Encoding Motion Events In Narratives:A Comparison Of Chinese And English

The typological status of Chinese is still hotly debated.Previous research has not clearly defined Chinese as either satellite-framed,equipollently-framed,or verb-framed.This study aims to determine a typological place for Chinese,and to compare Chinese and English at the discourse level.The present study recruits 32 native English speakers and 32 native Chinese speakers as participants.The subjects are asked to describe a picture story,the Cat Story,which has only black lines and curves,without any suggestive words.The present study examines the verb semantics encoded in Chinese expressions of motion events,background scenery descriptions,explicitness in reference maintenance,and discourse strategies.The results show that Chinese displays a hybrid pattern of both satellite-and verb-framing,forming a third type of language,i.e.equipollently-framed.With the help of the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test,no statistical significant differences are found between English and Chinese language groups.At the discourse level,Chinese speakers and English speakers show relatively universal patterns.