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Neglected Aspects of Motion-Event Description: Deixis, asymmetries, constructions
Edited by Laure Sarda and Benjamin Fagard
[Human Cognitive Processing 72] 2022
► pp. 43–67

Chapter 3
Linguistic representations of visual motion

A crosslinguistic experimental study

ORCID logo | NINJAL
ORCID logo | Nagoya University
| University of Tokyo
| Osaka University
| Keio University
| Naruto University of Education
| Center for Newar Studies
ORCID logo | Kyoto University
ORCID logo | University of Tokyo
| Kanda University of International Studies
ORCID logo | Sophia University
| Gifu University
Linguistic expressions of visual motion (e.g., look into the building) in ten languages are compared, based on a crosslinguistic production experiment. We examine how linguistic representations of visual motion are typologically akin to those of self- and caused motion events. The results suggest that speakers frequently refer to path in describing visual motion events, using the “Implicit-figure construction”, where no overt argument of V moves. Head-external path-coding languages allow path to be expressed similarly to how it is expressed in descriptions of self- and caused motion events, whereas head path-coding languages use different strategies. For visual motion, the use of path verbs and deictic verbs is avoided in most languages. Patterns of the representation of visual motion thus reveal a wider range of crosslinguistic variations in describing motion events than previously thought.
Keywords: deixis, fictive motion, Implicit-figure construction, path, typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Issues in the representations of visual motion
  • 3.Experiment and the languages examined
    • 3.1Method
    • 3.2Languages examined
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Reference to path
    • 4.2Choice of construction
    • 4.3Coding position of path
    • 4.4The complexity of path expressions
    • 4.5Representation of deixis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.03mat
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