im PublikationsserverTitelangaben
Huber, Judith:
"No man entreth in or out" - how are 'unfitting' French motion verbs integrated into English?
2010
Veranstaltung: 16th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL-16), 23.-27. August 2010, Pécs, Ungarn.
(Veranstaltungsbeitrag: Kongress/Konferenz/Symposium/Tagung, Vortrag)
Kurzfassung/Abstract
English and French are radically different in what is called the motion-verb typology (cf. e.g. Talmy 2000): Present Day French, like other Romance languages, typically encodes the Path of motion in the verb (descendre de l'arbre), i.e. it follows the verb-framed pattern. In contrast, what is usually encoded in Present Day English verbs is the Manner of motion (jump / climb down from the tree). Here, Path is expressed in adverbs and prepositional phrases instead, a pattern that is called satellite-framed.
Brinton and Traugott (2005: 155) suggest that borrowing from another language type is an important factor for a language to change within this typology, but they note that English has stuck to its predominant satellite-framed pattern, despite having borrowed a number of Path verbs such as descend, ascend, enter, etc. This paper aims at investigating how these "typologically unfitting" loan verbs are integrated into the English language.
Studies from cognitive linguistics have shown that speakers are so trained in the characteristics of their respective language that English speakers interpret made-up motion verbs as encoding Manner, while Spanish speakers interpret them as encoding Path (Cifuentez-Férez and Gentner 2006). Also research into second language acquisition points to interferences between typologically different L1s and L2s (e.g. Cadierno 2004).
This suggests that the typologically unfitting loan verbs, originally only expressing Path, would acquire an additional Manner-meaning in Middle and Early Modern English. At least for Nehemiah Wharton, writing in 1642, enter seems to have meant something different than just 'move in':
"The City gates are guarded day and night with four hundred armed men, and no man entreth in or out but opon examination." (1642, CEECS: WHA 1642 NWHARTON)
This paper will investigate different stages in the integration of a number of French-borrowed Path verbs by their uses in Middle and Early Modern English texts, and examine possible changes in meaning they might have undergone to become more fitting to the typical English pattern, i.e. to the intransitive-motion construction comprising a Manner verb and an adverb or prepositional phrase expressing Path.
References:
Brinton, Laurel J. and Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2005. Lexicalization and Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cadierno, Teresa. 2004. "Expressing motion events in a second language: a cognitive typological perspective". Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching. Eds. Michel Achard and Susanne Niemeier. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 13-49.
Cifuentez-Férez, Paula and Dedre Gentner. 2006. "Naming motion events in Spanish and English". Cognitive Linguistics 17 (4). 443-362.
Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Vol. II: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge, Mass: MIT-Press.
Weitere Angaben
| Publikationsform: | Veranstaltungsbeitrag (unveröffentlicht): Kongress/Konferenz/Symposium/Tagung, Vortrag |
|---|---|
| Schlagwörter: | motion-verb typology; Middle English; loan words |
| Institutionen der Universität: | Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät > Anglistik/Amerikanistik > Anglistik > Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft |
| Weitere URLs: | |
| Titel an der KU entstanden: | Ja |
| KU.edoc-ID: | 5619 |
Letzte Änderung: 12. Sep 2012 19:51
URL zu dieser Anzeige: https://edoc.ku.de/id/eprint/5619/
