Testing Linguistic Relativity: a Comparison Between English and Italian in the Domain of Manner of Motion

These last few years have witnessed a renewed interest in the theory of ?linguistic relativity?. This book reports the findings of a linguistic relativity study carried out on English and Italian speakers with respect to the semantics of manner of motion. The two linguistic groups were found to differ significantly in variety and frequency of use of manner of motion verbs, but not with respect to the degree of visual attention paid to manners of motion. The study therefore provides evidence against linguistic relativity. Along with a considerable amount of empirical data, the book also contains some theoretical discussions on various issues relevant to the language-and-thought debate (e.g. the possible existence of conceptual primitives, Slobin?s concept of ?thinking for speaking?). Special attention is given to a set of criteria proposed by the author for establishing what distinctive semantic features a verb should have in order to justify classification as a ?manner of motion verb?. Students and researchers who are interested in topics such as the relationships between language and cognition, motion conceptualisation, and semantics in general will find this work useful.