LANGUAGE AND

SPACE
Athanasia Asyllogistou
Ulster University

Outline of todays talk

Introduction
What is space in language
What happens with English?
Is the English way the only way available?
What is the formal typology with respect to space?
Why is it interesting to linguists?
References

Introduction
Athanasia Asyllogistou
2nd year PhD student at Ulster University
Interests: Syntax, Semantics, Morphology and their
interfaces

What is space in language?

Space = Motion (note that motion can also be a lack of it,
aka Location)
e.g.
(1) John is in his room
IN = location
(2) John is walking into his room
INTO= direction

Location:
The stationary place where an entity can be found.
(remember, John is in his room)

Direction:
Heading towards an entity or a location, the vector
towards that place.
(remember, John is walking into his room)

Location or Direction?
John is crossing the bridge
Josh is sitting across the table.
Mary is hiding under the table
The boat is floating under the bridge
Peter is running around the park
There are many trees around campus
Jane is sitting on top of the counter
Maria is sleeping in her bed
Marta is dancing into the room
George is jumping out of the room

Motion in English/ Satellite- framed

languages
Satellites = words or morphemes (parts of words) that show
direction of motion
(3) Sue is climbing up the hill
(4) The pencil is on the desk
Languages like English:
German, Russian, Ancient Greek
These languages are called Satellite- framed, because they
denote the direction on the satellite component. The satellite can
be a preposition (as in English), or an affix (a small word attached
onto a verb), as is the case in Russian and Ancient Greek.

Is satellite- framing the only way?

No!
Verb = the tensed word that denotes action or state in a
sentence.
e.g. George really liked the baked potatoes.
(5)

I Maria mpike
sto
domatio (Greek)
The Maria enter-ed in-the
room
Maria entered the room

(6)

La botella entro a la cueva (flotando)

The bottle MOVED-in to the cave (floating)
The boat floated into the cave

Verb-framed languages
Languages such as Greek and Spanish are called verbframed languages, because they denote the direction of
motion within the verb.
Compare:
Walk in vs. enter
(7) Maria walked in the room
(8) Maria entered the room

Formal Typology
Satellite framing:
The verb shows the manner in which an entity moves (i.e.
run, walk, crawl, jump, dance, etc.), and the satellite
shows the direction of the motion (up, down, into, on,
across, etc.)

Verb framing:
The verb shows the direction to which an entity moves
(i.e. enter, exit, ascend, descend, etc.), and the manner of
motion is expressed via an optional argument, usually a
gerund.

Which is what type?

Corri
de mi casa a la escuela
I ran from my house to school
The pencil

blew

off

the table

Mara entr
en el cuarto
(corriendo)
Maria entered the room running
George ascended the stairs
Mara entr
en el cuarto
Maria entered the room
The pencil

lay

on the table

Why interesting to linguists?

This typology is connected to a more general idea, that
languages express the Result of an action in different
ways, depending on whether they are verb- framed or
satellite-framed languages.
So, linguists want to figure out what parametrizes the way
in which a language construes result, and the easiest way
to do it is through motion events, which are clearer than
other types of verbs.
In Applied Linguistics, knowing how these two types of
languages differ helps teachers come up with creative
and effective ways of teaching them, taking into account
the differences between the mother tongue and the
target language of the students. .

And also, because were kind of geeky!

Thank you!

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