Cognitive Representation of Spontaneous Motion in a Second Language: An Exploration of Chinese Learners of English.

ABSTRACT: This study tests whether Chinese learners of English can reconstruct their cognitive pattern in the direction of the target system when judging the similarity between spontaneous motion screens in a match-to-sample task. English main verbs encode Manner of motion only, while Chinese verb compounds express Manner and Path simultaneously. Chinese monolinguals are thus predicted to develop a motion cognition pattern highlighting both Manner and Path salience whereas English monolinguals are more likely to be Manner-oriented. Our research findings are twofold. First, when assessed by the explicit measure of selection strategies (i.e., either Manner-match or Path-match), both monolingual and L2 learners show a general preference for the Path-match. However, when gauged by the implicit measure o

SUBMITTER: Ji Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6902645 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature