Figure and Ground in spatial language: evidence from German and Korean
| Autor: | Ulrich Ansorge, Soonja Choi, Hongoak Yun, Florian Goller, Upyong Hong |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
050101 languages & linguistics
Linguistics and Language 05 social sciences Object (grammar) Contrast (statistics) Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Figure–ground Lexicon Syntax 050105 experimental psychology Language and Linguistics Linguistics Motion (physics) language.human_language German Subject (grammar) language 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Psychology |
| Zdroj: | Language and Cognition. 10:665-700 |
| ISSN: | 1866-9859 1866-9808 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/langcog.2019.3 |
| Popis: | We investigate how German and Korean speakers describe everyday spatial/motion events, such as putting a cup on the table. In these motion events, the moving object (e.g., cup) and the non-moving reference object (e.g., table) take on the roles of Figure and Ground, respectively. Figure(F) and Ground(G) thus have distinct perceptual properties and assume conceptually asymmetric roles (entity moving along a trajectory vs. stationary reference frame). We examine the degrees to which speakers distinguish between F and G semantically (spatial/Path terms, e.g., on, in) and syntactically (grammatical roles, e.g., subject, object). Participants described events involving two objects that switched their F-G roles (put cup(F) on board(G) and put board(F) under cup(G)). German speakers use distinct Path terms (e.g., auf, in) for differential F-G relations, thus encoding the F-G asymmetry. In contrast, Korean speakers use the same terms (e.g., kkita ‘fit.tightly’) and the same syntactic constructions regardless of switches in F-G roles. These cross-linguistic differences are evident for Non-typical events (Put board(F) under cup(G)), showing that the encoding of the asymmetry interacts with speakers’ everyday experiences of motion events. We argue that the differences reflect the interactions between the Path lexicon and spatial syntax, and language-specific viewpoints of the F-G relation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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