Motion event cognition and grammatical aspect: Evidence from Afrikaans

Abstract

Research on the relationship between grammatical aspect and motion
\nevent construal has posited that speakers of non-aspect languages are more
\nprone to encoding event endpoints than are speakers of aspect languages (e.g.,
\nvon Stutterheim and Carroll 2011). In the present study, we test this hypothesis
\nby extending this line of inquiry to Afrikaans, a non-aspect language which
\nis previously unexplored in this regard. Motion endpoint behavior among
\nAfrikaans speakers was measured by means of a linguistic retelling task and a nonlinguistic
\nsimilarity judgment task, and then compared with the behavior of
\nspeakers of a non-aspect language (Swedish) and speakers of an aspect language
\n(English). Results showed the Afrikaans speakers’ endpoint patterns aligned with
\nSwedish patterns, but were significantly different from English patterns. It was
\nalso found that the variation among the Afrikaans speakers could be partially
\nexplained by taking into account their frequency of use of English, such that
\nthose who used English more frequently exhibited an endpoint behavior that was
\nmore similar to English speakers. The current study thus lends further support
\nto the hypothesis that speakers of different languages attend differently to event
\nendpoints as a function of the grammatical category of aspect.