A cognitive analysis of the cross-linguistic diferences between english and spanish motion verbs and the spanish translator's task

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to analyse the cross-linguistic differences between English and Spanish motion verbs from a cognitive perspective in order to shed some light on the difficulties they pose to the Spanish translator. In order to do so, I shall follow Langacker’s cognitive grammar (1987, 1990) and Talmy’s event-frame analysis (1985, 1988, 1991), carrying out my study within Talmy’s framework. However, I differ from these authors in my belief that Contrastive Analysis as expounded in James (1980) may prove fruitful as a methodological tool. Therefore, I will apply CA in the cognitive analysis of verbs of movement in English and Spanish.