Abstract :
[en] Drawing upon recent insights into the role of Goal preference as reflector of
cross-linguistic differences, this paper investigates the factors affecting the
realization of Goals in motion event descriptions. In particular, it examines
the interplay between the lexicalization pattern of a language, on the one
hand, and grammatical viewpoint aspect, on the other – factors which have
commonly been treated in isolation. In so doing, three typologically distinct
languages were examined: English, German and Greek. The empirical basis
of this paper includes: (a) a corpus study, in which we examined the distribution
of Goals in a small set of verbs, and (b) an experimental verbalization
study, from which we elicited descriptions of different motion event types.
While the former does not give a clear picture concerning the cross-linguistic
differences in Goal prominence, the latter indicates that lexicalization
pattern assumes a more prominent role than grammatical viewpoint aspect
in affecting Goal realization.
Commentary :
Goals of motion, lexicalization patterns, grammatical viewpoint
aspect, corpus data, language production, English/German/Greek
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