How languages express motion: locating things in space and time
What is it about?
This volume take an in-depth look at three aspects of motion expression. The first part of the book focuses on directional deixis, i.e. the way languages express the orientation of motion towards or away from the speaker. The second part explores how languages encode information related to the source or goal of motion and to what extent this reflects the cognitive salience of the goal. The third part investigates different types of motion event constructions. Many languages are taken into consideration throughout the 11 chapters, which gives the volume a clear typological dimension. This book is intended for students and academics interested in motion, spatial semantics, typological variation and cognitive linguistics.
Why is it important?
The idea of this book on "Neglected Aspects of Motion-Event Description" comes from the observation that, over the last 30 years, much attention has been devoted to the manner/path divide in relation to the distinction between Verb-Framed and Satellite-Framed languages. This mainstream has left out other aspects of describing motion events, such as deixis, asymmetries, and constructions, which are studied in detail in this book.