This project investigates the cognitive processing of aspectual class (AC) information in descriptions of motion events. To this end we will conduct a series of experiments in order to study the relevant properties of the verb, its arguments – most importantly the directional PPs that accompany motion verbs – and different types of temporal and spatial modifiers that language users rely on in order to assign an AC to a linguistic expression at a particular processing stage. We specifically aim at what user behaviour under controlled conditions tells us about the way AC information is stored in the mental lexicon: Are verbs and directional prepositions stored with determinate information about their contribution to the AC of complex expressions in which they appear, or can their AC contribution – at least in some cases - be lexically underspecified.

Project publications

• Aspectual Class (Under-)Specification in the Generation of Motion Event Representations – A Project Outline

Gerwien, J. & Herweg, M. (2017). Aspectual Class (Under-)Specification in the Generation of Motion Event Representations – A Project Outline. Heidelberg University Papers on Language and Cognition (1). article

• Dynamic Event Types and Profiling in Motion Frames. Towards a frame-semantic account of the diversity of motion expressions

Herweg, M. (2017). Dynamic Event Types and Profiling in Motion Frames. Towards a frame-semantic account of the diversity of motion expressions. (extended version of a) presentation at the HULC Open Lab Day, May 11th, 2017. PDF

• Dynamic Event Types in Frame Semantics: The Representation of Change in FAMEu

Herweg, M. (2021). Dynamic Event Types in Frame Semantics: The Representation of Change in FAMEu. Heidelberg University Papers on Language and Cognition 2 (1).

• Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling

Herweg, M. (2020) Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling. Questions and Answers in Linguistics 6(1):1-30.