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Are the semantic categories of very closely related languages the same? We present a new methodology for addressing this question. Speakers of English, German, Dutch and Swedish described a set of video clips depicting cutting and breaking events. The verbs elicited were then subjected to cluster analysis, which groups scenes together based on similarity (determined by shared verbs). Using this technique, we find that there are surprising differences among the languages in the number of categories, their exact boundaries, and the relationship of the terms to one another - all of which is circumscribed by a common semantic space. © Walter de Gruyter 2007.

Original publication

DOI

10.1515/COG.2007.007

Type

Journal article

Journal

Cognitive Linguistics

Publication Date

19/09/2007

Volume

18

Pages

179 - 194