Typology and spatial cognition in English, French and Greek: evidence from eye-tracking

Abstract

Languages encode space in strikingly different ways (Talmy, 2000): Satelliteframed languages (e.g., English) lexicalize Manner in verb roots and express Path in satellites, whereas Verb-framed languages (e.g., French) lexicalize Path in verb roots, leaving Manner implicit or peripheral; other languages present parallel systems in which both Verband Satellite-framed structures are available (e.g., Greek). The present study investigates how speakers of three typologically different languages, English, French and Greek, performed a production task and allocated their visual attention while exploring and describing visual scenes involving motion -movement fixations differed substantially as a function of language-specific factors, arguing that typological constraints have a clear impact not only on linguistic but also on non-linguistic behaviours.