Chapter published in:
Teachability and Learnability across Languages
Edited by Ragnar Arntzen, Gisela Håkansson, Arnstein Hjelde and Jörg-U. Keßler
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 6] 2019
► pp. 183–204

Chapter 9
Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition

Expressing motion events in English, Hungarian and Japanese

| Naruto University of Education
| Gifu University
| University of Miyazaki

This is a cross-linguistic experimental study on motion event descriptions. Based on Talmy’s (1991) typology of motion event descriptions, we focus on three different languages, English, Hungarian and Japanese, and examine how second language (L2) learners describe motion events. Comparing the three target L2 adult learner groups with the three native language groups, this study experimentally demonstrates the influence of the L1 patterns on L2 acquisition and the common properties observed in the three learners’ languages, focusing on both spontaneous and causative motion events. The results also clarify that the L2 learners have their own characteristics as learners, regardless of the typological pattern of their L1, indicating the necessity for further study which not only examines L1 influence but also learner strategies.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
    • 2.1Varieties of motion event descriptions
      • 2.1.1The typology of motion event
      • 2.1.2Motion event descriptions in English, Hungarian and Japanese
    • 2.2Motion event descriptions in L2
    • 2.3Research questions
  • 3.Research methodology
    • 3.1Participants and materials
    • 3.2Data analysis
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Reference to each semantic component
    • 4.2Syntactic structure of motion event descriptions by L1 speakers
    • 4.3Syntactic properties of learner languages
      • 4.3.1Sentence patterns
      • 4.3.2Difficulties for L2 learners
      • 4.3.3Common properties of L2 groups
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 06 June 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.6.09man
References
Akita, K., Matsumoto, Y. & Ohara, K.
2010 Idoo-hyoogen no ruikeiron ni okeru tyokuziteki keiro-hyoogen to yootai-goi-repaatorii (Deictic path expressions and manner lexicon in the typology of motion expressions). In Lexicon Forum 5, T. Kageyama (ed.), 1–22. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. & Slobin, D. I.
1994 Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cadierno, T.
2004 Expressing motion events in a second language: A cognitive typological perspective. In Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching, M. Achard & S. Niemeier (eds), 13–49. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Motion in Danish as a second language: Does the learner’s L1 make a difference? In Linguistic Relativity in SLA: Thinking for Speaking, Z. Han & T. Cadierno (eds), 1–33. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Cadierno, T. & Lund, K.
2004 Cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition: Motion events in a typological framework. In Form-meaning Connections in Second Language Acquisition, B. VanPatten, J. Williams, S. Rott & M. Overstreet (eds), 139–154. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cadierno, T. & Robinson, R.
2009 Language typology, task complexity and the development of L2 lexicalization patterns for describing motion events. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 7(1): 245–276. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eguchi, K.
2017 Hangari-go ni okeru ido-hyogen (Motion expressions in Hungarian). In Idoo-hyoogen no ruikeiron (Typology of Linguistic Expressions for Motion Events), Y. Matsumoto (ed.), 39–64. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Goldberg, A.
1995 Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hendriks, H. & Hickmann, M.
2011 Expressing voluntary motion in a second language: English learners of French. In Language and Bilingual Cognition, V. Cook & B. Bassetti (eds), 315–339. New York NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Inagaki, S.
2001 Motion verbs with goal PPs in the L2 acquisition of English and Japanese. SSLA 23: 153–170.Google Scholar
2010 Comparing Chinese and English speakers in the L2 acquisition of Japanese motion expressions. Chuugokugo-washa no tameno nihongo kyooiku kenkyuu 1: 28–40.Google Scholar
Jessen, M. & Cadierno, T.
2013 Variation in the categorization of motion in L2 Danish by German and Turkish native speakers. In Variation and Change in the Encoding of Motion Events [Human Cognitive Processing 41], J. Goschler & A. Stefanowitsch (eds), 133–159. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Koga, H., Koloskova, Y., Mizuno, M. & Aoki, Y.
2008 Expressions of spatial motion events in English, German, and Russian: With special reference to Japanese. In Typological Studies of the Linguistic Expression of Motion Events, Vol. II: A Contrastive Study of Japanese, French, English, Russian, German and Chinese: Norwegian Wood, C. Lamarre, T. Ohori, & T. Morita (eds), 13–44. Tokyo: 21st Century COE Program Center for Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences at the University of Tokyo.Google Scholar
Kopecka, A. & Narasimhan, B.
(eds) 2012 Events of “Putting” and “Taking”: A Crosslinguistic Perspective [Typological Studies in Language 100]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mano, M., Yoshinari, Y. & Eguchi, K.
2014 The effects of the first language on the description of motion events: Focusing on L2 Japanese learners of English and Hungarian. The Proceedings of the Sixth CLS International Conference, 227–299, Singapore 4–6 December.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Y.
1997 Kuukan-idoo no gengo-hyoogen to sono kakutyoo (Linguistic expressions of space and their extension). In Kuukan to idoo no hyoogen (Expressions of Space and Motion), Y. Matsumoto & S. Tanaka (eds), 125–230. Tokyo: Kenkyuusya.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2017 Idoo-hyoogen no ruikei (Typology of linguistic expressions for motion events). Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. A.
2001 Agentive verbs of manner of motion in Spanish and English as second languages. SSLA 23: 171–206.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I.
2004 The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Relating Events in Narrative, Vol. 2: Typological and Contextual Perspectives, S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (eds), 219–257. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
2006 What makes manner of motion salient? Explorations in linguistic typology, discourse, and cognition. In Space in Languages: Linguistic Systems and Cognitive Categories [Typological Studies in Language 66], M. Hickmann & S. Robert (eds), 59–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Spring, R. & Horie, K.
2013 How cognitive typology affects second language acquisition: A study of Japanese and Chinese learners of English. Cognitive Linguistics 24: 689–710. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Talmy, L.
1985 Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 3: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon, T. Shopen (ed.), 57–149. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
1991 Path to realization. Via aspect and results. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, K. Hubbard (ed.), 17: 480–519. Berkeley CA: BLS.Google Scholar
2000 Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Yoshinari, Y.
2015 Describing motion events in Japanese L2 acquisition: How to express deictic information. In New Horizons in the Study of Motion: Bringing Together Applied and Theoretical Perspectives, I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano & A. Hijazo-Gascón (eds), 32–63. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Yoshinari, Y., Eguchi, K., Mano, M. & Matsumoto, Y.
2016 Daini-gengo ni okeru ido- zisyoo no gengo-ka: Nihongo-wasya ga motiiru eigo to hangarigo no kenkyuu (A study of the descriptions of motion events by Japanese learners of English and Hungarian). Studies in Language Sciences 15: 142–174. Tokyo: Kaitakusya.Google Scholar