Article published in:
Applying Cognitive Linguistics: Figurative language in use, constructions and typology
Edited by Ana María Piquer-Píriz and Rafael Alejo-González
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 14:1] 2016
► pp. 161–182

Cross-linguistic influence in the interpretation of boundary crossing events in L2 acquisition

This paper analyses the interpretation of boundary-crossing events in second language acquisition (SLA) to determine whether L2 learners are able to select the target-like option for the interpretation of motion events or whether, on the contrary, their choice reflects cross-linguistic influence (CLI) of their L1. The two groups participating in the study – thirty Spanish learners of L2 English and sixteen English first language (L1) speakers – were subjected to an experiment involving an interpretation task with L2 boundary-crossing events pictures. Findings indicate that Spanish L2 learners selected three possible constructions (manner verb + path satellite, path in verb + manner in satellite and a combination of both) in clear contrast to English L1 speakers who only selected one construction (manner verb + path satellite). CLI has also been found to regulate the type of boundary-crossing event selected, primarily in cases of motion INTO a bounded space in the horizontal axis.
Keywords: thinking for speaking, motion events, lexicalisation pattern, cross-linguistic influence, boundary-crossing constraint
Published online: 07 July 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.14.1.07alo
References
Andersen, R.
(1983) Transfer to somewhere. In S. Gass, & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language Learning (pp.177–201). Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.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: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Athanasopoulos, P., & Bylund, M.
(2013) The ‘thinking’ in thinking for speaking. Language, Interaction and Acquisition, 4(1), 91–100. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Athanasopoulos, P., Damjanovic, L., Burnand, J., & Bylund, E.
(2015) Learning to think in a second language: Effects of proficiency and length of exposure in English learners of German. Modern Language Journal, 99(Supplement 2015), 138–153. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R.A., & Slobin, D.I.
(1994) Relating events in narrative: A cross-linguistic developmental sStudy. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Brown, A., & Gullberg, M.
(2010) Changes in encoding of PATH of motion in a first language during acquisition of a second language. Cognitive Linguistics, 21, 263–286. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011) Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in event conceptualization? Expressions of path among Japanese learners of English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 79–94. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2012) Multicompetence and native speaker variation in clausal packaging in Japanese. Second Language Research, 28, 415–442. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bylund, E.
(2009) Effects of age of L2 acquisition on L1 event conceptualization patterns. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 305–322. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bylund, E., & Athanasopolous, P.
(2015) Televised Whorf: Cognitive restructuring in advanced foreign language learners as a function of audiovisual media exposure. The Modern Language Journal, 99, 1–13. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bylund, E., & Jarvis, S.
(2011) L2 effects on L1 event conceptualization. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 47–59. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cadierno, T.
(2004) Expressing motion events in a second language: A cognitive typological perspective. In M. Achard & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching (pp. 13–49). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2008) Learning to talk about motion in a foreign language. In P. Robinson & N.C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 239–275). New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2010) Motion in Danish as a second language: Does the learner’s L1 make a difference? In Z. Han & T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in SLA: Thinking for speaking (pp. 1–33). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Cadierno, T., & Lund, K.
(2004) Cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition: Motion events in a typological framework. In B. van Patten, J. Williams, S. Rott, & M. Overstreet (Eds.), Form-meaning connections in second language acquisition (pp. 139–154). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cadierno, T., & Ruiz, L.
(2006) Motion events in Spanish L2 Acquisition. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 4, 183–216. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Daller, M.H., Treffers-Daller, J., & Furman, R.
(2010) Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 95–119. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Filipović, L.
(2011) Speaking and remembering in one or two languages: Bilingual vs. monolingual lexicalization and memory for motion event. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15, 466–485. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Flecken, M., Carroll, M., Weimar, K., & von Stutterheim, C.
(2015) Driving along the road or heading for the village?: Conceptual differences underlying motion event encoding in French, German, and French–German L2 users. Modern Language Journal, 99(Supplement 2015), 100–122. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gennari, S., Sloman, S.A., Malt, B.C. & Fitch, W.T.
(2002) Motion events in language and cognition. Cognition, 83, 49–79. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gullberg, M., & Indefrey, P.
(2003) Language background questionnaire: The dynamics of multilingual processing. Nijmegen. Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. http://​www​.mpi​.nl​/reseach​/projects​/Multilingualism​/questionnaire​.pdf.
Hendriks, H., & Hickmann, M.
(2015) Finding one’s path into another language: On the expression of boundary-crossing by English learners of French. The Modern Language Journal, 99, 14–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hijazo-Gascón, A.
(2011) La expresión de eventos de movimiento y su adquisición en segundas lenguas [The expression of motion events and its acquisition in a second language] (Unpublished PhD dissertation). Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
Levinson, S.C.
(2003) Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, J.
(1992) Grammatical categories and cognition: A case study of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1996) The scope of linguistic relativity: An analysis and review of empirical research. In J.J. Gumperz & S.C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 37–69). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Naigles, L., Eisenberg, A., Kako, E., Highter, M., & McGraw, N.
(1998) Speaking of motion: Verb use by English and Spanish speakers. Language and Cognitive Processes, 13, 521–549. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Navarro, S., & Nicoladis, E.
(2005) Describing motion events in adult L2 Spanish narratives. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Selected proceedings of the 6th conference on the acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as first and second languages (pp. 102–107). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceeding Project.Google Scholar
Özçaliskan, S.
(2003) Doors, fences and thresholds: The (im)possibilities of crossing a boundary in English and Turkish. Paper presented at the 8th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference , Logroño, Spain.
(2004) Encoding the manner, path and ground components of a metaphorical motion event. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2, 73–102. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2015) Ways of crossing a spatial boundary in typologically distinct languages. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36, 485–508. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A., & Volynsky, M.
(2015) Motion encoding in Russian and English: Moving beyond Talmy’s typology. The Modern Language Journal, 99, 32–48. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P., & Ellis, N.
(Eds.) (2008) A handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Slobin, D.I.
(1996a) From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity: Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language, vol. 1 (pp. 70–96). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(1996b) Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish. In M. Shibatani & S.A. Thompson (Eds.), Grammatical constructions: Their form and meaning (pp. 195–219). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
(2000) Verbalized events: A dynamic approach to linguistic relativity and determinism. In S. Neimeier & R. Dirven (Eds.), Evidence for linguistic relativity (pp. 107–138). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle 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. 59–81). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D.I., & Hoiting, N.
(1994) Reference to movement in spoken and signed languages: Typological considerations. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society , 20, 487–505.
Stam, G.
(1998) Changes in patterns of thinking about motion with L2 acquisition. In S. Santi, I. Guaïtella, C. Cavé, & G. Konopczynski (Eds.), Oralité et gestualité: Communication multimodale, interaction (pp. 615–619). Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
(2010) Can a L2 speaker’s patterns of thinking for speaking change? In Z. Han & T. Cadierno (Eds.), Linguistic relativity in SLA: Thinking for speaking (pp. 59–83). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
(2015) Changes in thinking for speaking: A longitudinal case study. The Modern Language Journal, 99(S1), 83–99. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Talmy, L.
(1985) Lexicalisation patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and lexical descriptions. Vol 3: Grammatical categories and the lexicon (pp. 36–149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(1991) Path to realization: A typology of event conflation. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society , 17, 480–519.
(2000) Toward a cognitive semantics. Vol. II: Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Tomczak, E., & Ewert, A.
(2015) Real and fictive motion processing in Polish L2 users of English and monolinguals: Evidence for different conceptual representations. The Modern Language Journal, 99(Supplement 2015), 49–65. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
UCLES
(2001) Quick Oxford placement test.Google Scholar
Vendler, Z.
(1957) Verb and times. The Philosophical Review, 2, 143–160. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vulchanova, M.D., Martínez, L., Eshuis, R., & Listhaug, K.
(2012) No evidence of L1 path encoding strategies in the L2 in advanced Bulgarian speakers of Norwegian. Spatial Cognition and Computation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12, 275–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Whorf, B.
(1940/1956) Language, thought and reality. In J. Carroll (Ed.), Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (pp. 1–282). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wu, S.L.
(2011) Learning to express motion events in an L2: The case of Chinese directional complements. Language Learning, 61, 414–454. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, J., & Yanklang, P.
(2004) A third way to travel: The place of Thai and serial verb languages in motion event typology. In S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives. (pp. 159–190). Hillsdale, N.H., Lawrence ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Alonso Alonso, Rosa
2020. Boundary-crossing events across languages. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 316 ff. Crossref logo
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide
2017.  In Motion and Space across Languages [Human Cognitive Processing, 59], ► pp. 13 ff. Crossref logo
Muñoz, Meritxell & Teresa Cadierno
2019. Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of Path. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57:1 ► pp. 45 ff. Crossref logo
Stocker, Ladina & Raphael Berthele
2020. The roles of language mode and dominance in French–German bilinguals’ motion event descriptions. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23:3 ► pp. 519 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 january 2021. 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.