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Article In: Review of Cognitive Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Iconicity in event conceptualization

A case study of Chinese action-motion serial verb construction

 | The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI | National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, NINJAL
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Abstract
This paper focuses on the iconic relationship between syntactic compactness (monoclausality) and event continuity in conceptualization. With the Chinese Serial Verb Construction reporting action-motion events, such as 买书回家 mǎi shū huí jiā (‘buy a book/books and return home’), as a test case, results from experiments on Chinese native speakers demonstrate that monoclausal forms are significantly less preferred when the resultant state of the preceding action is nullified, whereas their biclausal counterparts remain relatively stable under such disruptions. Drawing on experimental evidence, I argue that monoclausal sentences reflect stricter cognitive requirements for event continuity than their biclausal counterparts. This finding supports the iconic relationship between language and conceptualization (Haiman, John. (1983). Iconic and economic motivation. Language, 59(4), 781–819. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . (1985). Natural syntax: Iconicity and erosion. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and aligns with the isomorphic relationship between the two (Croft, William. (2003). Typology and universals (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 102; Givón, Talmy. (1985). Iconicity, isomorphism, and non-arbitrary coding in syntax. In John Haiman (Ed.), Iconicity in syntax: Proceedings of a symposium on iconicity in syntax (pp. 187–219). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). However, the unexpected lack of difference under spatio-temporal disruptions suggests that this cognitive constraint is not uniform but conditional upon the specific dimension of continuity, when verbalized.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Monoclausality diagnostics
    • 2.1Notes on perfective le after V1
    • 2.2Summary
  • 3.Event continuity as an individually testable parameter of eventhood
    • 3.1Types of event continuity to be tested: Spatio-temporal continuity and result continuity
    • 3.2Research questions
  • 4.Experiment 1: Appropriateness rating task
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials
    • 4.3Procedures
    • 4.4Results
      • 4.4.1Descriptive and inferential statistics
      • 4.4.2Interim discussion: Unresolved issues from Experiment 1
  • 5.Experiment 2: Forced-choice task
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Material and procedures
    • 5.3Results
  • 6.General discussion
    • 6.1Discussions of experimental results
    • 6.2Syntactic compactness and event continuity
    • 6.3Limitations and directions for future research
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Author queries
  • References
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