The Relationship between Language and Thought in Motion Event Cognition in Second Language Acquisition

Kweon, Soo-Ok

doi:10.30961/lr.2019.55.3.457

Lang. Res. 55(3):457-477

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2019.55.3.457

Article

The Relationship between Language and Thought in Motion Event Cognition in Second Language Acquisition

Soo-Ok Kweon ¹ ^, ^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹POSTECH

^*Corresponding Author : Professor, Division of Humanities & Social Sciences, POSTECH, 77 Chengam-ro, Nam-gu Pohang, Kyungpook 37673, Korea, E-mail: soook@postech.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2019 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 12, 2019 ; Revised: Nov 07, 2019 ; Accepted: Dec 16, 2019

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the relationship between language and thought in motion events encoding (linguistic perspective) and the perception (non-linguistic perspective) of Korean learners of English. The purpose is to determine whether L2 learners will shift toward L2-based conceptual representations when they can switch the linguistic behavior of encoding motion from their L1 (Korean) to L2 (English). A verbal description task to test linguistic switch and a similarity rating task to test conceptual change are used with animations that describe motion events. Results show that although the linguistic switch to the L2 canonical type of description occurs, the switch does not result in cognitive restructuring by L2 learners when language is not involved. The results will be discussed with respect to “thinking for speaking” and the linguistic relativity dubbed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Keywords: motion events; L2 acquisition; thinking for speaking; linguistic relativity; language and thought

References

Allen, S., Özyürek, A., Kita, S., Brown, A., Furman, R., Ishizuka, T., & Fujii, M. (2007). Language-specific and universal influences in children's syntactic packaging of manner and path: A comparison of English, Japanese, and Turkish. Cognition, 102(1), 16-48 .

Athanasopoulos, P., & Bylund, E. (2013). Does grammatical aspect affect motion event cognition? A cross-linguistic comparison of English and Swedish speakers. Cognitive Science, 37, 286-309 .

Aveledo, F., & Athanasopoulos, P. (2016). Second language influence on first language motion event encoding and categorization in Spanish-speaking children learning L2 English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(4), 403-420 .

Bassetti, Benedetta, and Vivian Cook. (2011). Relating language and cognition: The second language user. In V. Cook & B. Bassetti (Eds.), Language and bilingual cognition (pp. 143-190). New York, NY: Psychology Press .

Berman, L., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: A cross-linguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .

Brown, A., & Gullberg, M. (2013). L1-L2 convergence in clausal packaging in Japanese and English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(3), 477-494 .

Brown, R. W., & Lenneberg, E. H. (1954). A study in language and cognition. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(3), p.454 .

Bylund, E. (2009). Effects of age of L2 acquisition on L1 event conceptualization patterns. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(3), 305-322 .

Bylund, E., & Athanasopoulos, P. (2014). Language and thought in a multilingual context: The case of isiXhosa. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(2), 431-441 .

10.

Cadierno, T., & Ruiz, L. (2006). Motion events in Spanish L2 acquisition. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 4, 183-216 .

11.

Choi, S., & Bowerman, M. (1991). Learning to express motion events in English and Korean: The influence of language-specific lexicalization patterns. Cognition, 41, 83-121 .

12.

Choi, S., & Lantolf, J. P. (2008). Representation and embodiment of meaning in L2 communication: Motion events in the speech and gesture of advanced L2 Korean and L2 English speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30(2), 191-224 .

13.

Czechowska, N., & Ewert, A. (2011). Perception of motion by Polish-English bilinguals. In V. Cook & B. Bassetti (Eds.), Language and bilingual cognition (pp. 287-314). New York, NY: Psychology Press .

14.

Gentner, D. (2003). Why we're so smart. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin- Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind (pp. 195-236). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press .

15.

Goldin-Meadow, S., & Zheng, M. (1998). Thought before language: The expression of motion events prior to the impact of a conventional language model. Carruthers and Boucher, 26-54 .

16.

Grosjean, F. (2001). The bilingual's language modes. In J. Nicol (Ed.), One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing (pp.1-22). Oxford: Blackwell .

17.

Hendriks, H., & Hickmann, M. (2011). Expressing voluntary motion in a second language: English learners of French. In V. Cook & B. Bassetti (Eds.), Language and bilingual cognition (pp. 315-339). New York, NY: Psychology Press .

18.

Hohenstein, J. (2006). Is he floating across or crossing afloat? Cross- influence of L1 and L2 in Spanish-English bilingual adults. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 249-261 .

19.

Lai, V. T., Rodriguez, G. G., & Narasimhan, B. (2014). Thinking-for-speaking in early and late bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(1), 139-152 .

20.

Leavitt, J. (2011). Linguistic relativities: Language diversity and modern thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .

21.

Lucy, J. A. (1992). Language diversity and thought: A reformulation of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .

22.

Maguire, M. J., & Dove, G. O. (2008). Speaking of events: What event language can tell us about event representations and their development. In T. F. Shipley & J. Zacks (Eds.), Understanding events: From perception to action (pp. 193-220). New York, NY: Oxford University Press .

23.

Malt, B. C., Sloman, S. A., & Gennari, S. P. (2003). Universality and language specificity in object naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 49(1), 20-42 .

24.

Oh, K.-J. (2003). Manner and Path in motion event descriptions in English and Korean. In B. Beachley, A. Brown & F. Conlin (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 580-590). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press .

25.

Papafragou, A., & S. Selimis. (2010). Event categorisation and language: A cross-linguistic study of motion. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(2), 224-260 .

26.

Papafragou, A., Hulbert, J., & Trueswell, J. (2008). Does language guide event perception? Evidence from eye movements. Cognition, 108(1), 155-184 .

27.

Papafragou, A., Massey, C., & Gleitman, L. (2002). Shake, rattle,'n'roll: The representation of motion in language and cognition. Cognition, 84(2), 189-219 .

28.

Slobin, D. (1996). From "thought and language" to "thinking for speaking". Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, 17, 70-96 .

29.

Slobin, D. (2000). Verbalized events: A dynamic approach to linguistic relativity and determinism. In S. Niermeier & R. Dirven (Eds.), Evidence for linguistic relativity (pp. 107-138). Amsterdam: John Benjamins .

30.

Slobin, D. (2004). The many ways to search for a frog. In S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating Events in Narrative. Vol, 2, Typological and contextual perspectives (pp. 219-257). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .

31.

Swoyer, C. (2011). How does language affect thought? In V. Cook & B. Bassetti (Eds.), Language and bilingual cognition (pp. 3-22). New York, NY: Psychology Press .

32.

Talmy, L. (1985). Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and lexical description: vol.3. Grammatical categories and the lexicon (pp. 57-149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

33.

Talmy, L. (2000). Toward a cognitive semantics: vol. II: Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

34.

Trueswell, J, & A. Papafragou (2010). Perceiving and remembering events cross-linguistically: Evidence from dual-task paradigms. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 64-82 .

35.

Whorf, Benjamin (2012). Language, thought and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (2nd ed). Eds by J. B. Carroll, S. C Levinson & P. Lee. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (Original work published 1940) .