Observed within a fully-specified framework developed on the basis of Talmy's (1985/2000) 'Figure-Ground-Move-Path' formulation of motion, the conceptualization and grammatical realization of motion in Mandarin Chinese demonstrate a number of typologically significant properties.; When assigning the conceptual elements Figure and Ground of motion, Chinese exhibits a 'movability effect': The Figure role is regularly assigned to the entity standing higher in the experience-based 'movability hierarchy', while the Ground is assigned to the entity with the lower movability rating. The linguistic result of the conceptual contrasts between Figure and Ground is a saliency mapping relationship between these two conceptual elements, along with hierarchically organized syntactic roles in Chinese.; For packaging Path and Manner of motion with Move, both the satellite-framed pattern and the verb-framed pattern are available in Chinese. But the two patterns exhibit differences with regard to their construal, their communicative functions, and their applicability for expressing different types of motion events.; Path is the defining property for motion conceptualization and representation. The conceptual structure for Path consists of five components: Vector, Conformation, Dimension, Direction, and Perspective. In Chinese, Path properties can be expressed as verb complements, prepositional phrases, and main verbs of clauses; Deictic Perspective is normally utilized in Path conceptualization and representation; Horizontal Path and certain Path Conformation are not expressed with complement verbs; 'Non-Deictic + non-Deictic' Path complement accumulation is not licensed in this language.; Satellite-framed lexicalization, which licenses [Manner + Move] conflation for a verb, has to observe the cross-linguistic constraint of inseparability between the relevant Manner and Move as well as certain language-specific limitations. The conflation constraints are stronger for Chinese than English.; Our findings concerning motion conceptualization and representation in Chinese clearly point to the basic tenets of cognitive linguistics, which views language as an experientially-based product of the human mind, and a reflection of how speakers of a language structure their perceptions of reality. The observations and findings also afford significant insights into motion expressions for Chinese L2 teachers and learners, thereby facilitating both teaching and learning.
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