Investigating motion events

Abstract

This cumulative dissertation investigates the impact of language-specific patterns, specifically aspect category, on speech and perception of goal-oriented motion events. The dissertation consists of three articles that present the project’s outcomes and significant findings. Before presenting the articles, the dissertation provides an extensive overview of the field of linguistic relativity and previous research on conceptual perspectives. The methodology employed in the experiments is thoroughly described, including the rationale behind the chosen methods and participant groups. In total, data from 367 individuals were analyzed to support the findings presented in this dissertation. Five experiments in total were conducted. The first experiment, an input study with speech elicitation, is presented in the Description of locomotion events: Language-specific patterns in child-directed speech. The second experiment, an eye-tracking study with adults, is presented in the Perception of Goal-oriented Locomotion Events in Monolingual and Bilingual Adults: Free-viewing eye-tracking study. The three remaining experiments are presented in Expression and perception of endpoints during language acquisition: Three studies on Czech. They include an elicitation experiment, an interactive speech production, and an eye-tracking experiment with children. The research conducted in this dissertation led to several conclusions. Firstly, conceptual preferences were found to play a role during first language acquisition. The input provided by parents already contains language-specific patterns, including the expression of endpoints. Secondly, eye-tracking experiments did not uncover language-specific patterns. These experiments aimed to determine if the influence of perspectives on visual perception persisted without additional language tasks. However, no evidence supporting this hypothesis was found. Thirdly, the research highlights the difficulties associated with experimental methods. Moving away from single mono-logical utterances to dialogues introduces higher complexity, including turn-taking forms, questions, answers, and repetitions. Lastly, the dissertation emphasizes the importance of including bilingual participants in experiments and not solely relying on monolinguals. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on the influence of language-specific preferences on description and visual perception of goal-oriented motion events. The research reveals the role of conceptual preferences in first language acquisition, limitations in uncovering language-specific patterns in visual perception, challenges in experimental methods, and the significance of including bilingual participants.