A Cognitive Approach to the Expression of Motion Event in Hawrami Language

Motion is one of the most fundamental human,s experiences. So it seems to be expressed as a universal concept in all languages of the world. According to Talmy,s lexicalization patterns theory(1985, 2000), languages are divided into two types concerning motion expression: verb-framed and satellite-framed. In verb-framed languages the core component of motion event, path, is expressed in verb and the manner of motion in satellite but in satellite-framed languages the reverse of this happens. The aim of this paper is to study the position of the Hawrami language in Talmy,s two-category typology. For this purpose, 140 Hawrami motion verbs (simple and non-simple) have been collected through interview with 20 native speakers over 30 years old and analyzed. Data analysis indicates that the Hawrami language challenges Talmy,s two-category typology since the semantic elements of path and manner are lexicalized in the verb root nearly equally. In other words, Hawrami has the characteristic of both verb-framed and satellite-framed languages and so it cannot be placed exactly in one of Talmy,s two types. It is better that its behavior in expressing motion event be evaluated with regard to the continuum of manner salience (Slobin, 2004) and path salience (Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2004). Thus Hawrami is placed in the middle parts of these two continuums. Moreover, as the pattern (motion path manner) is the third most frequent lexicalization pattern in Hawrami, this language also has the characteristic of equipollently-framed languages (Slobin, 2004).