The expression and conceptualization of motion through space and manner of motion in Persian and English: A comparative analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Feiz Zarrin Ghalam, Parastou
- Graduate Program:
- Applied Linguistics
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 28, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Susan G Strauss, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
James Lantolf, Committee Member
Karen E Johnson, Committee Member
Philip Baldi, Committee Member - Keywords:
- motion event
path
manner
Persian
discourse analysis - Abstract:
- This dissertation is a comparative analysis of English and Persian expressions of motion events. More specifically, using a discourse analytic approach, the study investigates how speakers of Persian and English express motion through space, as well as manner of motion, in elicited narratives based on two short films. The analytic unit in this dissertation is that of the “motion event” based on Talmy’s (1991, 2000) framework. The cross-linguistic design of the study is intended to uncover the similarities and differences between the expressions of motion in English and Persian as well as to help investigate the standing of Persian with respect to Talmy’s binary typology of Satellite- and Verb-framed languages, particularly as it compares to English. The discourse analytic nature of the study in the uncovering of patterns of motion description is similar to Berman and Slobin (1994) and Slobin’s (1987, 1996, 2000) line of research. The analysis in this study illustrates that the rhetorical style exhibited in the Persian narratives is similar to what linguists would expect of prototypical V-languages in the expression of manner, static scene setting, and ground description. The analysis also uncovers the salience of the deictic center as a grounding element and a significant factor in the conceptualization of motion through space in the Persian narratives. However, as observed, the Persian narratives contain seeming anomalies with respect to path expressions, and as such present a mixed picture of Talmy’s typology. Specifically, this study has revealed a considerable number of path expressions that are encoded through path satellites in Persian(thereby resembling S-framed languages) as well as expressions of path with conflation of fact of motion (thereby resembling V-framed languages). In addition, it is only through the predominant focus on the discourse in the Persian narratives that this study has revealed a third medium through which path conceptualizations emerge: the medium of inference, where path is neither encoded by a satellite or conflated within a verb; rather, in such instances, path is contextually implied. The findings of this dissertation illustrate that the concept of path conflation cannot account for the complex nature of path conceptualization within actual discourse. In other words, the discourse-based nature of this study has been crucial to the uncovering of such fine-grained conceptual distinctions in path expressions that morpho-syntax alone could not reveal. I hope this dissertation inspires further studies on Persian language in general, and discourse analytic approaches to Persian in particular, the latter of which are rare at best.