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Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German

Daller, Michael H.; Furman, Reyhan; Daller, Michael; Treffers-Daller, Jeanine

Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German Thumbnail


Authors

Michael H. Daller

Reyhan Furman

Michael Daller

Jeanine Treffers-Daller



Abstract

In the present article we provide evidence for the occurrence of transfer of conceptualization patterns in narratives of two German-Turkish bilingual groups. All bilingual participants grew up in Germany, but only one group is still resident in Germany (n = 49). The other, the returnees, moved back to Turkey after having lived in Germany for thirteen years (n = 35). The study is based on the theoretical framework for conceptual transfer outlined in Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008) and on the typology of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages developed by Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000a, b) and Slobin (1987, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006). In the present study we provide evidence for the hypothesis that language structure affects the organization of information structure at the level of the Conceptualizer, and show that bilingual speakers conceptualization of motion events is influenced by the dominant linguistic environment in both languages (German for the group in Germany and Turkish for the returnees). The returnees follow the Turkish blueprints for the conceptualization of motion, in both Turkish and German event construals, whereas the German-resident bilinguals follow the German blueprints, when speaking German as well as Turkish. We argue that most of the patterns found are the result of transfer of conceptualization patterns from the dominant language of the environment. © 2010 Cambridge University Press.

Citation

Furman, R., Daller, M. H., Daller, M., & Treffers-Daller, J. (2011). Transfer of conceptualization patterns in bilinguals: The construal of motion events in Turkish and German. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(1), 95-119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000106

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2011
Deposit Date Sep 17, 2010
Publicly Available Date Dec 2, 2016
Journal Bilingualism
Print ISSN 1366-7289
Electronic ISSN 1469-1841
Publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 1
Pages 95-119
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000106
Keywords thinking for speaking, transfer, second language acquisition, motion event construals, Turkish-German bilinguals
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/966166
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728910000106
Additional Information Additional Information : This article © Cambridge Universty Press (CUP)

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