Cover not available

Article In: Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Motion events in Takituduh Bunun and Holistic Spatial Semantics

ORCiD logo with link | Lund University | Academia Sinica
ORCiD logo with link | Lund University | Linköping University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This paper examines how Takituduh Bunun (Austronesian: Taiwan) encodes translocative motion, using the framework of Holistic Spatial Semantics. Based on elicited field data, we identify key lexical and grammatical resources, including motion verbs, a productive motion prefix (u-), and the Austronesian locative voice system. These interact flexibly to express basic semantic categories such as Path, Direction, Manner, and Region. We show that Takituduh Bunun challenges the traditional binary motion typology by relying extensively on morphological strategies rather than verb roots and their satellites. The ability to combine multiple form-meaning mappings in serial verb constructions and through voice morphology suggests a need to move beyond binary typologies and focus on the distributional properties of semantic categories across grammatical resources. Our findings highlight the importance of Formosan languages for a more inclusive typology of motion events and call for further attention to the role of morphology in spatial semantics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Motion typology
    • 2.2Austronesian languages in motion typology
    • 2.3Takituduh Bunun
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Data collection and participants
    • 3.2Analysis
  • 4.Resources for expressing motion in Takituduh Bunun
    • 4.1The semantics of lexical Motion-verbs
    • 4.2The motion prefix u(n)-
    • 4.3Locative voice and Motion
    • 4.4Combining path, direction and manner
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Form-meaning pairings in Takituduh Bunun
    • 5.2Implications for motion typology
  • 6.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Author queries
  • References
References (38)
References
Ameka, Felix K. & James Essegbey. 2013. Serialising languages: Satellite-framed, verb-framed or neither. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2(1). 19–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beavers, J., Beth Levin & Shiao Wei Tham. 2010. The typology of motion expressions revisited. Journal of Linguistics 461: 331–377. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blomberg, Johan. 2014. Motion in language and experience: Actual and non-actual motion in Swedish, French and Thai. Lund: Lund University PhD Dissertation.
Blust, Robert. 2009. The Austronesian languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen. 2010. Path, fictive motion, and time relations. In Barbara C. Malt & Phillip M. Wolff (eds.), Words and the mind: How words capture human experience, 111–137. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Jürgen, Nicholas J. Enfield, James Essegbey, Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Sotaro Kita, Friederike Lüpke & Felix K. Ameka. 2007. Principles of event segmentation in language: The case of motion events. Language 83(3). 495–532. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Henry Y. 2023. Serial Verb Constructions and other complex constructions in Formosan Languages. In Paul Jen-Kuei Li, Elizabeth Zeitoun & Rik De Busser (eds.), The Formosan languages: The indigenous languages of Taiwan, 350–384. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Victoria. 2020. The derived intransitive in Formosan and its implications for the nature of Proto-Austronesian actor voice. Oceanic Linguistics 59(1). 59–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William, Jóhanna Barðdal, Willem Hollmann, Violeta Sotirova & Chiaki Taoka. 2010. Revising Talmy’s typological classification of complex event constructions. In Hans Christian Boas (ed.), Contrastive studies in construction grammar, 201–236. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Busser, Rik. 2009. Towards a grammar of Takivatan Bunun: Selected topics. Melbourne: La Trobe University PhD Dissertation.
Fortis, Jean-Michel. 2006. Questionnaire espace: Tagalog. Working paper for the Trajectory Project. 8 February.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fortis, Jean-Michel & Alice Vittrant. 2016. Path-expressing constructions: Toward a typology. STUF — Language Typology and Universals 69(3). 341–374. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 2005. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: Typological characteristics. In Alexander Adelaar & Nikolaus Himmelmann (eds): The Austronesian languages of South East Asia and Madagascar, 110–181. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Mei-Jin & Xin-Sheng Wu. 2018. Taiyayuyufagailun. 3rd edn. New Taipei City: Council of Indigenous Peoples.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Xuanfan & Michael Tanangkingsing. 2005. Reference to motion events in six western Austronesian languages: Toward a semantic typology. Oceanic Linguistics 44(2). 307–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Zhijun & Zhaokai Shih. 2018. Bunongyuyufagailun (An introduction to Bunun grammar). 3rd edn. New Taipei City: Council of Indigenous Peoples.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Imbert, Caroline. 2012. Path: Ways typology has walked through it. Language and Linguistics Compass 6(4). 236–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen. C. (2003). Space in language and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Lilian Li-Ying. 2018. A grammar of Isbukun Bunun. National Tsing Hua University PhD Thesis.
Mayer, Mercer. 1969. Frog, where are you? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naidu, Viswanatha, Jordan Zlatev, Vasanta Duggirala, Joost Van De Weijer, Simon Devylder & Johan Blomberg. 2018. Holistic spatial semantics and post-Talmian motion event typology: A case study of Thai and Telugu. Cognitive Semiotics 11(2). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Hae In. 2020. How do Korean–English bilinguals speak and think about motion events? Evidence from verbal and non-verbal tasks. Bilingualism: Language and cognition 23(3). 483–499. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rau, Victoria, Chun-Chieh Wang & Hui-Huan Ann Chang. 2012. Investigating motion events in Austronesian languages. Oceanic Linguistics 51(1). 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, Malcolm. 2015. Reconstructing Proto Austronesian Verb Classes. Language and Linguistics 16(3). 279–345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schultze-Berndt, Eva. 2006. Sketch of a Jaminjung grammar of space. In Stephen C. Levinson & David Wilkins (eds.), Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity, 63–114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sinha, Chris & Tania Kuteva. (1995). Distributed spatial semantics. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 18(2). 167–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan I. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In Sven Strömqvist & Ludo Th Verhoeven (eds.), Relating events in narrative Vol. 2 Typological and contextual perspectives, 219–257. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan. I. (2006). What makes manner of motion salient? Explorations in linguistic typology, discourse, and cognition. In Maya Hickmann & Stéphane Robert (Eds.), Space in languages: Linguistic systems and cognitive categories, 59–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalisation patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Vol. 3. Grammatical categories and the lexicon, 57–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Path to realization: A typology of event conflation. In C. Johnson Laurel. A. Sutton & R. Shields (eds.), Papers of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 480–520. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Volume 1. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teng, Stacy Fang-Ching. 2008. A reference grammar of Puyuma, an Austronesian language of Taiwan. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Beinanyuyufagailun (An introduction to Puyuma Grammar). 3rd edn. New Taipei City: Council of Indigenous Peoples.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsukida, Naomi & Elizabeth Zeitoun. 2023. Verbal morphology of Formosan languages. In Paul Jen-Kuei Li, Elizabeth Zeitoun & Rik De Busser (eds.), The Formosan languages: The indigenous languages of Taiwan, 540–572. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeitoun, Elizabeth. 2018. Lukaiyuyufagailun (An introduction to Rukai Grammar). 3rd edn. New Taipei City: Council of Indigenous Peoples.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. (1997). Situated embodiment. Stockholm: Stockholm University PhD Dissertation.
Zlatev, Jordan, Johan Blomberg, Simon Devylder, Viswanatha Naidu & Joost van de Weijer. 2021. Motion event descriptions in Swedish, French, Thai and Telugu: A study in post-Talmian motion event typology. Acta linguistica hafniensia 53(1). 58–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan & Peerapat Yangklang. 2004. A third way to travel: The place of Thai in motion-event typology. In Sven Strömqvist & Ludo Th. Verhoeven (eds.), Relating events in narrative Vol. 2 Typological and contextual perspectives, 191–218. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue