=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1347/paper35
|storemode=property
|title=From physical to metaphorical motion: a cross-genre approach
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1347/paper35.pdf
|volume=Vol-1347
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/networds/CaballeroI15
}}
==From physical to metaphorical motion: a cross-genre approach==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1347/paper35.pdf
From physical to metaphorical motion: A cross-genre approach
Rosario Caballero Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)
MRrio.Caballero@uclm.es iraide@unizar.es
context of use is critical for the study of motion
1 Introduction patterns –whether real, fictive or metaphorical–
and, above all, their correct interpretation.
Talmy (1991, 2000) classifies languages into
verb-framed and satellite-framed types according 2 Research questions
to whether the Path of a motion event is lexical-
ized as a satellite of the main verb in the clause In this talk, we discuss the lexicalization patterns
or as the verb itself. Thus, in English (and other of metaphorical events in genre-specific texts in
S-languages like Dutch or Danish) verbs often English, a satellite-framed language, and Span-
encode rich information concerning Manner, ish, a verb-framed language. More concretely,
Cause and/or Movement but need a so-called we explore whether (a) the lexicalization and
satellite to convey the Path of motion. In con- rhetorical differences between Spanish and Eng-
trast, in Spanish and Romance languages in gen- lish discussed in the motion literature are sus-
eral, verbs are mainly concerned with trajectory tained in genres other than narratives, and (b) the
or Path, and any other additional information idiosyncrasy of those genres has any typological
(Manner or Cause of motion) is expressed by implications and, at the same time, affects the
means of sentence constituents playing an adver- expressions’ creativity and expressiveness.
bial role. As a result, speakers of verb-framed
and satellite-framed languages appear to exhibit 3 Methodology
different rhetorical styles when describing the
We use a 600.000-word corpus comprising ten-
same motion event (Slobin, 1996, 2004).
nis, wine and architecture reviews written in the-
Together with dealing with real motion,
se two languages. These genres (or genre colony
Talmy’s work has provided the starting point in
(Bhatia, 2000)) fall within reviewing practices:
research on (a) fictive motion, i.e. the dynamic
their main goal is to describe and evaluate an
predication of physical yet static entities such as
event (a tennis match) or an entity (wine and
roads or cables, as in The road climbs over the
buildings) for an audience that may or may not
hill (Langacker, 1986; Matsumoto, 1996a;
have any previous knowledge about them, yet is
Talmy, 2000; Matlock and Bergmann, in press),
interested in having an assessment written by a
and (b) metaphorical motion, i.e. the dynamic
knowledgeable source. The texts were searched
predication of abstract entities such as the econ-
by hand in order to identify the motion construc-
omy, emotions, and the like as in Jealousy
tions used in them. The unit of analysis was any
snaked its way into our relationship (Özçalışkan,
instance concerned with motion –figurative or
2003, 2004, 2005, 2007; Morris et al., 2007). In
otherwise. A second step involved cleaning the
general, research on fictive and metaphorical
texts and converting them into machine readable
motion has focused on the way the speakers of
in order to run a concordance program and count
different languages typically describe motion
the verb types and number of instances (tokens)
events in everyday, general contexts. Although
in the three sub-corpora. After identifying the
yielding interesting results for the overall charac-
verbs used in the three genres, they were classi-
terization of languages, this may result in a de-
fied into two main groups in agreement with two
gree of overgeneralization towards the phenome-
criteria. First, the semantic information of verb
non at issue. This is reinforced by the way in
involved (motion1-when the verb includes mo-
which the data illustrating the research claims are
tion information in its semantic description and
often presented: the examples often appear in a
motion2-when the verb, despite not being a mo-
decontextualized manner, with scarce or no men-
tion verb per se, can be reinterpreted as such due
tion to the characteristics of the discourse context
to the construction it is used in) and, second, the
or event where they are used, typically, the dis-
motion elements (Path-the trajectory or course
course genre where they occur). This is unfortu-
followed by the moving object, Manner-the way
nate since the inclusion and description of the
Copyright © by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes.
In Vito Pirrelli, Claudia Marzi, Marcello Ferro (eds.): Word Structure and Word Usage. Proceedings of the NetWordS Final
Conference, Pisa, March 30-April 1, 2015, published at http://ceur-ws.org
155
in which motion is performed) present in the ex- (e.g. hobble, sally forth, waltz…), hence showing
amples. Figure 1 illustrates the coding. the creativity and –almost– endless possibilities
of this language in this respect.
With respect to our second goal, we found that
knowledge of the genre where the expressions
are used is critical to correctly understand and
Figure 1: Example of corpus coding. explain metaphorical motion instances. This is
particularly salient when comparing the use of
4 Results the same verb in three different genres: indeed, a
As far as our first goal is concerned, our results single verb may foreground aspects of a given
show that the lexicalization and rhetorical pat- situation irrelevant in a different context. For
terns described for Spanish and English are instance, the verb tumble in (2):
maintained in the specific contexts explored, and
therefore, results are congruent with research (2a) architecture
done on metaphorical motion events in general A stair tumbles down from this first floor incision
contexts. However, the data also yield interesting onto the man-made island.
insights: metaphorical motion instances found in
specific contexts are more expressive and abun- (2b) wine
dant with regard to Manner than what is the case The fruit shows well-ripened apples and peaches
in general uses of language. This is particularly all the way into pineapples and mangoes, offer-
noteworthy in the Spanish data, whose expressiv- ing up a cascade of flavors that tumble across
ity contrasts with the general tendency to omit the palate.
Manner and other details of motion events in
other contexts. For instance, examples such as (2c) tennis
those in (1) are frequently used in our corpus: Andy Murray has been sent tumbling out of AO
2008 by Frenchman Tsonga
(1a) architecture
La senda de exhibiciones de arte nurágico se The property of tumble shared by all these exam-
desliza entre ambas pieles del edificio permitien- ples is ‘uncontrolled’, but this lack of control has
do una visualización más íntima de las obras a different interpretation in each genre. Thus,
‘The exhibition path of nuragic art slides be- although in (2a) tumble suggests a certain lack of
tween the two skins of the building allowing a order, the main concern of the verb is to convey
more intimate visualization of the works’ the visual force of the stair thus described, which
somehow overwhelms those gazing at it. In (2b),
(1b) wine the ‘uncontrolled’ property does not suggest a
En boca tiene una magnifica entrada, suave, sa- certain disorder or chaos of a wine’s gustatory
broso y equilibrado […], aunque en el paso so- properties; rather, it expresses a sensory over-
bresalen rasgos vegetales y se precipita hacia un flow or gustatory richness perceived by this critic
final en el que predominan notas tostadas y as a positive trait of a complex wine. Finally, in
amargas (2c) the verb not only conveys Tsonga’s con-
‘Smooth, tasty and balanced, it enters the mouth vincing win, but Murray’s pain and shame when
powerfully […] although some vegetal notes losing to an inferior player ranking-wise.
peek mid journey and it plunges towards a finish Examples like these are interesting in three re-
where toasty and bitter notes predominate’ spects. First, although the information conveyed
by motion verbs may be perfectly obvious for
(1c) tennis architects, tennis fans and wine aficionados and
Murray se pasea en el ágora de Valencia critics, this may not be the case for people out-
‘Murray strolls in the agora in Valencia’ side these communities. Hence, the need to un-
derline the importance of bringing the notion of
This expressivity is more outstanding in the case acculturation to the centre of metaphor research,
of English: the data from the specific corpus not i.e. the relevance of taking into account all the
only reinforce the high expressivity and richness factors that shape a given culture and its charac-
of this language with regard of Manner, but add teristic genres within a broader cultural panora-
novel verbs to those susceptible to being used in ma. Second, they problematize some of the
the description of motion events in other contexts views on both fictive and metaphorical motion
156
discussed by cognitive scholars: (a) the trajectors Şeyda Özçalışkan. 2003. Metaphorical motion in
and verbs involved depart from those typically crosslinguistic perspective: A comparison of Eng-
described in fictive motion, and (b) the construc- lish and Turkish. Metaphor and Symbol, 18 (3):
tions dealing with buildings and wines do not 189-228.
comply with the unidirectional concrete-onto- Şeyda Özçalışkan. 2004. Encoding the manner, path,
abstract quality of the metaphorical mappings ground components of a metaphorical motion
described in, for instance, the expression of fi- event. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2:
nancial issues or emotions, but involve concrete 73-102.
sources and targets. This suggests that fictiveness Şeyda Özçalışkan. 2005. Metaphor meets typology:
as opposed to metaphoricity may be a question of Ways of moving metaphorically in English and
degree, yet this can only be ascertained by con- Turkish. Cognitive Linguistics, 16 (1): 207-246.
sidering all the factors underlying the use of mo- Şeyda Özçalışkan. 2007. Metaphors we move by:
tion constructions in communication — from the Children’s developing understanding of metaphori-
trajectors involved to the reasons motivating cal motion in typologically distinct languages.
their use. Third, while English and Spanish differ Metaphor and Symbol, 22 (2): 147-168.
in the expression of real motion events, their dif-
Dan I. Slobin. 1996. Two ways to travel: Verbs of
ferences are less dramatic in the expression of motion in English and Spanish. In M. Shibatani
figurative motion which, again, points to the im- and S. A. Thompson (eds.), Grammatical Con-
pact of culture and genre in the language use. structions: Their Form and Meaning, 195-219.
New York: Oxford University Press.
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C3-2-P; FFI2013-45553-C3-1-P). Leonard Talmy. 1991. Path to realization: A typology
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