The last twenty years have witnessed a growing interest of scholars in motion events, as evidenced by the large body of research published on the topic. Many studies deal with crosslinguistic studies of motion, tackling the subject from different angles, synchronic or diachronic, psycholinguistic or cognitive. Yet very few attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of studies in one particular language have been made in this domain. The book under review is therefore the result of a timely collaborative effort. It exposes the current state of research in linguistic and psycholinguistic studies of motion in French, presenting an array of research that considers motion events with different empirical and theoretical approaches (descriptive, experimental, and formal), using different methodologies.
The studies in this volume reflect a general shift of focus in typological studies on motion, from analyses of so-called satellite-framed and verb-framed languages, based on the expression of Path, to fine-grained inquiries about intra-language variation. They challenge the prevailing view that motion verbs form two distinct classes, Path vs Manner, and take the position that Path is ‘a set of features expressed by different verb classes rather than a class of verbs in itself’ (Sarda, 76). To better comprehend the intricacies of physical and fictive motion, they explore syntactic and semantic aspects of motion expressions, inquiring about the evolution of systems, investigating the relation between language, gesture, and cognition, and suggesting novel ways of modeling motion.
The editors, Michel Aurnague and Dejan Stosic, open the volume with an informative overview of developments in the field of study of motion in French linguistics. This introduction is followed by ten chapters, organized thematically into four parts.
Part I consists of three chapters on ‘Arguments, modifiers, asymmetry of motion’ addressing the structural and semantic specificities of motion verbs and constructions. The first two chapters investigate the interaction between motion verbs and spatial prepositions, drawing on Michel Aurnague’s classification of verbs of change of placement (courir ‘run’) and change of spatial relation (arriver ‘arrive’). Aurnague himself accounts for the asymmetry between the initial and final change of spatial relation in French, showing that spatio-temporal structure of motion, together with pragmatic factors, play a crucial role in asymmetrical realization of motion. Verbs of initial change of relation (s’enfuir ‘run away’) are more likely to occur in implicit landmark constructions (i.e. with no PP) and to be realized with spatial PPs of opposite (final) polarity than verbs of final change of relation (parvenir ‘reach, get to’). Laura Sarda demonstrates how the lexical semantics constrains the syntax of motion events: depending on the meaning of the verb, PPs are either arguments of the verb or arguments of the construction. Verbs of final change of relation select Goal PP, while verbs of initial change of relation can select both Source and Goal PPs. As for verbs of change of placement (courir ‘walk) selecting locative PPs, the semantic features they lexicalize (e.g. speed) can trigger a shift in their behavior, thereby contributing to the expression of change of relation. Part I ends with Benjamin Fagard’s extensive diachronic exploration of the evolution of verb-particle constructions. He shows how the use of verb-particle constructions (aller fors ‘go out’), very frequent and productive in Old French and, to some extent, in Middle French, decreased gradually, with a notable decline by the end of the 16th century. Consequently, only few lexicalized verb-particle constructions remain in contemporary French.
The three chapters in Part II reexamine earlier theoretical assumptions on ‘Manner of motion and fictive motion’. Dejan Stosic provides an insightful analysis of manner-of-motion showing evidence that the lexicalization of fine-grained semantic components such as body motion pattern or speed and the resulting diversity of manner-of-motion verbs, are not exclusive to satellite-framed languages, as has often been postulated in typological studies, but can also be productive in verb-framed languages, like French. In the next study, dealing with evaluative morphology, Dejan Stosic and Dany Amiot reveal that, contrary to the hypothesis that verbs of motion are relatively resistant to such morphology, French has about fifty evaluative motion verbs. Frequently formed via suffixation (sautiller ‘hop (around)’), most of these verbs are atelic and lexicalize Manner. These affixes’ pragmatic role is to convey speaker’s attitude towards the addressee or towards the process being described. Part II concludes with a study of fictive motion, pertaining to non-physical motion (The road goes from Auckland to Helensville). Exploring the role of different semantic parameters, Fabien Cappelli shows that, in French, fictive motion constructions can convey shapes, measures, and access to perception. Moreover, they are sensitive to the internal structure of various entities rather than merely to travelable or elongated entities, as earlier studies had suggested.
Part III, ‘Psycholinguistic issues’, adopts a crosslinguistic perspective on child and adult productions, and investigate the relation between language and cognition, and language and gesture. Efstathia Soroli, Maya Hickmann and Henriette Hendriks report their experimental research on the effects of crosslinguistic variation on visual attention and categorization, demonstrating that language-specific patterns influence motion perception, comprehension and categorization. At the same time, Soroli et al. show how empirical evidence may be influenced by intra-linguistic variation and methodology. Katerina Fibigerova and Michèle Guidetti focus on the relation between language and gestures in French and Czech. When describing Path and Manner, both French children and adults resort to a multiple-clauses strategy, following the verb-framed pattern. By contrast, Czech participants choose a single-clause strategy, following the satellite-framed pattern. However, contrary to previous findings, participants in both languages use multiple gestures suggesting crosslinguistic similarities.
The final Part IV consists of two chapters and focuses on ‘Formal and computational aspects of motion-based narrations’. Analyzing travel narratives, these contributions provide a formal representation of dynamic space. Anaïs Lefeuvre-Halftermeyer, Richard Moot and Christian Retoré delve into the syntax-semantic interface in descriptions of fictive motion. They account for semantic parameters that allow to associate dynamic predicates and ‘virtual traveler’, and propose a formal modeling of fictive motion. In the final chapter, Mauro Gaio and Ludovic Moncla present a computational method for analysing descriptions of places, routes, and journeys, thus providing a geocoded representation of an itinerary by generating a map out of digitalized and annotated texts. Probed on hiking descriptions in French, Spanish and Italian, the model offers an innovative tool for reconstructing itineraries, including geographical and motion information.
Overall, adopting data-driven approaches, the book presents in-depth and meticulous studies on dynamic space in French and accounts for the diversity and semantic granularity of constructions used to describe motion.
Intended for scholars and advanced students, the book may be challenging for readers unaccustomed to the terminology used in this field. However, efforts are made to provide valuable explanations of the key concepts. The book is well edited and the reader will appreciate cross-referencing, within and across chapters. Apart from chapters dedicated to formal approaches, all other papers provide numerous examples, equipped with morpheme-by-morpheme glosses, in addition to translations.
While the focus of the book is on French, some chapters have a larger scope and investigate French in the light of language typology. By delving into the intricacies of motion expressions in French and exploring new research paths, the book offers a rich source of inspiration for further work on motion representation.
