Beyond conflation patterns: The encoding of motion events in Kiezdeutsch

Abstract

In the domain of motion event encoding, many of the world’s languages fall into one of two types: verb-framed (the path is encoded in the verb) or satellite-framed (the path is encoded outside the verb in a prefix, particle or adverbial while the verb contains information about the manner of movement). A number of studies have investigated the language usage of bilingual speakers or language learners to find evidence of a transfer of the typological pattern of the dominant/native language to the non-dominant/foreign language. These studies have largely failed to show evidence of a straightforward transfer, although more subtle effects on usage have occasionally been observed. In this paper, we report the results of a corpus study comparing two groups of speakers of the urban German ethnolect “Kiezdeutsch”: one with a monolingual German background and one with a bilingual Turkish-German background. We find no significant differences in their preference for path or manner verbs, which is consistent with other studies. However, in comparison with the monolingual German group, the Turkish-German group prefer semantically light motion verbs and they avoid the combination of manner verbs with path satellites. This is consistent with the fact that the analogous construction is ungrammatical in verb-framed languages like Turkish. In other words, we find variation within “Kiezdeutsch” that can be explained by a transfer of usage preferences from the background language.

The roles of language mode and dominance in French–German bilinguals’ motion event descriptions

“…On the one hand, the influence of the verb-framed pattern in terms of an increasing use of path verbs in the S-language has been found in several studies (Alcaraz Mármol, 2013; Brown & Gullberg, 2013; Hohenstein et al, 2006). On the other hand, Goschler et al (2013) do not find any difference in path verbs between bilingual Turkish–German speakers and monolingual German speakers. However, the influence of a V-language can manifest itself in deictic or generic verbs in terms of fewer manner verbs and more path verbs.…”

“…Encoding of semantic information in further grammatical elements or construction-based accounts (cf. Goschler, Woerfel, Stefanowitsch, Wiese & Schroeder, 2013) is beyond the scope of this contribution.…”

“…However, the influence of a V-language can manifest itself in deictic or generic verbs in terms of fewer manner verbs and more path verbs. Goschler et al (2013) note a preference for semantically light verbs in German by bilingual Turkish–German speakers compared to monolingual German speakers, particularly for the verbs kommen and gehen . Similarly, Suner Munoz and Jessen's (2016) data shows that L1 Turkish - L2 Danish speakers used the deictic verb gå ‘to go’ in Danish more frequently than Danish speakers, who preferred to employ manner verbs.…”

“…Similarly, Suner Munoz and Jessen's (2016) data shows that L1 Turkish - L2 Danish speakers used the deictic verb gå ‘to go’ in Danish more frequently than Danish speakers, who preferred to employ manner verbs. On the one hand, these examples may reflect a Turkish lexicalization type in that speakers used these verbs analogously to Turkish path verbs when German (Goschler et al, 2013, p. 244) or Danish (Suner Munoz & Jessen, 2016) lacked corresponding path verbs. On the other hand, the use of “semantically light”, generic or deictic motion verbs does not have to be the result of typologically determined influences, but may point to general learner strategies (Goschler, 2009, 2013) or to conceptually oral linguistic varieties (Berthele, 2004).…”

Frames change in language contact environments

“…An answer to this apparent quandary may lie in recent research on German-Turkish bilinguals. Goschler et al (2013), for instance, also indicate Turkish influences on the German of bilingual speakers: focusing on differences in the structuring of motion events between monolingual German and bilingual Turkish-German speakers in the Kiezdeutsch corpus7 they find that Turkish-German bilinguals use the generic German verbsgehen ('to go') and kotnmen ('to come) more often than Snell Hornby's (1983) 'descriptive verbs.' They argue that this is due to an avoidance strategy: Turkish-German bilinguals appear to avoid 'descriptive verbs' when employing directional (Pa t h ) satellites.…”