Event Packaging in Language

Events are at the center of human experience. Our project targets linguistic structures involved in the packaging of events, i.e. how events are decomposed and their expression integrated in language. For instance, the perceived event of Kim leaving the room, going to the kitchen, and bringing salt can be described linguistically in many different ways including the following:

a) Kim fetched salt from the kitchen to the dining room. (one verb)
b) Kim went to the kitchen and returned with salt to the dining room. (two verbs)
c) Kim left the dining room. She entered the kitchen. After taking salt she came back. (several sentences of variable internal complexity)

Thus, the same event can be encoded by a single verb, but also by several phrases, sentences, and larger chunks of discourse. Earlier studies suggest deep cross-linguistic differences in event encoding whereby some languages decompose events into many micro-units (e.g. serial verb constructions), whereas other languages densely package information in fewer words. However, there are no systematic surveys or databases that allow measuring and modeling this cross-linguistic diversity. We use parallel corpora of genealogically diverse languages and create a database of relevant linguistic properties from a sample of diverse languages to identify cross-linguistic variation and tendencies in event packaging, exploring the processes and biases that shape them.

The project has implications beyond linguistics: it provides insights into the cognitive and cultural mechanisms that shape event conceptualization, topics relevant to a larger range of cognitive and social sciences. This project is supported by a UZH Global Strategy and Partnership Funding Scheme.

PIs: Balthasar Bickel, Jessica K. Ivani, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
Contact: Jessica K. Ivani