Spatial Encoding in Persian: The Expression of Motion Events by Persian Native Speakers

Abstract

Following Talmy’s classification of world languages in to two-category of verb-framed (V-language) and satellite-framed (S-language) that distinguishes between languages in terms of their encoding patterns of motion events, there has been a lot of investigations on different lexicalization patterns of motion events across spoken languages over the past decades. This paper examines how Persian native speakers lexicalize motion events and what pattern of spatial encoding they follow. To this end, 25 Persian native speakers were asked to watch 12 short animated cartoons representing voluntary motion carried out in vertical and trajectory direction. After recording and transcribing of the participants’ utterances, the analysis of responses indicated that Persian speakers encode manner information mainly in other linguistic means, and they are more willing to describe path of motion in satellites. Based on this pattern of spatial encoding, Persian speakers follow a mixed typology to encode motion events and Persian is categorized in both S- framed and V-framed typologies.

Keywords

• motion event
• language typology
• lexicalization pattern
• spatial encoding