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Structure of French expression of motion

Gesture-speech relation, between-language comparison and developmental perspective
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Abstract

This chapter contributes to the present discussion about the expression of motion in French by presenting a psycholinguistic study that focuses on how information about motion is structured not only in speech but also in co-speech gesture. Interested in developmental and cross-linguistic perspectives, we included adults as well as 5- and 10-year-old children and compared French with a typologically different and less commonly studied language – Czech. Using data from narrations of short video clips featuring various motion events, we found that, in French, gestural expression of motion is organized more similarly to verbal expression of motion than in Czech. We also observed an age-related increasing tendency to include more information about motion into fewer clauses and gestural strokes.

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the present discussion about the expression of motion in French by presenting a psycholinguistic study that focuses on how information about motion is structured not only in speech but also in co-speech gesture. Interested in developmental and cross-linguistic perspectives, we included adults as well as 5- and 10-year-old children and compared French with a typologically different and less commonly studied language – Czech. Using data from narrations of short video clips featuring various motion events, we found that, in French, gestural expression of motion is organized more similarly to verbal expression of motion than in Czech. We also observed an age-related increasing tendency to include more information about motion into fewer clauses and gestural strokes.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Recent advances in the study of motion in French 1
  6. Part I. Arguments, modifiers, asymmetry of motion
  7. About asymmetry of motion in French 31
  8. French motion verbs 67
  9. From il s’envole hors to il sort du nid 109
  10. Part II. Manner of motion and fictive motion
  11. Manner as a cluster concept 141
  12. Motion verbs and evaluative morphology 179
  13. Fictive motion in French 217
  14. Part III. Psycholinguistic issues
  15. Casting an eye on motion events 249
  16. Structure of French expression of motion 289
  17. Part IV. Formal and computational aspects of motion-based narrations
  18. A computational account of virtual travelers in the Montagovian generative lexicon 323
  19. Geoparsing and geocoding places in a dynamic space context 353
  20. Subject index 387
The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French
This chapter is in the book The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.08fib

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgments ix
  5. Recent advances in the study of motion in French 1
  6. Part I. Arguments, modifiers, asymmetry of motion
  7. About asymmetry of motion in French 31
  8. French motion verbs 67
  9. From il s’envole hors to il sort du nid 109
  10. Part II. Manner of motion and fictive motion
  11. Manner as a cluster concept 141
  12. Motion verbs and evaluative morphology 179
  13. Fictive motion in French 217
  14. Part III. Psycholinguistic issues
  15. Casting an eye on motion events 249
  16. Structure of French expression of motion 289
  17. Part IV. Formal and computational aspects of motion-based narrations
  18. A computational account of virtual travelers in the Montagovian generative lexicon 323
  19. Geoparsing and geocoding places in a dynamic space context 353
  20. Subject index 387
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