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Published on: May 10, 2012
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Non-actual motion: phenomenological analysis and linguistic evidence
Johan Blomberg1, Jordan Zlatev
1Department of Philosophy, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, johan.blomberg@semiotik.lu.se.
Cognitive Processing
|August 13, 2015
Summary
Sentences describing static situations with motion verbs, termed non-actual motion (NAM), are influenced by both cognitive motivations and language-specific conventions. This study explores NAM across Swedish, French, and Thai speakers.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Semantics
Background:
- Language often uses motion verbs for static situations, termed fictive, subjective, or abstract motion.
- Existing explanations like "mental simulation" may not fully capture the phenomenon's complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and investigate the concept of non-actual motion (NAM) as a more compatible framework with situated cognition.
- To explore the cross-linguistic expression of NAM and its relationship with actual motion.
Main Methods:
- A picture-based elicitation task was used with speakers of Swedish, French, and Thai.
- Stimuli varied in affordance for human motion (±afford) and perspective (1st-person vs. 3rd-person).
Main Results:
- All picture types elicited NAM sentences across the three languages.
- The combination of affording human motion and a first-person perspective generated the most NAM sentences.
- NAM descriptions aligned with language-specific patterns for actual motion.
Conclusions:
- Non-actual motion (NAM) demonstrates an interplay between pre-linguistic motivations and language-specific conventions.
- The proposed NAM concept offers a framework more aligned with situated cognition than prior explanations.
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