A cat in a window: expressing spatial relations in Polish (L1) and French (L2 and L1)

Sebastian Piotrowski, Rémy Porquier Porquier,

Abstract


The paper presents a study on the expression of spatial reference in Polish and French from the perspective of acquisition of French by Polish language speakers. Our study deals with the problem of spatial reference: projective reference on sagittal axis (devant/derrière, przed/za), which refers not only to the acquisition of specific lexical items but, what is equally important from the cognitive point of view, to the appropriation of semantic distinctions related to the perception and representation of space.

The empirical approach adopted in the study, in a semi-experimental manner, consisted in collecting utterances, in Polish (L1) and French (L2 and L1), of 20 young adults, concerning a series of pictures presenting various static spatial configurations. The corpus was then complemented, for comparison purposes, by French and Polish native speakers’ output in reaction to the same pictures.

The aim of the analysis is to propel and add new elements to the existing descriptions of the Polish language, to approach from a different perspective the descriptions previously provided for French, and make a contribution to Polish-French comparative studies.


Keywords


spatial reference; projective reference; acquisition; Polish-French comparative studies

References


Bacz, B. (2003). A preliminary semantic analysis of the Polish preposition. Langues et linguistique, 29, 1–23.

Becker, A., Carroll, M. (eds.). (1997). The acquisition of spatial relations in a second language, Amsterdam : John Benjamins.

Bühler, K. (2004). Teoria języka. Trad. J. Koźbiał. Kraków : Universitas.

Carroll, M. (1992). Comment s’organise-t-on pour parvenir à acquérir ? Ce que nous enseigne la performance de l’adulte apprenant une deuxième langue. Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère, 1, 37–51.

Cienki, A. (1989). Spatial cognition and the semantics of prepositions in English, Polish, and Russian. Slavistische Beiträge, 237, 1–172.

Dancygier, B. (1997). How Polish structures space. Prepositions, direction nouns, case, and metaphor. In : A. Follen, F. Van Der Leek (eds.), Constructions in cognitive linguistics (pp. 27–45). Amsterdam : John Benjamins.

Hendriks, H. (1998). Comment il monte le chat ? en grimpant ! Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère, 11, 147–190.

Hill, C. (1991). Recherches interlinguistiques en orientatation spatiale. Communications, 53(1), 171–207.

Hirzalla, A. (2009). Where is the cat in relation to the window ? The expression of spatial relations in French and Arabic first and second language. California Linguistic Notes, 34(2), 1–31.

Kopecka, A. (2004). Etude typologique de l’expression de l’espace : localisation et déplacement en français et en polonais. Thèse, Université Lyon 2.

Okoniowa, J. (1994). Przeciwstawienia kierunkowe w języku polskim. Kraków : Polska Akademia Nauk. Piaget, J., Inhelder, B. (1947). La représentation de l’espace chez l’enfant. Paris : PUF.

Piérart, B. (1977). L’acquisition du sens des marqueurs de relation spatiale devant et derrière. L’année psychologique, 77(1), 95–116.

Robin, F. (2002). Production et coordination des termes spatiaux entre 6 et 9 ans. Enfance, 54(4), 363–379. Retrieved from http://www.cairn.info/revue-enfance-2002-4-p-363.htm (11.02.2018).

Slobin, D. (1993). Adult language acquisition : a view from child language study. In : C. Perdue (ed.), Adult language acquisition : cross-linguistic perspectives. Vol. II. (pp. 239–252). Cambridge.

Tabakowska, E. (2003). Space and time in Polish : The preposition za and the verbal prefix za-. In : H. Cuyckens, T. Berg, R. Dirven, K. Panther (eds.), Motivation in language, Studies in honor of Günter Radden (pp. 153–177). Amsterdam : John Benjamins.

Vandeloise, C. (1986). L’espace en français. Sémantique des prépositions spatiales. Paris : Seuil.

Verjat, I. (1991). Le statut cognitif des marqueurs devant, derrière chez l’enfant français. L’année psychologique, 91(2), 207–229.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/ff.2018.36.1.125-138
Date of publication: 2018-11-05 11:24:43
Date of submission: 2018-02-21 19:44:22


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1070
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF (Français (France)) - 532

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.