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FROM LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY TO USAGE: HOW TO EXPLAIN CROSS-LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN
DESCRIPTIONS OF MOTION EVENTS
Dan Slobin
University of California-Berkeley
Thursday, March 31, noon MJH Rm 126
Sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center/Mellon Foundation
Graduate Research Program
Leonard Talmy’s classification of languages as “verb-framed” or “satellite-framed” has led to a large number of linguistic and
psycholinguistic studies of how speakers of different languages describe, understand, perceive, and remember motion events.
But as more languages are investigated, and in a greater range of discourse contexts, it has become apparent that in order to
account for usage patterns in an individual language it is necessary to consider more than the typology of lexicalization and
constructions. In general, Talmy’s binary typology is reflected in greater attention to manner of motion in satellite- than
in verb-framed languages. However, these patterns can be altered by such factors as morphological realization of the
satellite (free vs. bound morpheme), degree of reliance on inflectional morphology, word-order patterns, availability of
alternate means of encoding manner (ideophones, posture verbs), and cultural preferences. Usage patterns also suggest an
expansion of the typology to add a third type: “equipollently-framed.” A full model of language use will eventually have to
integrate a large range of factors.
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