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In:Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions
Edited by Yo Matsumoto and Kazuhiro Kawachi
[Human Cognitive Processing 69] 2020
► pp. 143–180

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Chapter 5
A fine-grained analysis of manner salience

Experimental evidence from Japanese and English

 | Nagoya University
 | National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
Published online: 11 August 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.69.05aki
Abstract
This chapter delves into the typological discussion of “manner salience” (Slobin 2004, 2006) by means of a fine-grained examination of different kinds of manner expressions. Our two speech elicitation experiments revealed that English speakers are clearly more manner salient than Japanese in the use of the “default” general manner expression (i.e. walk) in describing human walking motion. On the other hand, Japanese speakers use mimetic adverbs which significantly contribute to the expressive power of manner expressions, especially in describing the sounds that moving entities make. These results indicate that manner salience is a complex phenomenon that involves multiple parameters in the form and meaning of manner expressions, rather than a mere epiphenomenon of the typology based on path coding positions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The typology of manner expressions
    • 2.1Manner
    • 2.2Manner salience
    • 2.3Types of manner expressions
  • 3.Experiment 1: Frog stories
    • 3.1Method
    • 3.2Results
    • 3.3Discussion
  • 4.Experiment 2: Motion with sounds
    • 4.1Method
    • 4.2Results
    • 4.3Discussion
  • 5.Typological implications
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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