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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. 173–185

Chapter 8
Source–Goal asymmetry in German

A corpus study comparing intentional and non-intentional motion events

ORCID logo | Universität Hildesheim

Following years of intensive research in the field of motion event representation and its encoding in language, it can be concluded that goal paths are predominantly privileged over source paths across many languages and different event types (e.g., Ikegami 1987, Lakusta and Landau 2005, Stefanowitsch and Rohde 2004, Song, this volume). This chapter has two aims: first, to cover the aspect of the granularity of lexicalization patterns encoding goal and source paths in the German language based on qualitative analysis and second, to show that in language, the factors animacy and volition are not mapped onto syntactic structures and do not directly influence the frequency of encoding goal paths. The quantitative corpus study reveals verb-specific preferences for encoding different path elements.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, frequency data, goal bias, granularity, lexicalization patterns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The granularity of lexicalization patterns in German
    • 2.1The granularity of German motion verbs
    • 2.2The granularity of German adpositions
    • 2.3Granularity of German complex verbs
  • 3.Present study: Frequency of encoding source, route and goal paths
    • 3.1Research questions
    • 3.2Hypotheses and operationalization
    • 3.3Design
    • 3.4Results and discussion
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.08gus
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