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Chapter 9. Crossing the road or crossing the mind

How differently do we move across physical and metaphorical spaces in speech and in gesture?
  • Şeyda Özçalışkan , Lauren J. Stites and Samantha N. Emerson
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Motion and Space across Languages
This chapter is in the book Motion and Space across Languages

Abstract

Physical motion constitutes a key aspect of human sensorimotor experience; it also serves as an important experiential domain with which we structure abstract concepts. Moreover, speakers of different languages both talk and gesture about physical motion (e.g. Boy runs through park) in systematically different ways – a pattern of crosslinguistic variation that also applies to metaphorical extensions of motion (e.g. Idea runs through mind). Review of existing research – with methods ranging from more explicit verbal descriptions to more implicit indices of underlying mental processes, including gesture – suggests that sensorimotor experience (i.e. physical motion) and the linguistic expression of this experience in a particular language may play important roles in shaping our expression and conceptualization of more abstract concepts (i.e. metaphorical motion).

Abstract

Physical motion constitutes a key aspect of human sensorimotor experience; it also serves as an important experiential domain with which we structure abstract concepts. Moreover, speakers of different languages both talk and gesture about physical motion (e.g. Boy runs through park) in systematically different ways – a pattern of crosslinguistic variation that also applies to metaphorical extensions of motion (e.g. Idea runs through mind). Review of existing research – with methods ranging from more explicit verbal descriptions to more implicit indices of underlying mental processes, including gesture – suggests that sensorimotor experience (i.e. physical motion) and the linguistic expression of this experience in a particular language may play important roles in shaping our expression and conceptualization of more abstract concepts (i.e. metaphorical motion).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Editor and contributors xi
  4. Foreword. Past, present, and future of motion research 1
  5. Introduction. Motion and semantic typology 13
  6. Part I. Delving into motion event typology
  7. Chapter 1. The typology of manner expressions 39
  8. Chapter 2. Expressing and categorizing motion in French and English 61
  9. Chapter 3. The functional nature of deictic verbs and the coding patterns of Deixis 95
  10. Chapter 4. The importance of minority languages in motion event typology 123
  11. Chapter 5. Latin to Ancient Italian motion constructions 151
  12. Chapter 6. The early life of borrowed path verbs in English 177
  13. Chapter 7. Non-actual motion in language and experience 205
  14. Chapter 8. Metaphorical motion constructions across specialized genres 229
  15. Part II. Expanding motion event typology
  16. Chapter 9. Crossing the road or crossing the mind 257
  17. Chapter 10. Thinking for speaking about motion in a second language 279
  18. Chapter 11. Motion event contrasts in Romance languages 301
  19. Chapter 12. Verb-framed, satellite-framed or in between? 329
  20. Chapter 13. On the reception of translations 367
  21. Chapter 14. Applying language typology 399
  22. Afterword. Typologies and language use 419
  23. Author index 447
  24. Subject index 453
  25. Language index 459
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.59.11ozc

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Editor and contributors xi
  4. Foreword. Past, present, and future of motion research 1
  5. Introduction. Motion and semantic typology 13
  6. Part I. Delving into motion event typology
  7. Chapter 1. The typology of manner expressions 39
  8. Chapter 2. Expressing and categorizing motion in French and English 61
  9. Chapter 3. The functional nature of deictic verbs and the coding patterns of Deixis 95
  10. Chapter 4. The importance of minority languages in motion event typology 123
  11. Chapter 5. Latin to Ancient Italian motion constructions 151
  12. Chapter 6. The early life of borrowed path verbs in English 177
  13. Chapter 7. Non-actual motion in language and experience 205
  14. Chapter 8. Metaphorical motion constructions across specialized genres 229
  15. Part II. Expanding motion event typology
  16. Chapter 9. Crossing the road or crossing the mind 257
  17. Chapter 10. Thinking for speaking about motion in a second language 279
  18. Chapter 11. Motion event contrasts in Romance languages 301
  19. Chapter 12. Verb-framed, satellite-framed or in between? 329
  20. Chapter 13. On the reception of translations 367
  21. Chapter 14. Applying language typology 399
  22. Afterword. Typologies and language use 419
  23. Author index 447
  24. Subject index 453
  25. Language index 459
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