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This dissertation uses Talmy’s linguistic analysis to evaluate the Typological Prevalence Hypothesis – the idea that concepts that are consistently lexicalized across languages are easier to learn than less-consistently-lexicalized concepts, especially for young language learners (Gentner & Bowerman, 2009). We predicted that, for 2-year-olds, who have just begun verb acquisition, mapping a novel verb onto its referent should be easiest for categories that are consistently represented in the world’s verb systems (PATH of motion), followed by less consistently-represented concepts (MANNER of motion), and then concepts that are never represented (COLOR of an actor) (Research Question 1). We also evaluated whether this mapping pattern was predicted by age (Research Question 2) or individual differences in vocabulary levels (Research Question 3). Largely confirming our prediction, 2-year-olds were better at mapping verbs for PATH and MANNER than COLOR. Thus, at the early stage of verb acquisition, children are already equipped with basic knowledge of what verbs should encode. Later into development, 4-year-olds showed the language-specific verb-to-MANNER bias. Further, adults were most likely to associate a novel verb with MANNER, followed by PATH, and then COLOR, exactly mirroring the way the English verb system encodes motion events. Individual differences in language skills predicted the verb learning patterns in adults but not in children. Taken together, this dissertation provides an important step towards understanding how the semantic organization of language may relate to the process of verb acquisition. / Psychology

Les relations spatiales entre les différentes régions dans une image sont utiles pour la compréhension et l'interprétation de la scène représentée. L'analyse Spatio-temporelle d'une scène implique l'intégration du temps dans des relations spatiales entre les objets en mouvement. Les relations spatio-temporelles sont définies dans un intervalle de temps utilisant la géométrie 3D ou l'extension de la géométrie 2D à la dimension temporelle. La modélisation des relations spatiales dynamiques prend en compte la position relative des objets et leurs relations directionnelles, ceci implique les relations topologiques, directionnelles et de distance. Ces relations sont étendues au domaine temporel. Dans notre travail, on décrit une méthode de combinaison d’information topologique et directionnelle où les relations d'Allen floues 1D sont appliquées au domaine spatial. La méthode proposée intègre le flou au niveau des relations. La méthode très gourmande initialement en temps de calcul en raison de l’approximation des objets ainsi qu'à l'algorithme de fuzzification des segments des sections longitudinales est améliorée en utilisant une approximation polygonale adaptée sur les objets considérés. L'algorithme du fuzzification des segments d'une section longitudinale inclut des opérateurs d'agrégation floue. Dans la méthode proposée, Les relations topologiques 2Dsont représentées par un histogramme. Les relations floues n'étant pas exhaustives, un algorithme de défuzzification des relations spatiales a été proposé pour réaliser un ensemble JEPD de relations spatiales. Cet ensemble de relations spatiales est représenté par un graphe de voisinage où chaque nœud du graphe représente la relation topologique et directionnelle. Cette méthode définit des relations spatio-temporelles en utilisant le modèle de données Espace-Temps. Un ensemble de relations spatio-temporelles est également fourni à l'aide de la stabilité topologique. Afin de valider le modèle, nous avons développé des applications fondées sur le raisonnement spatio-temporel proposé. Celui-ci a permit la création de tables de composition pour les relations spatiales topologiques structurées en sous-tables. Les entités de ces sous-tables sont liées les unes aux autres par des relations spatiales. Dans une seconde application, nous avons proposé une méthode de prédiction des évènements entre objets en mouvement fondée sur le même raisonnement spatio-temporel. Les objets en mouvement changeant de position à chaque instant, la prédiction de la nouvelle position spatiale d'un objet tient compte des états de relations spatiales calculées précédemment. / Spatial relations between different image regions are helpful in image understanding, interpretation and computer vision applications. Spatio-temporal analysis involves the integration of spatial relations changing over time between moving objects of a dynamic scene. Spatio-temporal relations are defined for a selected time interval using 3D geometry or extension of 2D object geometry to the time dimension with sequence occurrence of primitive events for each snapshot. Modeling dynamic spatial relations takes into account the relative object position and their directional relations; this involves the topological, directional and distance relations and their logical extension to the temporal domain. In this thesis, a method for combining topological and directional relations information is discussed where 1D temporal fuzzy Allen relations are applied in spatial domain. Initially, the method has a high computational cost. This computing cost is due to the object approximation and the fuzzification algorithm of segments. The computing time has been using polygonal object approximation. Fuzzification algorithm is replaced with fuzzy aggregation operators for segments of a longitudinal section. In this method, two dimensional topological relations are represented in a histogram. The representation method for two dimensional spatial relations has been changed. These fuzzy relations are not Jointly Exhaustive and Pairwise Disjoint (JEPD). An algorithm for defuzzification of spatial relations is proposed to realize JEPD set of spatial relations, these JEPD spatial relations are represented in a neighborhood graph. In this neighborhood graph, each node represents the topological and directional relation. This method is further extended for defining spatio-temporal relations using space and time data model, a set of spatio-temporal relations are also elaborated using the stability property in topology. In an application, a method for spatio-temporal reasoning based on this new model is developed. Spatio-temporal reasoning consists of developing the composition tables for spatial relations. Composition table for topological relations are rearranged into sub-tables. Entities in these sub-tables are related to each other and mathematical rules are defined for composition of spatial relations which elaborate the relation between entities of sub-tables. In another application, we propose a method for motion event predictions between moving objects. It is a similar process to the spatio-temporal reasoning. Dynamic objects occupy different places at different time points, these objects have multiple choices for subsequent positions and a unique history. Prediction about motion events take into account the history of a moving object and predict about the semantics of a motion event.

The goal of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the framing typological domain of motion events in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) through corpus analysis of intransitive pleonastic double Path constructions, which are constructions that express ‘the same’ trajectory in both the verb and its satellite. Data has been retrieved from the ptTenTen11 corpus.  Traditionally Portuguese is described as a verb-framed language, meaning that it expresses the semantic trajectory component (Path) in the verb, rather than in the satellite.The double Path constructions are interesting since they do not have a ‘clear place’ within the framing typological approach to motion. The Boundary crossing constraint, which is well- known and studied constraint in Spanish, but that has not been found in studies on Portuguese is also analyzed here. With these two entry points an attempt is made to relate BP and EP to the framing typological classification into language types.  The double Path constructions appear to be more frequent in EP than in BP and no challenges to the Boundary crossing constraint are identified in the data for either of the Portuguese varieties. / Syftet med den här studien är att bidra med förståelse kring hur brasiliansk portugisiska (BP) och europeisk portugisiska (EP) passar in i domänen av uttryck för rörelse från en plats till en annan enligt framing-typologin. Datan är hämtad från korpusen ptTenTen11 och uttryck med upprepad semantisk information om en rörelses tillryggalagda sträcka undersöks.  Inom ramverket för framing-typologin är portugisiska ett så kallat verb-inramat språk som tenderar att uttrycka en rörelses sträcka i verbet och inte i en så kallad satellitkonstruktion. Då upprepningen av denna semantiska information gällande sträckan inte har en självklar plats inom framing-typologin är dessa typer av konstruktioner intressanta att analysera närmre. En inom framing-typologin omtalad begränsning på hur verb-inramade språk kan beskriva situationer när en gräns korsas undersöks också. Begränsningen är välstuderad inom till exempel spanskan, men verkar inte ha tagits upp i någon större utsträckning i litteratur om portugisiska.  De semansiskt upprepande konstruktionerna visar sig vara vanligare i EP än i BP och begränsningen gällande hur konstruktioner tenderar att se ut när en gräns korsas motsägs inte av datan.

本論文藉由動補語後方名詞，依理論架構重新分類趨向動補語Ｖ上，並探討其前後的搭配詞在分類底下與「上」之間的互動情形。首先，根據Talmy (2000) 所提出的動態事件理論區辨後方名詞，其乃是具有傳達出動態語意的名詞特徵。其次，並以V上的論旨角色作為分類，因而總共得出三種型態的V上：[ V上Ground]，[ V上Patient]，[ V上Extent]，藉此看到前方動詞和後方名詞與V上之間的緊密關係。除外並以認知語意學角度呈現其三種類型之間具有語意關連，表現出多義詞的演變型態，且符合語法化的過程。 / When the morpheme shang4 ‘up’ 上 is attached to a verb, it composes a V-shang constituent, which is a member of the group of ‘verb-complement’ marking directional motion of the action (Liu, 1983/1998). V-shang signifies the movement of an object through an action from a low position to a higher position within an upward orientation; for instance, a person moves from the ground to the top of a mountain. The previous studies have listed several extended meanings, besides the basic meaning of motion (Liu, 1998, Jiang, 2003; Pan, 2005; Yu, 2010). Most studies categorize V-shang by mixed criteria of semantic meanings and syntactic functions. Noting the lack of a theoretical basis in the classification of V-shang, this thesis depends on motion-event theory, in which an event is composed of Figure, Motion and Ground, to examine the motion event conducted by V-shang (Talmy, 2000) and Lexical Functional Grammar (Kaplan and Bresnan, 1982; Dowty, 1988; Bresnan and Zaenen, 1990; Bresnan, 2001; Her, 2009) to analyze the syntactic structures of the first verbs and shang4 in V-shang. By analyzing the noun phrases following V-shang, the study divides [V-shang NP] into three categories: [V-shang Ground], [V-shang Patient], [V-shang Extent] and observes the verb types in each pattern. There are the changes of semantic meanings from directional motion into resultative state and of orientation from vertical path into horizontal path. Within Lexical Functional Grammar, the verb types of the first verbs in V-shang change from the physical motion verbs which require thematic roles of Theme and Location to the transitive verbs which require thematic roles of Agent and Patient. [V-shang Extent] is the most abstract category of its semantic meaning, and the verb types of the first verbs are less restricted than the verb types in other two categories. The cognitive approach also explains the relationship of the extended meanings in V-shang and shang4 (Lu, 2011). Shang4 presents the features of polysemy.

This study primarily investigates the expression of two local roles, goal and source, in South American languages. Local roles describe the direction of movement or locatedness in relation to a physical object, a ground, in a motion event. While goal expresses motion to or towards and source expresses motion from a ground, these are not always distinguished from one another but sometimes encoded indifferently. A previous cross-linguistic study by Wälchli and Zúñiga (2006) shows that the encoding of goal and source tends to be distinct in Eurasia, North Africa, and Australia, and more diverse in the Americas and New Guinea. However, the sample used in their study is not representative in the Americas. The principal aim of the present study is to determine whether the encoding of goal and source is distinct or indifferent in a representative sample of South American languages, using both reference grammars and parallel texts consisting of Bible translations. The local role path, expressing motion through a ground, is also studied to the extent that this is possible given the data. The findings show that distinct encoding of goal and source is most common in the sample. Indifferent languages are still attested for, yet to a smaller extent than in Wälchli and Zúñiga's study (2006).

Motion events are ubiquitous in conversation, from describing a tiresome commute to recounting a burglary. These situations, where an entity changes location, consist of four main semantic components: Motion (the movement), Figure (the entity moving), Ground (the object or objects with respect to which the Figure carries out the Motion) and Path (the route taken). Two additional semantic components can occur simultaneously: Manner (the way the Motion occurs) and Cause (the source of/reason for the Motion). Languages differ in preferences for provision and packaging of semantic components in descriptions. It has been suggested, in the thinking-for-speaking hypothesis, that these preferences influence the conceptualisation of events (such as their memorisation). This thesis addresses questions relating to the description and memory of Motion events in British Sign Language (BSL) and English. It compares early BSL (acquired before age seven) and late BSL (acquired after age 16) descriptions of Motion events and investigates whether linguistic preferences influence memory. Comparing descriptions by early signers and late signers indicates where their linguistic preferences differ, providing valuable knowledge for interpreters wishing to match early signers. Understanding how linguistic preferences might influence memory contributes to debates around the connection between language and thought. The experimental groups for this study were: deaf early BSL signers, hearing early BSL signers, deaf late BSL signers, hearing late BSL signers and hearing English monolinguals. Participants watched target Motion event video clips before completing a memory and attention task battery. Subsequently, they performed a forced-choice recognition task where they saw each target Motion event clip again alongside a distractor clip that differed in one semantic component. They selected which of the two clips they had seen in the first presentation. Finally, participants were filmed describing all of the target and distractor video clips (in English for English monolinguals and BSL for all other groups). The Motion event descriptions were coded for the inclusion and packaging of components. Linguistic descriptions were compared between languages (English and BSL) and BSL group. Statistical models were created to investigate variation on the memory and attention task battery and the recognition task. Results from linguistic analysis reveal that English and BSL are similar in the components included in descriptions. However, packaging differs between languages. English descriptions show preferences for Manner verbs and spatial particles to express Path ('run out'). BSL descriptions show preferences for serial verb constructions (using Manner and Path verbs in the same clause). The BSL groups are also similar in the components they include in descriptions. However, the packaging differs, with hearing late signers showing some English-like preferences and deaf early signers showing stronger serial verb preferences. Results from the behavioural experiments show no overall relationship between language group and memory. I suggest that the similarity of information provided in English and BSL descriptions undermines the ability of the task to reveal memory differences. However, results suggest a link between individual linguistic description and memory; marking a difference between components in linguistic description is correlated with correctly selecting that component clip in the recognition task. I argue that this indicates a relationship between linguistic encoding and memory within each individual, where their personal preference for including certain semantic components in their utterances is connected to their memory for those components. I also propose that if the languages were more distinct in their inclusion of information then there may have been differences in recognition task scores. I note that further research is needed across modalities to create a fuller picture of how information is included and packaged cross-modally and how this might affect individual Motion event memory.

The present dissertation reports the results of a multi-disciplinary experimental study, which combines psycholinguistic and cognitive methodologies in order to achieve two broad objectives. The first objective is providing a comparative psycholinguistic analysis of the expression of motion events in three languages, namely Turkish, English and French, taking Talmy&lsquo / s verb-framed language vs. satellite-framed language typology (Talmy, 1985) as the framework. The second one is investigating the relationship between linguistic representation and conceptual representation by taking motion events as the testing ground. In order to pursue these two lines of inquiry, five complementary tasks are conducted on three groups of adult subjects. The results of the first two tasks, the language production task and the language comprehension task, verify the Talmyan typology experimentally by showing sharp differences between the data obtained from native speakers of typologically different languages (English vs. Turkish and French), as well as remarkable similarities between the data obtained from native speakers of typologically similar languages (Turkish and French). On the other hand, the remaining three non-verbal tasks, the categorization task and the two eye-tracking tasks, present valuable insights into the nature of conceptual event representation by revealing a uniform pattern across languages. This latter result is inconsistent with the renowned linguistic relativity hypothesis (Whorf, 1956) / however in line with the universalist view (Jackendoff, 1990, 1996), which suggests that conceptual event representation is language-free and independent of the linguistic encoding preferences of different languages.

The subject of this thesis is presence of endpoints in child-directed speech of Czech native speakers. It is based on researches, which show that czech language prefers holistic perspective. This occur for exemple in description of the motion event; a speaker tends to include the endpoint. Thanks to its holistic perspective, Czech language is unique among other Slavic languages, which use a phasal perspective. The phasal perspective highlights the motion process instead of the endpoint. There are several reasons, why Czech language uses holistic perspective: the most common is the proximity to German langugae, which also uses holistic perspective, and specific category of aspect. My thesis examines whether children can learn one of the feature of the holistic perspective, often referring to endpoints in the description of motion events. Research data consists in transcribing informal conversations between children and parents over incentives made for this purpose. I examine total amount od endpoints and how they are expressed. The analysis of the data proves high concentration of endpoints and also proves, that parents direct child's attention to them.

Disertační práce Porovnávání středoevropských jazyků: za horizont strukturních rysů a lexikálních přejímek se soustředí na zhodnocení a přehodnocení přístupu k výzkumu jazyků střední Evropy. Hlavním cílem předkládané práce je (1) podat přehled dosavadních poznatků o porovnávání středoevropských jazyků, (2) na jeho základě naznačit možné nové směřování němu přispět. Druhá kapitola práce se věnuje areálové lingvistice, jakožto disciplíně zaměřené na výzkum podobnosti a konvergence geograficky blízkých jazyků, a zejména jejímu ústřednímu pojmu . Představuje okolnosti jeho vzniku, jeho různé definice a jeho kritické (pře)hodnocení pracích současných areálových lingvistů. Třetí kapitola sumarizuje výzkum středoevropských jazyků: různé koncepce středoevropského (popř. dunajského) jazykového svazu vzájemné vlivy lexika a frazeologie těchto jazyků a popisy situací jazykového kontaktu v areálu. Tento přehled ukázal, že hlavními doménami porovnávání jazyků areálu dosud byly strukturní rysy a lexikální přejímky a kalky. Novější vývoj lingvistiky, jak je naznačeno ve čtvrté kapitole, však operuje rovněž s jazykovými jednotkami, které překlenují a relativizují -lexikon. Nabízí se tedy, aby se rovněž komparativní výzkum středoevropských jazyků soustředil na tyto jevy zahrnutelné pod pojem idiomatičnosti. Pátá kapitola...