Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study investigates the typological and grammatical influence of language (German and Korean) on linguistic expres-sions, visual perception, and recognition of caused spatial events. In German, a satellite-framed language, Path of motionis lexicalized in satellites, whereas in Korean, a verb-framed language, Path is typically lexicalized in the verb root. Wetested German and Korean native speakers in a linguistic description task as well as in a memory task involving eyetracking. Our results show that both verbal (linguistic expressions) and nonverbal (memory performance, eye movements)behaviors are determined at least in part by language-specific grammar. While Korean speakers principally categorizespatial relationships according to degree of fitness, German speakers do so based on containment or support.