La presente investigación estudia la traducción de los verbos de movimiento del sueco al español en algunas obras dirigidas a distintas edades. Los verbos en cuestión son los verbos de Manera que implican una Manera de moverse hacia adelante pero con el patrón motriz del verbo andar. Las preguntas de investigación son cómo se traducen los verbos de movimiento al español y si es frecuente que haya una omisión de traducción dado que las dos lenguas pertenecen a grupos tipológicamente distintos (Talmy, 1985). El español es una lengua de marco verbal (lengua-V) que no tiene tantos verbos de Manera como las lenguas de marco satélite (lenguas-S). El sueco, en cambio, es una lengua-S. La hipótesis que se formula es que las traducciones van a tener vacíos semánticos. Además pensamos que habría una diferencia en la traducción de los libros dependiendo del grupo etáreo al cual están dirigidos. El material primario de la investigación consta de dos libros infantiles, un libro juvenil y un libro para adultos. Todos en sueco. El método de investigación presenta varios pasos. Para empezar, se busca los verbos de Manera en sueco en todos los libros, luego se compara las traducciones con el texto original. Posteriormente se categoriza los verbos en grupos dependiendo de sus traducciones, se analiza los diferentes grupos y finalmente se busca diferencias o similitudes entre los libros analizados y sus correspondientes traducciones al español. Los resultados de la investigación indican que hay una gran diferencia entre los textos originales y sus traducciones en cuanto a la implicación de los verbos de Manera. La Manera en las traducciones tiende a desaparecer en un gran porcentaje en todos los libros. Sin embargo, hay una diferencia en los diferentes tipos de publicaciones, donde el libro para adultos es el libro con menos vacíos en la traducción.

La presente investigación se centra en la semántica de los verbos de movimiento en inglés y en castellano. La primera parte de la tesis ofrece un análisis sistemático y detallado de los lexicones verbales de movimiento en ambas lenguas desde un punto de vista contrastivo. En este análisis, los patrones generales de lexicalización, los verbos de sendero y los verbos de manera son los objetos de interés. La segunda parte de la tesis explora el subdominio del movimiento humano empleando paradigmas experimentales, proporcionando evidencia empírica a algunas de las observaciones derivadas del análisis lingüístico llevado a cabo en la primera parte de la tesis. / The present thesis addresses the semantics of English and Spanish motion verbs. In the first part of this dissertation, a systematic and detailed account of the semantics of English and Spanish motion verb lexicons from a contrastive point of view is provided. The patterns of general conflations are explored, as well as more subtle path notions and fine-grained manner information which can be conveyed by motion verbs in these two languages. Comparison between English and Spanish leads to the identification of both crosslinguistic similarities and differences. The second part of this thesis aims to investigate an important subdomain of motion, that of human locomotion, using experimental methods. These studies offer interesting insights into how English and Spanish organise their motion verb lexicons and into the complex semantics of human locomotion verbs. In addition, the findings provide empirical support for some of the observations from the linguistic analysis undertaken in the first part of this thesis.

La presente investigación estudia el uso de los sustantivos abstractos/concretos y de los verbos de movimiento en hablantes no nativos de español muy avanzado. En este estudio, nosotros creemos que el input comprensible, la interacción y la frecuencia con que se utiliza la lengua meta son factores importantísimos para poder adquirir, desarrollar y afianzar el uso de las categorías que nos interesa estudiar. A partir de estas premisas, es posible pensar que un hablante no nativo (HNN) muy avanzado de una L2 debería tener un nivel idiomático muy parecido al de un hablante nativo (HN) dentro de los campos donde se da la interacción, pero ¿Qué sucede cuando un HNN es sometido a pruebas que disminuyen el efecto de estos factores? ¿Deberían, entonces, existir diferencias significativas en los recursos léxicos utilizados por ambos grupos (HNNs en relación a HNs)? Así, y a grandes rasgos, el objetivo principal de nuestra investigación es poder determinar cuándo los HNNs no alcanzan el nivel de ocurrencias presentado por los HNs.

The current thesis is based on four individual studies which aim to account for the expression of motion events (ME) in Spanish and Swedish as first languages (L1), in Swedish as a second language (L2), and in Spanish as a heritage language (SHL). The data, resulting from audio-recordings of different sorts of stimuli, have been analyzed with special focus on (1) the most common structures used for referring to various types of ME, (2) the types and amount of information provided by the participants, in particular as regards the semantic components Path, Manner and Ground, and (3) grammatical aspect and types of syntactic structures resorted to, including the correlation between the two latter factors and speakers’ discursive preferences.      Study 1 sets out to explore how Spanish and Swedish native speakers convey information about motion. The results show that the Swedish L1 speakers produced a wider range of descriptions concerning Manner and Path than the Spanish L1 speakers; furthermore, both groups delivered detailed Ground descriptions, although the Swedish native speakers expressed final destinations (endpoints) of ME to a greater extent.      Study 2 aims to investigate to what extent Swedish L1 patterns for motion encoding are still at play in the acquisition of Spanish L2 even at advanced stages of L2 acquisition. The results show that the learner group used a larger amount of Path particles and Ground adjuncts (in particular those referring to endpoints) than did the Spanish natives; this finding supports the claim that L2 learners rely on the lexicalization patterns of their L1 when describing ME in an L2. As for Manner, the L2 speakers were found to express this component mainly outside the verb, and to deliver more information about Manner than the Spanish natives.      Study 3 addresses the construal of ME in Swedish speakers of L2 Spanish, in particular concerning the encoding of motion endpoints and Manner of motion. The results show that the Swedish learners of Spanish exhibited the same, high frequencies of endpoint marking as did their monolingual Swedish peers, thus deviating from the Spanish native pattern. Moreover, the L2 speakers used the same amount of Manner verbs as did the Spanish natives but tended consistently to provide additional Manner information in periphrastic constructions.      Finally, Study 4 sets out to analyze the ways in which L1 Spanish/L2 Swedish early and late bilinguals express ME in SHL. The aim is to show in which ways and to what extent the typological patterns for motion encoding in the L2 may impact on motion encoding in the L1 with regard to three parameters: (1) age of onset (AO) of the acquisition of L2, (2) length of residence (LoR) in the L2 environment and (3) contact level with the L1 (CL). The focus data, consisting of oral re-tellings produced by the bilinguals, were compared to analogous data produced by two control groups (native speakers of Spanish and Swedish) in order to analyze conflation patterns regarding Manner, Path and Ground information. The analysis points to the conclusion that both the individuals’ AO of L2 acquisition and their LoR in the L2 environment have affected their L1 conceptualization patterns while their CL plays a subordinate role.      In summary, the findings lend support to the idea that the habitual conceptualization of events in the L1 influences L2 acquisition; conversely, the conceptual patterns of the L2 have an impact on L1 usage in bilinguals, especially in combination with an early AO and a long LoR. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: In press.</p>

The current thesis is based on four individual studies which aim to account for the expression of motion events (ME) in Spanish and Swedish as first languages (L1), in Swedish as a second language (L2), and in Spanish as a heritage language (SHL). The data, resulting from audio-recordings of different sorts of stimuli, have been analyzed with special focus on (1) the most common structures used for referring to various types of ME, (2) the types and amount of information provided by the participants, in particular as regards the semantic components Path, Manner and Ground, and (3) grammatical aspect and types of syntactic structures resorted to, including the correlation between the two latter factors and speakers’ discursive preferences.      Study 1 sets out to explore how Spanish and Swedish native speakers convey information about motion. The results show that the Swedish L1 speakers produced a wider range of descriptions concerning Manner and Path than the Spanish L1 speakers; furthermore, both groups delivered detailed Ground descriptions, although the Swedish native speakers expressed final destinations (endpoints) of ME to a greater extent.      Study 2 aims to investigate to what extent Swedish L1 patterns for motion encoding are still at play in the acquisition of Spanish L2 even at advanced stages of L2 acquisition. The results show that the learner group used a larger amount of Path particles and Ground adjuncts (in particular those referring to endpoints) than did the Spanish natives; this finding supports the claim that L2 learners rely on the lexicalization patterns of their L1 when describing ME in an L2. As for Manner, the L2 speakers were found to express this component mainly outside the verb, and to deliver more information about Manner than the Spanish natives.      Study 3 addresses the construal of ME in Swedish speakers of L2 Spanish, in particular concerning the encoding of motion endpoints and Manner of motion. The results show that the Swedish learners of Spanish exhibited the same, high frequencies of endpoint marking as did their monolingual Swedish peers, thus deviating from the Spanish native pattern. Moreover, the L2 speakers used the same amount of Manner verbs as did the Spanish natives but tended consistently to provide additional Manner information in periphrastic constructions.      Finally, Study 4 sets out to analyze the ways in which L1 Spanish/L2 Swedish early and late bilinguals express ME in SHL. The aim is to show in which ways and to what extent the typological patterns for motion encoding in the L2 may impact on motion encoding in the L1 with regard to three parameters: (1) age of onset (AO) of the acquisition of L2, (2) length of residence (LoR) in the L2 environment and (3) contact level with the L1 (CL). The focus data, consisting of oral re-tellings produced by the bilinguals, were compared to analogous data produced by two control groups (native speakers of Spanish and Swedish) in order to analyze conflation patterns regarding Manner, Path and Ground information. The analysis points to the conclusion that both the individuals’ AO of L2 acquisition and their LoR in the L2 environment have affected their L1 conceptualization patterns while their CL plays a subordinate role.      In summary, the findings lend support to the idea that the habitual conceptualization of events in the L1 influences L2 acquisition; conversely, the conceptual patterns of the L2 have an impact on L1 usage in bilinguals, especially in combination with an early AO and a long LoR. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: In press.</p>

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