Difference between revisions of "Classroom:NTNU, LING1113 (2009) - Motion and Space"

Revision as of 15:35, 17 May 2009

This and the dependent pages have been developed by second-semester students at the Linguistic Department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. All students could use these pages as an information hub, e.g., for term papers and for the final exam. Frawley's book on Linguistic Semantics served as textbook for the course (see the bibliography Norwegian Expressions of Motion and Space - Bibliography).

A special thanks goes to Andreas T. Slørdahl, Elin Marstein, Elias Aamot,Fredrik Salvesen Haukaas and Signe Rix Berthelin who put a lot of work into this. --Dorothee 17:26, 17 May 2009 (CEST)

Visit also the related pages:

• Norwegian Prepositions
• Norwegian Verbs of Motion
• Norwegian Expressions of Motion and Space - Bibliography

Definitions

We will define notions of or related to space, deixis and motion. These notions will be used to determine the semantic content of a set of Norwegian (and a few Danish) prepositions.

Spatial concepts

Spatial concepts are in essence relations between two or more entities. Whenever you make a statement about the location of an object, you state the location relative to another object. While you can claim that an object is inside another object, you cannot claim that it is inside, but not of another object. The conception of space incorporated in language is a naive one according to Frawley (1992), proven to be wrong by modern physics, yet beliefs such as 'there is empty space and there are solid objects with no space in them', 'there are absolute directions' and 'it is possible to not be in motion' seem to determine how space is encoded in language, and how it is in fact perceived by human beings.

The object whose location you make a statement about is called Figure, while the other object, which you compare the location of the located object with, is called Ground. The linguistic terms Figure and Ground (for more information see for example Talmy (1975)) reflect the use of these concepts in theories of human perception. For some more information see: Figure and Ground in human perception

References

Deixis

Reference to PLACES can be given absolute, such as by the phrase in the house or relative, such as by the adverb here. The latter expression can only be understood contextually which makes deictic spacial expressions anaphora. For more information follow the internal link above.

Remoteness

Remoteness is defined as the relative distance between the speaker and the hearer. Languages may encode any number of degrees of remoteness. For more information follow the internal link above.

Direction

- There are two directions: movement away from the reference point, and movement towards the reference point. For more information follow the internal link above.

Locations

Topological notions

Lexical semantics distinguishes between several topological notions. Some of them are mentioned in Frawley (1992), such as interiority, coincidence and exteriority. These three locations have in common, that they are not dependent on a viewpoint, that means they are constant no matter where the viewer stands and which reference point (s)he chooses to describe the location in question.

For example, if a cat is located interior to a house, this relation pertains independent of where the speaker and the hearer stand relative to the situation described. The reader might try the same with exterior and coincidence after reading our notions of those concepts below.

Coincidence:

If a figure coincides with the Ground, the Figure and Ground share some space. This sharing can mean two things occur in the same space or that they are in some sense attached or related to each other. The space shared can also be an ideal space projected by the Ground. In this case there exist a conventional notions of how big such a projected space is, depending for example on the size of the Ground. The space projected by a fly might not stretch as far as the space projected by a house.

Interiority:

'interior' and 'exterior' cats

When a Figure is located interior to a ground, the figure can be said to be contained in the Ground. This can be partially as well as totally, and both options imply that the figure must be smaller than the ground. It should be noted, that if the gound is for example a garden and the figure is a person, an interior relation between does not (necessarily) mean that the person is burried in the garden. The person might perfectly well be standing up with the feet being the only body parts interacting physically with the garden. We still think of the person as interior to the garden though, since we think of this interiority as occupying some space inside the area referred to as a garden.

Exteriority:

A figure with an exterior relation to its ground is occupying the space which is outside the boarders of the ground. When exteriority is denoted, the figure does not share the space of the ground, though it might happen to share some space projected by the ground, as well as it is might be located far away. The figure is occupying some space which is not contained in the ground when exteriority is denoted.

Projective locations

With projective locations, the value and interpretation varies depending on the frame of reference, or vantage point against which the relationship is judged. Thus the relationship of projective locations varies according to the viewpoint of the viewer, or whether the figure is perceived in relation to the viewer or the ground.

Inferiority:

-The figure is located in the area below the ground, where below is defined in terms of the observer's point of view, or as defined by the ground itself.

Anteriority:

-The figure is located in front of the ground. In front of is defined in terms of the observer's point of view, or as defined by the ground itself.

Superiority:

-The figure is located over the ground. Over is defined in terms of the observer's point of view, or as defined by the ground itself.

Posteriority:

-The figure occupies the space projected behind the ground. Posteriority is in Norwegian (and Danish) defined in terms of the observer's point of view in relation to the ground, or in terms of the relation to the figure itself.

Laterality:

-The figure is located beside the ground. Beside is defined in terms of the observer's point of view, or as defined by the ground itself.

Events

Motion

Motion can be described as dynamic movement through space. Motion entails the displacement of some entity, or conceptually relevant positional change. Motion is usually associated with actives, seeing that more often than not motion entails some kind of action, though certain motions can be described as states.

Figure

- The entity that is displaced by the predicate.

Source

- The point from which the figure is moved.

Goal

- The point towards which the figure is moving.

Location

- Where the movement happens.

- Path

- The trajectory of the figure.

Conveyance

- By which means movement is made possible. The basic distinction is between vehicular and non-vehicular transportation.

Manner

- How motion events are performed in terms of speed and intensity.

Cause

- The relationship between a movement and what causes the movement.