A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?

Event integration – the conflation of multiple events into a unitary event – plays a vital role in language and cognition. However, the conditions under which event integration occurs in linguistic representation and the differences in how linguistic forms encode complex events remain unclear. This...

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Main Author: Chen Yiting
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2024-08-01
Series:Cognitive Linguistics
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0041
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author Chen Yiting
author_facet Chen Yiting
author_sort Chen Yiting
collection DOAJ
description Event integration – the conflation of multiple events into a unitary event – plays a vital role in language and cognition. However, the conditions under which event integration occurs in linguistic representation and the differences in how linguistic forms encode complex events remain unclear. This corpus study examines two types of Japanese complex predicates – compound verbs [V1-V2]V and complex predicates consisting of a deverbal compound noun and the light verb suru ‘do’ [[V1-V2]N suru]V – using an original “related-event approach”. Findings indicate that [[V1-V2]N suru]V can be established based on coextensiveness alone, whereas [V1-V2]V typically requires direct or shared causality (“the inevitable co-occurrence constraint”). The related-event approach examines related events of linguistic concepts, such as causes and purposes of an event, identified through “complex sentences” from ultra-large-scale web corpora. This study demonstrates that such an approach is effective in clarifying causal relationships between verbs. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the “iconicity versus frequency” debate by showing that conceptually more accessible events (causality plus coextensiveness) tend to be represented in a simpler form than less accessible events (coextensiveness only), due to “efficiency”. The frequency of usage is a result of the nature of concepts rather than the driving force of coding asymmetries.
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spelling doaj-art-5027d51714d44b52b09a0ba1e82d82a92025-08-25T06:10:17ZengDe GruyterCognitive Linguistics0936-59071613-36412024-08-0135343947910.1515/cog-2023-0041A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?Chen Yiting013125Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, JapanEvent integration – the conflation of multiple events into a unitary event – plays a vital role in language and cognition. However, the conditions under which event integration occurs in linguistic representation and the differences in how linguistic forms encode complex events remain unclear. This corpus study examines two types of Japanese complex predicates – compound verbs [V1-V2]V and complex predicates consisting of a deverbal compound noun and the light verb suru ‘do’ [[V1-V2]N suru]V – using an original “related-event approach”. Findings indicate that [[V1-V2]N suru]V can be established based on coextensiveness alone, whereas [V1-V2]V typically requires direct or shared causality (“the inevitable co-occurrence constraint”). The related-event approach examines related events of linguistic concepts, such as causes and purposes of an event, identified through “complex sentences” from ultra-large-scale web corpora. This study demonstrates that such an approach is effective in clarifying causal relationships between verbs. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the “iconicity versus frequency” debate by showing that conceptually more accessible events (causality plus coextensiveness) tend to be represented in a simpler form than less accessible events (coextensiveness only), due to “efficiency”. The frequency of usage is a result of the nature of concepts rather than the driving force of coding asymmetries.https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0041the constraint on event integrationcausality in japanese complex predicatesiconicity versus frequencycommunicative efficiencyframe semantics
spellingShingle Chen Yiting
A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
Cognitive Linguistics
the constraint on event integration
causality in japanese complex predicates
iconicity versus frequency
communicative efficiency
frame semantics
title A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
title_full A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
title_fullStr A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
title_full_unstemmed A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
title_short A related-event approach to event integration in Japanese complex predicates: iconicity, frequency, or efficiency?
title_sort related event approach to event integration in japanese complex predicates iconicity frequency or efficiency
topic the constraint on event integration
causality in japanese complex predicates
iconicity versus frequency
communicative efficiency
frame semantics
url https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0041
work_keys_str_mv AT chenyiting arelatedeventapproachtoeventintegrationinjapanesecomplexpredicatesiconicityfrequencyorefficiency
AT chenyiting relatedeventapproachtoeventintegrationinjapanesecomplexpredicatesiconicityfrequencyorefficiency