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THE ACQUISITION AND USE OF MOTION EVENT EXPRESSIONS IN CHINESE. Liang Chen. Munich, Germany: Lincom Europa, 2007. Pp. 144.

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THE ACQUISITION AND USE OF MOTION EVENT EXPRESSIONS IN CHINESE. Liang Chen. Munich, Germany: Lincom Europa, 2007. Pp. 144.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Virginia Yip
Virginia Yip*
Affiliation:
Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Abstract

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BOOK NOTICES
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 141 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

This monograph investigates Chinese children’s first language acquisition and adults’ descriptions of motion events embedded in the general theoretical framework of Talmy’s (Reference Talmy2000) linguistic typology of motion events. Whereas the original binary typology distinguishes between verb-framed and satellite-framed languages, Chen’s crosslinguistic comparison of the structural and discourse patterns of motion event descriptions treats Chinese as an equipollently-framed language, exhibiting hybrid patterns associated with both English, a satellite-framed language, and Spanish, a verb-framed language.

One chapter is devoted to the analysis of oral narratives elicited using the frog story from Chinese-speaking children (ages 3, 4, 5, and 9) and adults. Children’s developmental data on motion event descriptions show a gradual trajectory with the basic characteristics of motion event descriptions emerging early. Complex properties such as describing the physical setting in which movement takes place and using a series of individual action clauses that analyze a complex motion event into its components take time to develop in connected discourse. This is sometimes still occurring in 9-year-old children and even in adults. Serial verb constructions with manner and path (e.g., pao-chu-qu “run-exit-go”) are acquired early in accordance with the Chinese input following language-specific patterns, whereas 3-year-old Chinese children are able to specify the goal of movement like their English and Spanish counterparts, supporting the universal hypothesis (Slobin, Reference Slobin and Slobin1985).

Another chapter discusses motion events in fictional narrative data from nine Chinese novels. Analysis of both spoken and written data supports the view that Chinese has a distinct type, with patterns characterized as equipollently framed. This monograph represents an innovative effort that applies the typology of motion events to the study of their acquisition and use in Chinese children and adults. It offers a fresh and welcome application of typological concepts in language acquisition.

References

REFERENCES

Slobin, D. I. (1985). Crosslinguistic evidence for the language-making capacity. In Slobin, D. I. (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition: Vol. 2. Theoretical issues (pp.1157–1256). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Talmy, L. (2000). Toward a cognitive semantics: Vol. 2. Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar