Research Proposal for the Jiede Empirical Research.doc

Research Proposal for the Jiede Empirical Research Grant March 31st, 2009 1 I. Title of the Study Learning to Express Motion Events in L2 Chinese II. Theoretical Background and Objectives The study of the relationship between space and language has been of considerable interest to linguists and psychologists for years (e.g., Bowerman; 1996; Choi Bowerman, 1991; Hickmann, Robert, 2006; Talmy; 1985, 2000; Slobin, 1998, 2004). Studies on spatial language have shown that speakers of different languages appear to conceptualize space and motion events in a language-specific manner (Bowerman; 1996; Choi, Bowerman, 1991; Talmy; 1985, 2000; Slobin, 1998, 2004). According to Talmy乫s (1985, 1991, 2000) binary classification of motion events, languages can be divided into two types depending on how they encode path information of a motion event: satellite-framed and verb-framed. Talmy乫s typological framework is by now well known and has received empirical support in L1 acquisition. For example, research has shown that the ways children and adults express motion events are strongly affected by the typological properties of their first language (e.g., Berman Slobin, 1994; Hickman, 2006). At the same time, Talmy’s proposal has been modified to include a third typology: equipollently-framed languages (Slobin, 2004, 2006). Recently, the question of how L2 learners with typological different L1s and L2s come to express motion events has begun to receive research attention in L2 acquisition, and researchers have mostly concentrated on comparing L1 and L2 production that taps the binary traditional typology (e.g., Cadierno, 2004, 2008; Navarro Nicholadis; 2005). The purpose of this study is to expand this line of research by investigating how English-speaking learners of Chinese learn to describe motion events in their L2. Chinese, like English, is traditionally considered to be a satellite-framed language. However, as a serial-verb language, Chinese exhibits different lexicalizat