Lexicalization of natural actions and cross-linguistic stability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2008/02/0027/000086Keywords:
motion verbs, natural actions, cross-linguistic stability, manner, pathAbstract
To what extent do Modern Greek, Polish, Swedish and American English similarly lexicalize action concepts, and how similar are the semantic associations between verbs denoting natural actions? Previous results indicate cross-linguistic stability between American English, Swedish, and Polish in verbs denoting basic human body movement, mouth movements, and sound production. The research reported here extends the cross-linguistic comparison to include Greek, which, unlike Polish, American English and Swedish, is a path-language. We used action imagery criteria to obtain lists of verbs from native Greek speakers. The data were analyzed by using multidimensional scaling, and the results were compared to those previously obtained.
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Hemeren, P.E. 1996. Frequency, ordinal position and semantic distance as measures of cross-cultural stability and hierarchies for action verbs. Acta Psychologica 91, 39-66.
Hemeren, P.E. and Gawronska, B. 2007 Lexicalization of natural actions and cross-linguistic stability. In Ahlsén, E. et al. (eds) 2007, Communication – Action - Meaning. A Festschrift to Jens Allwood, 57-74. Göteborg, Sweden, Göteborg University.
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Copyright (c) 2008 Paul E. Hemeren (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
