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Aksu-Ko
(Eds.) (2003). Studies in Turkish linguistics (pp. 259-270). Istanbul: Boazii University
Press.
evidence for these typological differences, with clear indications that speakers of these two
types of language pay differential attention to manner of motion in speaking or writing
about motion events (e.g., Berman & Slobin, 1994; zalkan, under review; zalkan
& Slobin, 1999, 2000a, 2000b, in press; Slobin, 1996, 1997, 2000, forthcoming). Overall,
S-language speakers show a higher frequency and greater lexical diversity of manner verb
use, as compared to V-language speakers.
In the present research, we investigate the possibility that V-language speakers may
compensate for the typological pattern described above, making use of means for
encoding manner outside of the main verb of a clause describing a motion event. We
examine the use of optional lexical means for encoding manner of motion, comparing an Slanguage, English, with a V-language, Turkish. There are two possible outcomes to such a
comparison: (1) Turkish speakers do not typically elaborate manner of motion, due to
constraints in conflation patterns for encoding path and manner; or (2) given the
availability of alternative lexical means of encoding manner, Turkish speakers may encode
manner information at comparable rates to English speakers. The findings presented below
suggest that the first possibility may be closer to the truth, although alternative means are
used to a certain extent in Turkish.
remember walking at a run to Tnel, then returning hastily back to Galatasaray, trying
hopelessly the whole time, as if looking for something in the dark, to capture the
memory of a face, a smile, a womans image. Yet still, as soon as I came to Taksim, I
found myself mounted on a bus.
2.2. Oral Narratives
The sample came from an already collected set of elicited narratives, based on a
picture story-book, Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969), in a wide variety of languages
(see Berman & Slobin, 1994). The story is rich in motion events of many types. For this
study, we used data collected from English- and Turkish-speaking adults3. All the subjects
were monolinguals, coming from middle-class, literate backgrounds, ranging from 18 to 40
years of age. There were about 30 subjects in each language. Subjects were interviewed
individually and asked to first look through the entire picture book and then tell the story
while looking at the pictures. Each interview was audiotaped and transcribed for future
analysis. The stories were further coded for motion events. The categories of motion verbs
included in the analysis were the following:
V:manner (manner verbs), e.g., run, fly; yr walk, trman climb-up
V:path (path verbs), e.g., enter, exit, follow; in descend, k exit, yakla
approach
V:neutral (verbs with no manner or path) ,e.g., go, move; git go, hareket et
move
V+V:manner (SUB) (subordinated manner verbs), e.g., go running; yuvarlanarak
d fall rolling.
3. Findings
3.1. Verbs of Motion
Analysis at the level of motion verb use suggested a clear typological contrast. As
can be seen in Table 1, novels written in English included more manner verbs (51% of all
motion verbs) than novels written in Turkish (30%). Turkish novels, on the other hand,
mainly relied on path verbs (59%) in describing motion events.
Table 1: Percentage* of motion verb use in literary texts
V:manner V:path
V:neutral V+V:manner(SUB)
51%
27%
20%
2%
English
30%
59%
7%
4%
Turkish
*Percentages are based on the total number of motion verbs in each language
Several examples from the data are presented below, illustrating differences in motion verb
choice between the two languages (motion verbs are underlined):
(1) I began to scramble up the slippery rocks in the direction of the bank. Great,
jagged boulders screened the view, and I slipped and stumbled on the wet rocks,
making my way as best as I could in Jaspers direction. (du Maurier)
(2) But Kino was pushing his way through the crowd. his raged blood pounded in his
ears, and he burst through and strode away. (Steinbeck)
(3) Evde insan varm da ekiniyormu gibi ayaklarnn ucuna basarak odasndan kt.
Sofay usul usul geti. Oluyla gelininin yatak odasna geldi. Kap kilitli deildi, itip
girdi. (O. Kemal)
She exited from her room on tiptoe, as if there was someone in the house. She
crossed the hallway quietly quietly. She came to the bedroom of his son and his bride.
The door was unlocked, she pushed it and entered.
(4) Geceyarsna kadar ehrin sokaklarnda dolatm durdum. Sleymaniye Camiinin
avlusuna girdim, Atatrk Kprsnden getim, Beyoluna ktm. (O. Pamuk)
I wandered on the streets of the city till midnight. I entered the courtyard of
Sleymaniye Mosque, I crossed Atatrk Bridge, I ascended to Beyolu.
The same pattern held true for the diversity of the manner lexicon in the two
languages. Novels in English contained a manner lexicon almost twice as varied (64 types)
as Turkish novels (26 types). Lists of all the manner verbs used in the novels are presented
below:
English: bolt, burst, chase, cut, clamber, crawl, climb, creep, dart, dip, dive, drag oneself,
drift, edge ones way, flee, glide, grope ones way, hasten, hurry, hurl oneself, jump, leap,
limp, loiter, lunge, march, pace, peel off, plod, plunge, pour, pull away, push ones way,
race, reel, run, rush, rustle, scramble, shuffle, sift, skip, skitter, slide, slip, sneak, splash,
spring, sprint, step, stoop, stride, strike, stroll, stumble, tramp, tiptoe, track, tread, wade,
wander, walk, weave, work ones way
Turkish: adm at step, atla jump, atl leap, at kendini throw oneself, bat sink,
ullan move forward forcefully, dal plunge, dolan wander, dola wander, dkl
pour, emekle crawl, frla dart, gez stroll, hopla hop, ka flee, kay slide, ko
run, sek skip, seirt run, sendele stumble, sra hop, szl sneak trman climb,
yl collapse, yuvarlan roll, yr walk
Novelists writing in English also made finer distinctions within particular domains of
manner. Typically, for a single verb in Turkish that described a motion with manner,
English texts had two or more verbs that described the same motion. Some examples from
the data are presented below:
Turkish
atla jump
dal plunge
emekle crawl
English
jump, scramble, sprint, spring
dip, dive, plunge
crawl, creep
atl leap
firla dart
ko, seirt run
trman climb-up
yr walk
leap, lunge
bolt, burst, dart
run, race, rush, reel
climb, clamber
walk, drift, loiter, march, pace, plod, rustle, shuffle, sift,
skitter, sneak, stride, tiptoe, tramp, tread, wade, weave
The pattern was the same for the elicited narratives from adult native speakers. More
than half of the motion verbs used by English speakers were manner verbs (54%), as
compared to less than one third used by Turkish speakers (30%) (see Table 2).
Table 2: Percentage* of motion verb use in adult frog stories
V:manner V:path
V:neutral V+V:m (SUB)
54%
30%
15%
1%
English
30%
62%
7%
1%
Turkish
*Percentages are based on the total number of motion verbs in each language.
Similar to novels, narratives elicited in English contained a manner lexicon that was
twice as varied (35 types) as Turkish (18 types). For example, the following manner verbs
were used in describing a particular scene from the stimulus bookthe frogs exit from the
jar): English: the frog: runs away, jumps out, hops out, climbs out, crawls out, creeps out,
slips out, sneaks out, steps out, tiptoes out, escapes; Turkish: kurbaa: kayor, atlyor,
trmanr, syrlr the frog: flees, jumps, climbs up, sneaks off.
In summary, the analysis of motion verbs strongly supports the typological dichotomy
between the two languages in encoding manner of motion. Productions in English (Slanguage) included a greater frequency (52% to 30%) and diversity (80 types to 32 types)
of manner verbs than productions in Turkish (V-language), and this difference was found
in both written texts and elicited oral narratives (see Figure 1).
3.2. Verbs of Motion: Subordination of Manner and Aspectual Marking
Figure 1
Manner verb use in English and Turkish
(written and elicited narratives combined)
90
80 types
English
Turkish
80
70
60
52%
50
40
30%
32 types
30
20
10
0
V:manner:TOKEN
V:manner:TYPE
It is possible that V-language speakers make frequent use of such alternative means to
encode manner of motion, thus compensating for the relative difficulty of encoding both
path and manner in verbal constructions. Table 3 presents findings with regard to the use
of alternative lexical means for encoding manner in the two languages.
Table 3: Frequency distribution of alternative lexical means of encoding manner in novels
and elicited oral narratives
English
Turkish
novels
elicitations
novels
elicitations
total
total
73
27
93
43
adverbials
100
136
34
16
20
5
descriptions
50
25
107
43
113
148
TOTAL
150
161
The data show that Turkish and English productions both make fairly frequent use of
alternative lexical means of conveying manner. Combining the novels and the elicited oral
narratives, there are 150 uses of alternative means in English and 161 in Turkish.
Adverbial specifications of manner of movement constituted the major option in both
languages, with Turkish productions showing a higher amount of use: an overall total of
100 uses in English to 136 in Turkish. However, English writers and speakers provided
There are important differences in the uses of the two types of manner elaboration in
English and Turkish. In English productions, such expressions of manner were more likely
to accompany manner verbs, whereas in Turkish they were more likely to qualify nonmanner verbs, suggesting a difference between the two languages in the functions of
extended manner expressions. The fact that English speakers used them predominantly
with manner verbs (73%), suggests that they served the function of augmenting the manner
that was already encoded by the verb. By contrast, the high rate in Turkish with nonmanner verbs (61%) suggests the prevalence of a compensatory function in the Vlanguage. That is, English speakershaving already specified manner by choice of a
manner verb, go on to elaborate or extend the description: not just sneak, but sneak quietly;
not just jump up, but jump up like a coiled spring. For Turkish speakers, by contrast, it is
typically only the adverbial expression that indicates manner. This contrast between the
two language types is even more marked with regard to descriptions that only suggest
manner. Here the English productionsboth the written novels and the oral narratives
provide abundant ancillary information about inner states and conditions of the terrain,
suggesting an overall greater and more differentiated attention to the ways in which
animate beings move from place to place.
10
Notes
1
Manner refers to factors such as motor pattern, rate, and degree of effort of the figures
movement. Path refers to the translational motion of a figure, which, in the most
elaborated sense, moves from a source to a goal through some medium, passing one or
more milestones.
3
The Turkish data were gathered by Ayhan Aksu-Ko (1994) and Aylin Kntay in
Istanbul. The English data were collected by Virginia Marchman and Tanya Renner in
California (Berman & Slobin, 1994) and by Gillian Wigglesworth in Australia.
References
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Appendix
English novels: R. Anaya (1972), Bless me, ltima; A. S. Byatt (1990), Possession: A romance;
J. Derbyshire (1996), Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a dream; D. du Maurier (1938), Rebecca;
J. Fowles (1969), The French lieutenants woman; E. Hemingway (1941), For whom the bell
tolls; D. Lessing (1952), A proper marriage; C. McCullers (1946), The member of the wedding;
J. Steinbeck (1947), The pearl
Turkish novels: O. Atay (1971), Tutanamayanlar; K. Baar (1992), Sen olsaydn yapmazdn
biliyorum; Frzan (1974), Parasz yatl, 47liler; B. Karasu (1985), Gece; O. Kemal (1960),
El kz; Y. Kemal (1970), Arda efsanesi; O. Pamuk (1990), Kara kitap; L. Tekin (1984),
Berci Kristin p masallar; N. Yeinobal (1997), Mazi kalbimde bir yaradr