Languages differ systematically in the way they express spatial motion, rendering it as a highly relevant domain to examine effects of language on nonverbal representation of events. In this chapter, we focus on Turkish and English, the two languages that differ strongly in their expression of motion events. Our review of existing work – spanning across adult and child native speakers of the two languages (as well as several others) – suggests early emergence of language-specific patterns in speech, and possibly in gesture. Our review also highlights some key areas of further research that could shed new light on the effect of language on nonverbal representation of motion, particularly at the early ages.
Alibali, M.W., Bassok, M., Solomon, K., Syc, S.E. & Goldin-Meadow, S.1999. Illuminating mental representations through speech and gesture. Psychological Science 10(4): 327–333.
Alibali, M.W. & Goldin-Meadow, S.1993. Gesture-speech mismatch and mechanisms of learning: What the hands reveal about a child’s state of mind. Cognitive Psychology 25(4): 468–523.
Allen, S., Özyürek, A., Kita, S., Brown, A., Furman, R., Ishizuka, T. & Fujii, M.2007. Language-specific and universal influences in children’s syntactic packaging of Manner and Path: A comparison of English, Japanese, and Turkish. Cognition 102: 16–48.
Ameka, F. & Essegbey, J.2013. Serializing languages: Satellite-framed, verb-framed or neither. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2(1): 19–38.
Cardini, F.2010. Evidence against Whorfian effects in motion conceptualization. Journal of Pragmatics 42(5): 1442–1459.
Choi, S. & Bowerman, M.1991. Learning to express motion events in English and Korean: The influence of language-specific lexicalization patterns. Cognition 41(1–3): 83–121.
Choi, S. & Lantolf, J.P.2008. Representation and embodiment of meaning in L2 communication: Motion events in the speech and gesture of advanced L2 Korean and L2 English speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30(2): 191–224.
Chui, K.2009. Linguistic and imagistic representations of motion events. Journal of Pragmatics 41(9): 1767–1777.
Cifuentes-Férez, P. & Gentner, D.2006. Naming motion events in Spanish and English. Cognitive Linguistics 17(4): 443–462.
Emerson, S.N., Özçalışkan, Ş. & Frishkoff, G.2016. Effects of motion type and modality on word learning in English. Applied Psycholinguistics 37(3): 643–671.
Furman, R., Küntay, A.C. & Özyürek, A.2014. Early language-specificity of children’s event encoding in speech and gesture: Evidence from caused motion in Turkish. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29(5): 620–634.
Gennari, S.P., Sloman, S.A., Malt, B.C. & Fitch, W.2002. Motion events in language and cognition. Cognition 83(1): 49–79.
Goldin-Meadow, S.2003. Hearing Gesture: How our Hands Help Us Think. Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Gullberg, M.1998. Gesture as a Communication Strategy in Second Language Discourse. A Study of Learners of French and Swedish. Lund: Lund University Press.
Gullberg, M., Hendriks, H. & Hickmann, M.2008. Learning to talk and gesture about motion in French. First Language 28(2): 200–236.
Hickmann, M., Taranne, P. & Bonnet, P.2009. Motion in first language acquisition: Manner and path in French and English child language. Journal of Child Language 36(4): 705–741.
Hohenstein, J.M.2005. Language-related motion event similarities in English- and Spanish-speaking children. Journal of Cognition and Development 6(3): 403–425.
Hohenstein, J.2013. Parent – child talk about motion: Links to children’s development of motion event language. First Language 33(4): 411–425.
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I.2004. Language typologies in our language use: The case of Basque motion events in adult oral narratives. Cognitive Linguistics 15(3): 317–349.
Jackendoff, R.1983. Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Kendon, A.1980. Gesticulation and speech: Two aspects of the process of utterance. In The Relationship of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, M.R. Kay (ed.), 207–227. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kendon, A.2004. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: CUP.
Kita, S. & Özyürek, A.2003. What does cross-linguistic variation in semantic coordination of speech and gesture reveal? Evidence for an interface representation of spatial thinking and speaking. Journal of Memory and Language 48: 16–32.
Maguire, M.J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R., Imai, M., Haryu, E., Vanegas, S. & Sanchez-Davis, B.2010. A developmental shift from similar to language-specific strategies in verb acquisition: A comparison of English, Spanish, and Japanese. Cognition 114(3): 299–319.
Mandler, J.M., Bauer, P.J. & McDonough, L.1991. Separating the sheep from the goats: Differentiating global categories. Cognitive Psychology 23(2): 263–298.
Mandler, J.M.1992. How to build a baby: II. Conceptual primitives. Psychological Review 99(4): 587–604.
McNeill, D. (ed.) 1992. Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.
McNeill, D.2000. Analogic/analytic representations and cross-linguistic differences in thinking for speaking. Cognitive Linguistics 11(1–2): 43–60.
Naigles, L.R., Eisenberg, A.R. & Kako, E.T.1992. Acquiring a language-specific lexicon: Motion verbs in English and Spanish. Paper presented at the International Conference on Pragmatics, Antwerp, Belgium.
Naigles, L.R., Eisenberg, A.R., Kako, E.T., Highter, M. & McGraw, N.1998. Speaking of motion: Verb use in English and Spanish. Language and Cognitive Processes 13(5): 521–549.
Naigles, L.R. & Terrazas, P.1998. Motion-verb generalizations in English and Spanish: Influences of language and syntax. Psychological Science 9(5): 363–369.
Narasimhan, B.2003. Motion events and the lexicon: A case study of Hindi. Lingua 113:123–160.
Oh, K.2003. Language, Cognition and Development: Motion Events in English and Korean. PhD dissertation in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2003. Metaphorical motion in crosslinguistic perspective. A comparison of English and Turkish. Metaphor and Symbol 18(3): 189–228.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2005a. Metaphor meets typology: Ways of moving metaphorically in English and Turkish. Cognitive Linguistics 16(1): 207–246.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2005b. On learning to draw the distinction between physical and metaphorical motion: Is metaphor an early emerging cognitive and linguistic capacity?Journal of Child Language 32(2): 291–318.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2007. Metaphors we ‘move by’: Children’s developing understanding of metaphorical motion in typologically distinct languages. Metaphor and Symbol 22(2): 147–168.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2009. Learning to talk about spatial motion in language-specific ways. In Cross-Linguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin, J. Guo, E. Lieven, S. Ervin-Tripp, N. Budwig, K. Nakamura & Ş. Özçalışkan (eds), 263–276. New York NY: Psychology Press.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2015. Ways of crossing a spatial boundary in typologically distinct languages. Applied Psycholinguistics 36: 485–508.
Özçalışkan, Ş.2016. Do gestures follow speech in bilinguals’ description of motion?Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19(3): 644–653.
Özçalışkan, Ş., Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2014. Do iconic gestures pave the way for children’s early verbs?Applied Psycholinguistics 35: 1143–1162.
Özçalışkan, Ş. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2005. Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development. Cognition 96(3): B101–B113.
Özçalışkan, Ş. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2011. Is there an iconic gesture spurt at 26 months? In Integrating Gestures: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Gesture [Gesture Studies 4], G. Stam & M. Ishino (eds), 163–174. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Özçalışkan, Ş., Goldin-Meadow, S., Gentner, D. & Mylander, C.2009. Does language about similarity foster similarity comparisons in children?Cognition 112(2): 217–228.
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2016a. Does language shape silent gesture?Cognition 148: 10–18.
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2016b. Is seeing gesture necessary to gesture like a native speaker?Psychological Science 27(5): 737–747.
Özçalışkan, Ş. & Slobin, D.I.1999. Learning how to search for the frog: Expression of manner of motion in English, Spanish, and Turkish. In BUCLD 23: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 2, A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield & C. Tano (eds), 163–174. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Özçalışkan, Ş. & Slobin, D.I.2000. ‘Climb up’ vs. ‘ascend climbing’: Lexicalization choices in expressing motion events with manner and path components. In BUCLD 24: Proceedings of the 24th Boston University Conference on Language Development, S. Catherine-Howell, S.A. Fish & K. Lucas (eds), 558–570. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Özçalışkan, Ş. & Slobin, D.I.2003. Codability effects on the expression of manner of motion in English and Turkish. In Studies in Turkish Linguistics, A.S. Özsoy, M. Nakipoglu-Demiralp, E. Erguvanlı-Taylan & A. Aksu-Koç (eds), 259–270. Istanbul: Boğaziçi University Press.
Özyürek, A.2002. Speech-language relationship across languages and in second language learners: Implications for spatial thinking and speaking. In BUCLD 26: Proceedings of the 26th Boston University Conference on Language Development. B. Skarabella (ed.). 500–509. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Özyürek, A., Kita, S., Allen, S., Brown, A., Furman, R. & Ishizuka, T.2008. Development of cross-linguistic variation in speech and gesture: Motion events in English and Turkish. Developmental Psychology 44(4): 1040–1054.
Papafragou, A., Hulbert, J. & Trueswell, J.2008. Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements. Cognition 108(1): 155–184.
Papafragou, A., Massey, C. & Gleitman, L.2002. Shake, rattle, ’n’ roll: The representation of motion in language and cognition. Cognition 84(2): 189–219.
Papafragou, A., Massey, C. & Gleitman, L.2006. When English proposes what Greek presupposes: The cross-linguistic encoding of motion events. Cognition 98(3): B75–B87.
Pruden, S.M., Göksun, T., Roseberry, S., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R.M.2012. Find your manners: How do infants detect the invariant manner of motion in dynamic events?Child Development 83(3): 977–991.
Pruden, S.M., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R.M.2008. Current events: How infants parse the world and events for language. In Understanding Events: How Humans See, Represent, and Act on Events, T.F. Shipley & J.M. Zacks (eds), 160–192. Oxford: OUP.
Pruden, S.M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Maguire, M.J. & Meyer, M.A.2004. Foundations of verb learning: Infants form categories of path and manner in motion events. In BUCLD 28: Proceedings of the 28th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, A. Brugos, L. Micciulla & C.E. Smith (eds), 461–472. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Slobin, D.I.1996. From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking". In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (eds), 70–96. Cambridge: CUP.
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: Typological and Contextual Perspectives, S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (eds), 219–257. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Slobin, D.I., Bowerman, M., Brown, P., Eisenbeiβ, S. & Narasimhan, B.2011. Putting things in places: Developmental consequences of linguistic typology. In Event Representation in Language and Cognition, J. Bohnemeyer & E. Pederson (eds), 134–165. Cambridge: CUP.
Stam, G.2006. Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture. IRAL 44: 145–171.
Talmy, L.1985. Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Language Typology and Lexical Description, Vol. 3: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon, T. Shopen (ed.), 57–149. Cambridge: CUP.
Talmy, L. (ed.) 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. II: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Wieselman Schulman, B.2004. A Crosslinguistic Investigation of the Speech-Gesture Relationship in Motion Event Descriptions. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.
Wilson, N.L.2005. Conceptualizing Motion Events and Metaphorical Motion: Evidence from Spanish/English Bilinguals. PhD dissertation, University of California.
Benjamin, L. Whorf. 1956. Languages and logic. In Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, J.B. Carroll (ed.), 233–245. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Zheng, M. & Goldin-Meadow, S.2002. Thought before language: How deaf and hearing children express motion events across cultures. Cognition 85(2): 145–175.
Zlatev, J. & Yangklang, P.2004. A third way to travel: The place of Thai in motion – event typology. In Relating Events in Narrative: Typological and Contextual Perspectives, Vol. 2, S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (eds), 159–190. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Tütüncü, Irmak Su, Jing Paul, Samantha N. Emerson, Murat Şengül, Melanie Knezevic & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2023. When Gestures Do or Do Not Follow Language‐Specific Patterns of Motion Expression in Speech: Evidence from Chinese, English and Turkish. Cognitive Science 47:4
Emerson, Samantha N., Christopher M. Conway & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2020. Semantic P600—but not N400—effects index crosslinguistic variability in speakers’ expectancies for expression of motion. Neuropsychologia 149 ► pp. 107638 ff.
Valenzuela, Javier & Daniel Alcaraz Carrión
2020. Temporal Expressions in English and Spanish: Influence of Typology and Metaphorical Construal. Frontiers in Psychology 11
Lewandowski, Wojciech & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2018. How event perspective influences speech and co-speech gestures about motion. Journal of Pragmatics 128 ► pp. 22 ff.
Lewandowski, Wojciech & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2021. How language type influences patterns of motion expression in bilingual speakers. Second Language Research 37:1 ► pp. 27 ff.
Lewandowski, Wojciech & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2021. THE SPECIFICITY OF EVENT EXPRESSION IN FIRST LANGUAGE INFLUENCES EXPRESSION OF OBJECT PLACEMENT EVENTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 43:4 ► pp. 838 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. 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.