Motion, Path, and Manner Revisited: Perceptual vs. Conceptual Motion

This article aims at contributing to the theoretical tools and metalanguage used for comparing how motion, and, specifically, the enterprise of moving from one place (Loc1) to another (Loc2), is expressed across different languages. The point of departure is the well-established typological distinction between manner (or satellite-framed) languages and path (or verb-framed) languages. Several researchers have emphasised the need for (a) a more consistent theoretical basis for distinguishing between linguistic expressions lexicalising motion in a broad sense from such that incorporate the semantics of going somewhere, i.e. from Loc1 to Loc2; and (b) a further specification and differentiation of the intuitively attractive but vaguely defined variables of manner and path. The suggested approach addresses these issues in combination by incorporating key insights gained on pre-linguistic visual cognition. That includes a distinction between perceptual and conceptual motion with implications also for how the corresponding universals may be differently conveyed in different languages. The primary aim is not to present any novel empirical observations or principles of categorisation of typological trends within and across particular languages. Instead, the article brings to fore certain insights on pre-linguistic motion detection which offer new perspectives also on how the outcome can be encoded linguistically.