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Article published In:
Languages in Contrast
Vol. 19:2 (2019) ► pp.280–309

Goal realization

An empirically based comparison between English, German and Greek

ORCID logo | University of Liège (Belgium)
| University of Kassel (Germany)
| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)

Drawing upon recent insights into the role of Goal preference as reflector of cross-linguistic differences, this paper investigates the factors affecting the realization of Goals in motion event descriptions. In particular, it examines the interplay between the lexicalization pattern of a language, on the one hand, and grammatical viewpoint aspect, on the other – factors which have commonly been treated in isolation. In so doing, three typologically distinct languages were examined: English, German and Greek. The empirical basis of this paper includes: (a) a corpus study, in which we examined the distribution of Goals in a small set of verbs, and (b) an experimental verbalization study, from which we elicited descriptions of different motion event types. While the former does not give a clear picture concerning the cross-linguistic differences in Goal prominence, the latter indicates that lexicalization pattern assumes a more prominent role than grammatical viewpoint aspect in affecting Goal realization.

Keywords: Goals of motion, lexicalization patterns, grammatical viewpoint aspect, corpus data, language production, English/German/Greek
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Goal realization from a cross-linguistic perspective
    • 2.1Aspect in English, German and Greek
    • 2.2The effect of grammatical aspect on Goal realization
    • 2.3Lexicalization patterns
    • 2.4Goal preference across languages: The effect of the lexicalization pattern
  • 3.Corpus data: A pilot study
  • 4.The verbalization study
    • 4.1Method and Material
      • Participants
      • Stimuli
      • Procedure
      • Analysis of the event descriptions
    • 4.2Results and discussion
      • 4.2.1Differences in lexicalization pattern
      • 4.2.2Lexicalization pattern and grammatical viewpoint aspect as factors
      • 4.2.3Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.17010.geo
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