Recent advances in the study of motion in French: a survey

Michel Aurnague , Dejan Stosic

This chapter is an introduction to the book "The semantics of dynamic space in French: descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression". An overview of research on the expression of space in French -and, more specifically, on motion expression- carried out the last twenty or thirty years is first provided. The different contributions to the book are then introduced following the internal structure of the volume: descriptive work on arguments, modifiers, asymmetry of motion, and on manner of motion and fictive motion; pyscholinguistic studies on eye tracking and gestures in motion descriptions; formal and computational aspects of motion-based narrations. The last section of the chapter focuses on some data/results set out in the book and the questions that these date/results raise. The discussion tries to show how recent research on motion expression in French can contribute to partly renew the debates on dynamic space in language and cognition by reconsidering, for instance, the notions of path and manner and their articulation.

Mots clés: descriptive work; formal/computational approaches; recent studies; French; historical survey; psycholinguistic experiments; expression of dynamic space

Domaines: Linguistique; Psychologie; Informatique

Michel Aurnague, Dejan Stosic. Recent advances in the study of motion in French: a survey. Michel Aurnague; Dejan Stosic. The semantics of dynamic space in French: descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression, 66, John Benjamins, pp.2-28, 2019, Human Cognitive Processing, 9789027203205. ⟨10.1075/hcp.66.intro⟩. ⟨hal-02022752⟩