Chapter published in:
Broader Perspectives on Motion Event DescriptionsEdited by Yo Matsumoto and Kazuhiro Kawachi
[Human Cognitive Processing 69] 2020
► pp. 181–204
Attraction of attention in perceived motion events weighed against typology and cognitive cost
An experimental study of French
Takahiro Morita | Kyoto University
This chapter explores construction types and the
frequency of the use of optional syntactic elements in French motion
descriptions. In Talmy’s typology on Satellite- vs. Verb-framed
languages, French is characterized as using the construction type of
verb-framed languages for motion events, and according to his
principles on the correlation between the fore- and backgroundedness
of semantic components of motion and the cognitive cost of
expressing them, manner and other concepts are expected to occur
less frequently in foregrounded positions outside of the main verb
than in backgrounded position in the main verb. This chapter shows,
through an experimental method, that facts in French are
more complex, and that the attraction of attention in perceived
motion events has an impact on the choice of construction types and
motivates manner and deixis to be expressed more frequently in
optional syntactic elements under certain circumstances than Talmy’s
principles would predict.
Keywords: foregrounding and backgrounding, frequency, main verb, optional syntactic elements
Published online: 11 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.69.06mor
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.69.06mor
References
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