The macro-event property: The segmentation of causal chains

Previous studies of event segmentation in language have used syntactic (Pawley 1987) or intonational units (Givon 1991) as criteria. We show that there is no universally valid correlation between such units and semantic/conceptual event representations. We introduce the „macroevent property‟ (MEP) as an alternative: a construction has the MEP if it packages event representations in such a way that temporal operators necessarily have scope over all subevents. We present a case study on the segmentation of causal chains into macro-event expressions in Ewe, Japanese, Lao, and Yukatek Maya. An unpredicted amount of crosslinguistic variation emerges, driven chiefly by differences in lexicalization and the availability of constructions. The Macro-Event property: The segmentation of causal chains Jurgen Bohnemeyer Nick Enfield James Essegbey Sotaro Kita University at Buffalo Max Planck Institute University of Florida University of Bristol SUNY for Psycholinguistics at Gainesville

[1]  Yoko Hasegawa,et al.  A study of Japanese clause linkage : the connective TE in Japanese , 1996 .

[2]  C. S. Smith.  JESPERSEN'S 'MOVE AND CHANGE' CLASS AND CAUSATIVE VERBS IN ENGLISH , 1978 .

[3]  Comrie Bernard.  Language Universals and Linguistic Typology , 1982 .

[4]  Sotaro Kita.  2002 Supplement (version 3) for the Manual for the field season 2001 , 2002 .

[5]  Jürgen Bohnemeyer,et al.  The ECOM clips: A stimulus for the linguistic coding of event complexity , 1999 .

[6]  Roberto Casati,et al.  Parts and Places: The Structures of Spatial Representation , 1999 .

[7]  Talmy Givón,et al.  Serial verbs and the mental reality of ‘event’: Grammatical vs. cognitive packaging , 1991 .

[8]  E. Zee,et al.  Representing Direction in Language and Space , 2002 .

[9]  柴谷 方良,et al.  The grammar of causative constructions , 1976 .

[10]  S. Levinson,et al.  'Natural Concepts' in the Spatial Topologial Domain--Adpositional Meanings in Crosslinguistic Perspective: An Exercise in Semantic Typology , 2003 .

[11]  Charles J. Fillmore,et al.  THE CASE FOR CASE. , 1967 .

[12]  Felix K. Ameka.  Multiverb constructions on the West African littoral: Microvariation and areal typology , 2005 .

[13]  김상혁.  영어의 능격성(Ergativity) , 2003 .

[14]  M. Baltin,et al.  The Mental representation of grammatical relations , 1985 .

[15]  ALEX LASCARIDES,et al.  Knowledge, causality, and temporal representation , 1992 .

[16]  SUZANNE KEMMER,et al.  The grammar of causatives and the conceptual structure of events , 1994 .

[17]  Jürgen Bohnemeyer,et al.  ECOM causality revisited version 4 , 2002 .

[18]  P. Newcomer,et al.  Basic Color Terms , 1971, International Journal of American Linguistics.

[19]  Jeffrey M. Zacks,et al.  Event structure in perception and conception. , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[20]  Jürgen N. J. James Iraide Sotaro Friederike Felix K Bohnemeyer,et al.  Principles of event segmentation in language: The case of motion events , 2007 .

[21]  Jürgen Bohnemeyer,et al.  Split intransitivity, linking, and lexical representation: the case of Yukatek Maya , 2004 .

[22]  Andrew Pawley,et al.  Encoding events in Kalam and English: different logics for reporting experience , 1987 .

[23]  Robert Dixon,et al.  Serial Verb Constructions: a cross-linguistic typology , 2006 .

[24]  S. Levinson.  Yélî Dnye and the Theory of Basic Color Terms , 2000 .

[25]  A. Verhagen,et al.  Interaction and causation : Causative constructions in modern standard Dutch , 1997 .

[26]  Leonard Talmy,et al.  Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition , 1987, Cogn. Sci..

[27]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Lectures on Government and Binding , 1981 .

[28]  M. Krifka.  The Origins of Telicity , 1998 .

[29]  Charles J. Fillmore,et al.  Subjects, speakers, and roles , 1970, Synthese.

[30]  Felix K. Ameka,et al.  Ewe serial verb constructions in their grammatical context , 2006 .

[31]  Jürgen Bohnemeyer.  A questionnaire on event integration , 2001 .