A closer look at Paths of vision, Manner of vision and their translation from English into Spanish

Abstract

Motion and vision seem to be connected domains in, at least, two respects. Vision is a kind of “fictive motion” (Talmy, 1996; 2000a), and both domains seem to appear in similar syntactic constructions (Gruber, 1967; 1976; Slobin, 2008). In this study, we examine whether the different lexicalisation patterns for motion events in English and Spanish also carry over into the domain of vision. In particular, we explore visual Path complexity, the semantic specificity of Manner of vision verbs, and the translation of visual Paths and Manner of vision from English into Spanish. On the whole, this paper provides evidence for parallels between visual and physical motion with regard to visual Paths, Manner of vision and English-Spanish translation. Moreover, it provides interesting insights into further cross-linguistic differences in terms of Manner of vision granularity.