asymmetry
      • 2.1.1Inter-type, intra-type and intra-language variation: Some theoretical and methodological issues
      • 2.1.2Typological status and variation in French: A brief overview
    • 2.2The language-cognition interface
  • 3.Experimental studies
    • 3.1Production measures
    • 3.2Eye tracking paradigms and on-line measures
      • 3.2.1Production tasks and eye tracking: Exploring visual scenes while preparing to speak
      • 3.2.2Similarity judgment tasks and eye tracking
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.07sor
References
Aksu-Koç, A., & von Stutterheim, C.
(1994) Temporal relations in narrative: Simultaneity. In R. Berman & D. I. Slobin (Eds.), Relating events in narrative (pp. 393–455). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Aske, J.
(1989) Path predicates in English and Spanish: A closer look. In K. Hall, M. Meacham, & R. Shapiro (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 1–14). Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Beavers, J., Levin, B., & Wei Tham, S.
(2010) The typology of motion expressions revisited. Journal of Linguistics, 46, 331–377. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I.
(Eds.) (1994) Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Boroditsky, L.
(2001) Does language shape thought? English and Mandarin speakers’ conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Casasanto, D., & Jasmin, K.
(2012) The hands of time: Temporal gestures in English speakers. Cognitive Linguistics, 23(4), 643–674. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Choi, S.
(2011) Language-specificity of Motion event expressions in young Korean children. Language, Interaction & Acquisition (LIA) 2(1), 157–184.Google Scholar
(2017) Language-specificity in motion expression: Early acquisition in Korean compared to French and English. In M. Hickmann, Veneziano, E. & Jisa H. (Eds.), Variation in first language acquisition: languages, contexts, learners (pp. 103–122). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Choi, S., & Bowerman, M.
(1991) Learning to express motion events in English and Korean: The influence of language-specific lexicalization patterns. Cognition, 41, 83–121.Google Scholar
Choi, S., & Hattrup, K.
(2012) Relative contribution of cognition/perception and language on spatial categorization. Cognitive Science, 36, 102–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N.
(1975) Reflections on language. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Comrie, B.
(1985) Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coventry, K. R., Lynott, L., Cangelosi, A., Monrouxe, L., Joyce, D., & Richardson D. C.
(2010) Spatial language, visual attention, and perceptual simulation. Brain and Language, 112(3), 202–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Croft, W., Barðdal, J., Hollman, W., Sotirova, V., & Taoka, Ch.
(2010) Revising Talmy’s typological classification of complex event constructions. In H. C. Boas (Ed.), Contrastive studies in construction grammar (pp. 201–235). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Ö.
(1985) Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Descartes, R.
(1662) Discours de la méthode, part 5. In Philosophical works, translated by F. Haldane and G. Ross 1911 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Engemann, H., Hendriks, H., Hickmann, M., Soroli, E., & Vincent, C.
(2015) How language impacts memory of motion events in English and French. Cognitive Processing, 16(1), 209–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fellbaum, C.
(2002)  On the semantics of troponymy . In Green R., Bean C., & Hyon Myaeng S. (Eds.), The semantics of relationships: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 23–34). Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, C.
(1977)  The case for case reopened . In P. Cole, & J. M. Saddock (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, 8, Grammatical relations (pp. 59–81). New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Flecken, M., von Stutterheim, Ch., & Carroll, M.
(2013) Grammatical aspect influences motion event perception: Findings from a cross-linguistic nonverbal recognition task. Language and Cognition, 6(1), 45–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gennari, S. P., Sloman, S. A., Malt, B. C., & Fitch, W. T.
(2002) Motion events in language and cognition. Cognition, 83(1), 49–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D., & Goldin-Meadow, S.
(Eds.) (2003) Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 387–427). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, I. J.
(1950) The perception of the visual world. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.Google Scholar
Gill, J.
(1997) If a chimpanzee could talk and other reflections on language acquisition. University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Gleitman, L.
(1990) Structural sources of verb learning. Language Acquisition, 1, 1–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gleitman, L., January, D., Nappa, R., & Trueswell, J.
(2007) On the give and take between event apprehension and utterance formulation. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 544–569. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gleitman L, & Papafragou A.
(2005) Language and thought. In Holyoak K, & Morrison B. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 633–661). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Griffin, Z., & Bock, J. K.
(2000) What the eyes say about speaking. Psychological Science, 11, 274–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Han, S., & Northoff, G.
(2008) Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: a transcultural neuroimaging approach. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(8), 646–654. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hegel, G. W. F.
(1894) Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind. Translated from the 1894 version of The Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences with five Introductory Essays by W. Wallace. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Helo, A., Pannasch, S., Sirri, L. & Rämä, P.
(2014) The maturation of eye movement behaviour: Scene viewing characteristics in children and adults. Vision Research, 103, 83–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herder, J. G.
(1772) Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache. Berlin: Christian Friedrich Voss.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M.
(2003) Children’s discourse: Person, space, and time across languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2006) The relativity of motion in first language acquisition. In Hickmann, M., & Robert, S. (Eds.), Space in languages. Linguistic systems and cognitive categories (pp. 281–308). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, M., Engemann, H., Soroli, E., Hendriks, H., & Vincent, C.
(2017) Expressing and categorizing motion in French and English: Verbal and non-verbal cognition across languages. In I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (Ed.), Motion and space across languages and applications (pp. 61–94). Human Cognitive Processing series. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, M., Hendriks, H., & Champaud, C.
(2009) Typological constraints on motion in French child language. In J. Guo, E. Lieven, S. Ervin-Tripp, N. Budwig, S. Özçalişkan, & K. Nakamura (Eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin (pp. 209–224). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M., & S. Robert
(Eds.) (2006) Space in languages: Linguistic systems and cognitive categories. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickmann, M., Taranne, P., & Bonnet, P.
(2009) Motion in first language acquisition: Manner and path in French and in English. Journal of Child Language, 36(4), 705–741.Google Scholar
Hohenstein, J. M., Naigles, L. R., & Eisenberg, A. R.
(2004) Keeping verb acquisition in motion. A comparison of English and Spanish. In Hall, Geoffrey D./Waxman, & Sandra R. (Eds.), Weaving a lexicon (pp. 567–602). Cambridge MA.Google Scholar
Hohenstein, J.
(2005) Language-related motion event similarities in English- and Spanish-speaking children. Journal of Cognitive Development, 6, 403–425. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I.
(2009) Path salience in motion events. In J. Guo, E. Lieven, N. Budwig, S. Ervin-Tripp, K. Nakamura, & S. Özçalışkan (Eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin (pp. 403–414). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R.
(1990) Semantic structures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ji, Y., & Hohenstein, J.
(2017) Conceptualising voluntary motion events beyond language use: A comparison of English and Chinese speakers’ similarity judgments. Lingua, 195, 57–71,
https://doi.org/
. lingua.2017.05.007
Kopecka, A.
(2006) The semantic structure of motion verbs in French: Typological perspectives. In Hickmann, M., & Robert, S. (Eds.), Space in languages: Linguistic systems and cognitive categories (pp. 83–102). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levelt, W. J. M.
(1989) Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Locke, J.
(1690) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. A. D. Woozley. Cleveland: Meridian books, 1964. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Majid, A., Bowerman, M., Kita, S., Haun, D. B., & Levinson, S. C.
(2004) Can language restructure cognition? The case for space. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 108–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malblanc, A.
(1944) Pour une stylistique comparée du français et de l’allemand: Essai de représentation linguistique comparée. Paris: Henri Didier.Google Scholar
Masuda, T., & Nisbett, R. E.
(2001) Attending holistically versus analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 81(5), 922–934. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M.
(1969) Frog, where are you? New York: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Miller, G., & Fellbaum, C.
(1992) Semantic networks of English. In B. Levin, & S. Pinker (Eds.), Lexical & conceptual semantics (pp. 197–229). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Naigles, L. R., & Terrazas, P.
(1998) Motion verb generalizations in English and Spanish: Influences of language and syntax. Psychological Science, 9, 363–369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nichols, J.
(1992) Language diversity in space and time. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I. & Norenzayan, A.
(2001) Culture and systems of thought: Holistic vs. analytic cognition. Psychol. Rev., 108, 291–310. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Özçaliskan, S., & Slobin, D. I.
(2000) Climb up vs ascend down lexicalization choices expressing motion events with manner and path Components. In S. Catherien-Howell, S. A. Fish, & T. K. Lucas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 558–570). Somerville: CascadillaGoogle Scholar
Pannasch, S., & Velichkovsky, B. M.
(2009) Distractor effect and saccade amplitudes: Further evidence on different modes of processing in free exploration of visual images. Visual Cognition, 17(6–7), 1109–1131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A., Hulbert, J., & Trueswell, J.
(2008) Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements. Cognition, 108 (1), 155–184. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papafragou A., Massey, C., & Gleitman L.
(2006) When English proposes what Greek presupposes: The linguistic encoding of motion events. Cognition, 98, B75–B87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papafragou, A., & Selimis, S.
(2010) Event categorisation and language: A cross-linguistic study of motion. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25, 224–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pascal, B.
(1670) Pensées. Paris: Guillaume Desprez.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A.
(2014) The bilingual mind and what it tells us about language and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pinker, S.
(1989) Learnability and cognition: The Acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
(1995) The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Pourcel, S.
(2004) Motion in language and cognition. In A. Soares da Silva, A. Torres, & M. Gonçalves (Eds.), Linguagem, cultura e cognição: Estudos de linguistica cognitiva (pp. 75–91). Coimbra: Almedina.Google Scholar
(2009) Motion scenarios in cognitive processes. In V. Evans, & S. Pourcel (Eds.), New directions in cognitive linguistics (pp. 371–394). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scholl, B. J., & Tremoulet, P. D.
(2000) Perceptual causality and animacy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(8), 299–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sinha, C., & Kuteva, T.
(1995) Distributed spatial semantics. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 18, 167–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skarratt, P., Cole, G. G., & Gellatly, A. R. H.
(2009) Prioritisation of looming and receding objects: Equal slopes, different intercepts. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 71, 964–970. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skopeteas, S.
(2008) Encoding spatial relations: Language typology and diachronic change in Greek. STUF Language Typology and Universals, 61, 54–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I.
(1996) From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In J. J. Gumperz, & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 70–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(1997) Mind, code, and text. In J. Bybee, J. Haiman, & S. A. Thompson (Eds.), Essays on language function and language type: Dedicated to T. Givón (pp. 437–467). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2000) Verbalized events: A dynamic approach to linguistic relativity and determinism. In S. Niemeier & R. Dirven (Eds.), Evidence for linguistic relativity (pp. 107–138). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003) Language and thought online: Cognitive consequence of linguistic relativity. In D. Gentner, & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 157–192). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
(2004) The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In S. Strömqvist, & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 219–257). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
(2006) What makes manner of motion salient? Explorations in linguistic typology, discourse, and cognition. In M. Hickmann, & S. Robert (Eds.), Space in languages: Linguistic systems and cognitive categories (pp. 59–82). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I., & Hoiting, N.
(1994) Reference to movement in spoken and signed languages: Typological considerations. In Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 487–505). Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I., Kopecka, A., & Majid, A.
(2014) Manners of human gait: A crosslinguistic event-naming study. Cognitive Linguistics, 25, 701–741.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I.
(2017) Typologies and Language use. In I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (Ed.), Motion and space across languages and applications (pp. 95–122). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soroli, E.
(2011a) Typology and spatial cognition in English, French and Greek: Evidence from eye tracking. In Antonis Botinis (Ed.), Proceedings of the ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop on Experimental Linguistics (pp. 127–130). Paris: International Speech Communication Association & University of Athens.Google Scholar
(2011b) Language and spatial cognition in French and in English: Crosslinguistic perspectives on aphasia. PhD dissertation, University of Paris 8.Google Scholar
(2012a) Variation in spatial language and cognition: Exploring visuo-spatial thinking and speaking cross-linguistically, Cognitive Processing, 13(1), 333–337.Google Scholar
(2012b) Seeing and thinking for speaking across languages: Spatial encoding and attention allocation in agrammatic aphasia. In Antonis Botinis (Ed.), Proceedings of the 5th International Society of Experimental Linguistics (ISEL) Conference on Experimental Linguistics (pp. 113–116). Athens: ISCA & University of Athens.Google Scholar
(2018) Focal vs. global ways of motion event processing and the role of language: Evidence from categorization tasks and eye tracking. In A. Botinis (Eds.), Proceedings of 9th Tutorial and Research Workshop on Experimental Linguistics - ExLing (pp. 109–112). Ebook ISSN: 2529-1092.Google Scholar
Soroli, E., & Hickmann, M.
(2011) Language and spatial representations in French and in English: Evidence from eye movements. In G. Marotta, A. Lenci, L. Meini, & F. Rovai (Eds.), Space in language (pp. 581–597). Pisa: Editrice Testi Scientifici.Google Scholar
Soroli, E., & Verkerk, A.
(2017) Motion events in Greek: Methodological and typological issues. Cognitextes, [URL]. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soroli, E., Hickmann, M., Hendriks, H., Engemann, H., & Vincent, C.
(2015) Language effects on spatial cognition? Cross-linguistic evidence and eye tracking. NINJAL International Symposium: Typology and Cognition in Motion Event Descriptions January 2015, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Stosic, D.
(2009) La notion de “manière” dans la sémantique de l’espace. Langages, 175, 103–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stosic, D., & Amiot, D.
(2011) Quand la morphologie fait des manières: Les verbes évaluatifs et l’expression de la manière en français. In Amiot, D., De Mulder, W., Moline, E.m & Stosic, D. (Eds.), Ars Grammatica Hommages à Nelly Flaux (pp. 403–430). Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Talmy, L.
(1983) How language structures space. In H. L. Pick, & L. P. Acredolo (Eds.), Spatial orientation: Theory, research, and application (pp. 225–282). Boston, MA: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1991) Path to realization: A typology of event conflation. In C. Johnson, L. A. Sutton, & R. Shields (Eds.), Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 480–519). Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
(2000) Toward a cognitive semantics. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
(2008) Aspects of attention. In Robinson P. (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second languages acquisition (pp. 27–38). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2013) Main Verb Properties. International Journal of Cognitive Linguistics, V3 (N1), 1–24, Nova Science Publishers, Inc, New York.Google Scholar
(2015) Relating language to other cognitive systems. Cognitive Semantics, 1, 1–44.Google Scholar
Tatler, B. M., & Vincent, B. T.
(2008) Systematic tendencies in scene viewing. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 2(2), 1–18.Google Scholar
Tesnière, L.
(1959) Eléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Trueswell, J., & Papafragou, A.
(2010) Perceiving and remembering events cross-linguistically: Evidence from dual-task paradigms. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 64–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toplu, A. B.
(2011) Linguistic expression and conceptual representation of motion events in Turkish, English and French: An experimental study. PhD dissertation. Ankara: Middle East Technical University.Google Scholar
Vinay, J.-P., & Darbelnet, J.
(1958) Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais. Montreal: Beauchemin.Google Scholar
Vincent, C., Soroli, E., Engemann, H., Hendriks, H. & Hickmann, M.
(2018) Tobii or not Tobii? Assessing the validity of eye-tracking data: Challenges and solutions. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 11(5), 7.Google Scholar
Von Humboldt, W.
(1792) The limits of state action. Ed. J. W. Burrow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Von Mühlenen, A., Rempel, M., & Enns, J. T.
(2005) Unique temporal change is the key to attentional capture. Psychological Science, 16(12), 979–986.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L.
(1934) Thought and language [in Russian]. Moscow: Gosisdat.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L.
(1922) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974.Google Scholar
Whorf, B. L.
(1940) Science and linguistics, Technology Review, 42(6), 229–231.Google Scholar
(1956) Language, thought and reality. In J. B. Carroll (Ed.), Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (pp. 134–159). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zlatev, J., & Yangklang, P.
(2004) A third way to travel: The place of Thai in motion-event typology. In S. Strömqvist, & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 159–190). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Cappelle, Bert
2020. Chapter 8. Looking into visual motion expressions in Dutch, English, and French. In Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions [Human Cognitive Processing, 69], ► pp. 235 ff. DOI logo
Lesuisse, Mégane
2022. Exploring the conceptualisation of locative events in French, English, and Dutch: Insights from eye-tracking on two memorisation tasks. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association 10:1 ► pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Lewandowski, Wojciech & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2023.  Running across the mind or across the park: does speech about physical and metaphorical motion go hand in hand?. Cognitive Linguistics 34:3-4 ► pp. 411 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.