Talmy’s cognitive-semantic typology divides languages based on how path and manner of motion are generally encoded, but recently some studies have suggested that the original typology needs re-examining either by adding a new type (e.g., Slobin, 2004) or using a cline rather than a two or three-language division (e.g., Ibarretxe-Antou?ano, 2009). Furthermore, Matsumoto (2003) has suggested that Talmy’s original typology should be founded on the heading of a language, rather than the original terms of satellite and verb. This study observes Persian motion events through this concept to help determine if an intermediate language can neatly fit into a single category when analyzed based on heading, or whether a new cline based on heading should be considered. We compared data from a translation corpus of the short story “A Christmas Carol” using a representative verb-framed and satellite-framed language (i.e., Japanese and English), and found that Persian shares some path encoding tendencies with both English and Japanese, but also has significant differences, which suggest it could perhaps be better described as fitting on a cline of path-salience, rather than simply placed in either category.
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