2013-10-10

On Verbalizing Motion in Telugu

Viswanatha Naidu (Department of Dravidian & Computational Linguistics, Dravidian University, India)

The relationship between conceptual representation and linguistic expression of motion has received considerable attention in several language-related disciplines in recent years. Talmy's original typology (Satellite-framed languages vs Verb-framed languages) based on the lexicalization of motion verbs has resulted in immense cross-linguistic research that has at the same time pointed out the limitations of the binary dichotomy to account for intra-typological variability. This talk provides a brief review of recent research in this area, and discusses patterns of motion event verbalizations provided by 50 native speakers of Telugu in response to pictorial depiction of a short story about a lady's purse being robbed. Our analysis showed that Telugu speakers preferred to use participial forms when an event is ongoing, and finite forms when the motion comes to an end.  Further, when the motion is goal-oriented, participants demonstrated a tendency to use directional modifiers by paying attention to the direction of motion.