The Brain, Language, and Literature(April 19-20, 2014, Doshisha University)
The English Linguistics Society of Japan
7th International Spring Forum 2014
The 21st century has been referred to as “The Era of the Brain” and modern technologies such
as fMRI and PET are providing new insights into the functioning of the brain. In this lecture I
would like to introduce some of the secrets of the brain hidden in our languages andliterature. To offer a better understanding, first I would like to introduce the fundamental
anatomy of the brain and its core functions. And then I would like to show how certain
secrets of the brain are hidden in various expressions in great works of William Shakespeare,
Samuel Johnson and William Blake.
In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare vividly illustrates Romeo’s falling in love at firstglance, and he clearly seems to observe that vision is the most sensitive sense for falling inlove among five senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
In the History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, Samuel Johnson illustrates how blind love is.
You may also see various expressions of blinded love in many plays of Shakespeare. RecentfMRI experiments confirm the validity of expressions such as ‘love is blind’ and ‘one cannot
love and be wise.’In the play Hamlet, King Claudius, Hamlet’s murderous uncle, confesses his crime being
seized with pangs of guilt, and says, “O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven.” Recent
brain studies show that with feeling of guilt, smell is the most sensitive sense relevant to ouremotion among five senses.
In the play Henry IV, Prince Hall makes his mind to change his character. Is it possible tochange one’s skin? In the play Richard III, the King Richard III schemes to usurp the crown,
but he does not feel any guilt for his immoral actions. In fact, he is portrayed as a typicalpsychopath, who seemingly kills not for revenge or out of hatred, but just for sport, lacking
any sense of right or wrong. Recent brain researches as well as the incident of Phineas Gageshow that damage to the frontal lobe of brain may lead to such sociopathic behavior. Even
though Shakespeare does not have any knowledge of the brain, he seems to clearly
understand the behavior of psychopaths.
In Songs of Innocence: In Another’s Sorrow, William Blake illustrates good examples ofempathy. In the play Henry V, you may see the King Henry V’s brilliant speech encouraging
his troops before the battle of Honfleur against French army. Recent brain researches showthat the mirror neurons are relevant to our feeling of empathy as well as to our image training.
In fact, it was proven that brain-imaging training or rehearsal beforehand may enhance thequality of those movements.

The Brain, Language, and Literature
Dr. Kee-Ho Kim
Korea University,
Dept. of English Language and Literature
President, the ELLAK (the English Language & Literature Association of Korea)
keehokim@korea.ac.kr
82-2-3290-1988

Typology of Motion Event Descriptions Revisited:
A Crosslinguistic Experimental StudyYo Matsumoto (Kobe University)

Based on the patterns language describes a motion event, Talmy (1991) has claimed
that languages can be classified according to the syntactic positions at which path of motion
is coded. Revisions of this view have been proposed by Matsumoto (2003), Slobin (2004),
Croft et al (2010) and others, questioning 1) the exhaustivity of the types found, 2) thevalidity of language classification instead of construction classification, 3) the notion ofclausal integrity assumed, etc.
In this talk I will discuss the issues related to the typology of motion event
descriptions in terms of data collected through Ninjal-Kobe Project on Motion Event
Descriptions. This project has examined the data elicited through the identical video clips
depicting varipus motion events. Unlike most of the similar experiments that looked at only
manner and path, this experiment looked at scenes that differ in manner, path and deixis.
Results of 27 clips involving three different manners (Walking, Running, Skipping), threedifferent paths (To-path, Into-path, Up-path), and three different deictic directions (Towardthe speaker, Away from the speaker, Neutral) are examined, in additional to video clips forcaused motion events. The languages covered are: (English, German, French, Italian, Russian,Hungarian, Mongolian, Japanese, Newar, Chinese, Thai, Tagalog, Yup’ik, Kupsapiny,
Sidaama, Kiswahili, and Japanese Sign Language (JSL).
There are three major findings we would like to focus in this presentation. First,languages differ markedly in terms of the complexity of sentences describing a motion event,with not all languages integrating aspects of motion events into a single clause. While almost
all speakers of English, German and Russian consistently use a single, simple clause todescribe all motion events, other languages like Italian and French shift to multiverbal
structures to describe a skipping event and calling event (caused motion by a verbal means).
Second, there are intralinguistic variations as to the location of path coding;languages can shift from adnominal and adverbal (i.e., head-external) coding of path tomain-verb (i.e., head) coding of path depending on the particular path categories expressed,or on the types of motion events described (self-motion or caused motion). For example,
Up-path tends to be coded in the head verb more often than Into-path and especially To-path,a phenomenon found in Kupsapiny, French, Italian, Newar, and Kiswahili. The third
tendency (concerning path) above allows mixed patterns for languages like Italian, which usethe main verb (head) coding of Up-path, but which tend to code Into- and To-paths in termsof prepositions. The use of the main verb for Up-path is especially frequent when the manner
involved is walking and the deictic direction involved is other than venitive.
Third, languages very often express deixis in a way different from other path
categories, and the special treatment of deixis results in different typological classifications oflanguages. For example, Newar tends to code deixis in the main verb (=head), allowing Pathand Manner to be expressed in head-external elements.
These findings are discussed in relation to revised versions of the typology of motion
event descriptions.
Croft, William, Johanna Barddal, Willem Hollman, Violeta Sotirova, and Chiaki Taoka. 2010.
Revising Talmy's typological classification of complex events. Contrastive
construction grammar, ed. Hans Boas, 201-35. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Talmy, Leonard. 1991. Path to realization.

BLS 17, pp. 480-519.

Matsumoto, Yo. 2003. Typologies of lexicalization patterns and event integration:
Clarifications and reformulations. In Shuji Chiba et al. eds., Empirical and Theoretical
Investigations into Language, pp. 403-418. Tokyo: Kaitakusha. Reprinted in Adele
Goldberg, ed., Cognitive Linguistics (Critical Concepts in Linguistics), Vol. III, 2011,
pp. 422-439. London & New York: Routledge.
Slobin, Dan I. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and theexpression of motion events. In Sven Strömqvist and Ludo Verhoeven, eds., Relating.
Events in Narrative: Typological and Contextual Perspectives. pp. 219-257.
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mahwah,Biblical English as a Linguistic Corpus
Isao Hashimoto
Kansai Gaidai University
Biblical English contains useful, suggestive and noteworthy data which can help explain or trigger new
analysis of linguistic phenomena. If complex factors reside in biblical English, it is because it is translated English. My speech will focus on this aspect.
Biblical translations to the vernacular began in the OE period, and countless revisions and new translations have been produced since then. At the same time expressions appearing in the translations have beenquoted and referred to in various ways in all sorts of fields and settings, so that many expressions in the biblicallanguages have left their linguistic marks on English usage beyond the confines of the Bible translations. Someof these expressions have been absorbed into English as they had linguistic structures similar to those found in
English, and some have appeared in English wearing the linguistic coats of English, though their original functions differ from those of their English counterparts. Through these practices some biblical expressions, such as
by the skin of one’s teeth, have been fully assimilated into English. In other words, biblical translators brought
multifarious coinages and phraseology into English.
The following are citations from modern translations. We can derive adequate explanations for the constructions of these sentences from English grammar. But the analysis also shows that the syntax of the original
language is underlying each of the phrases underlined below.
(1) And God said unto Jacob, ‘rise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: …’
New Cambridge Paragraph Bible. Genesis 35:1

(2) Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites,
New King James Version. Genesis 37:27(3) My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’New Revised Standard Version. Genesis 44:19(4) The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, “Any man who can read thisinscription and explain its interpretation ...”New American Standard Bible. Daniel 5:7(5) if they muster against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, I and my household with me.
New English Bible. Genesis. 34:30(6) In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought, and there were found among them capable men at Jazer of Gilead.
New King James Version. 1 Chronicles 26:31(7) And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and theAmorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
New King James Version.

Exodus 13:5

The citations above are direct translations from the original language. Conversely, thetranslations below are made indirectly from the Latin of the Vulgate in the OE and the MEperiods. The value of (7) is that it seems to be an explanation for the development of the cognate
object, to which Visser (1970: 415) refers, while examples (8a) and (8b) seem to illustrate animportant stage in the development of the relative clause. However, within all of these examples we also find traces of the syntax of the original language. From a different point of view, it
may be said that English had the syntactic capacity to incorporate these constructions.
1(7) life he lẏfaD ┐ na ne swẏlteD,
Poenitentiale Ecgberti, Archiepiscopi Eboracensis. P. 363. Quote from Ezekiel 18:21(8a) Thou hast aZeen boZt the Zerde of thin eritage; the hil of Sion in whiche thou dwellidist in it.
Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible. Psalms 73:2(8b) Thou aZenbouZtist the Zerde of thin eritage; the hille of Syon in which thou dwellidist ther ynne
Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible. Psalms 73:2

When factors as complex as those shown above are sorted and classified by category, they
may provide useful and important data that can help explain linguistic phenomena. I will attempt to demonstrate that, when analyzed appropriately, biblical data can play a role.

References
Denison, D. and R. Hogg (eds.). 2006. A History of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.
Hammond, Gerald. 1988. Making of the English Bible. Manchester: Carcanet New Press.
Hashimoto, Isao. 2008. “Hebraisms in English Bibles” Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature.
Frunkfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Vol. 22. PP. 2-15.
Norton, David. 2000. A History of the English Bible as Literature. Cambridge: CUP.
Thorpe, Benjamin (ed.). 1840. Poenitentiale Ecgberti, Archiepiscopi Eboracensis in Ancient Laws and Institutes of England. The Commissioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom. PP. 362-92.
Visser, F. Th. 1970-73. An Historical Syntax of the English Language. 3 vols. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Waltle, B.K. and M. O’Connor. 1990. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
Bibles CitedEarlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible and Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible = The Holy Bible: Containing
the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books in the Earliest English Versions Madefrom the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers. Rep. 1982. New York: AMS Press.
New American Standard Bible = New American Standard Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments.
1995. Cambridge: CUP.
New Cambridge Paragraph Bible, The. (ed.) David Norton. Rev. 2011. Cambridge: CUP.
New English Bible, The. 1970. London, New York: OUP, CUP.
New King James Version = The New King James Version Containing the Old and New Testaments. 1982.
Nashville, Camden, New York: Thomas Nelson.
New Revised Standard Version = The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1999. Oxford: OUP.

2

On NP-Ellipsis in Kyushu and Shikoku Dialects
Yoichi Miyamoto
Osaka UniversityBae (2012) claims that examples like (1) are cases with pronominal ga without NP-ellipsis:(1) [DP Taroo-no taido]-wa eikendo, [DP Hanako-no ga]-wa yoonai.
Taroo-gen attitude-top good though
Hanako-gen one-top good-not‘lit. Though Taroo’s attitude is good, Hanako’s one isn’t.’ (Bae 2012: Shikoku [Kochi] dialect)
However, Maeda and Takahashi (2013: M&T henceforth) find that in sentences of the type in (1),the scopal relation between quantifiers within the DP in the first conjunct must be maintained in thesecond conjunct. For example, the scopal relation between ‘one’ and ‘most’ in (2a) must be retainedin (2b).
(2) a. [taitei-no soshiki-kara-n[ajia-nikka-koku-ndattai]]-wa
most-gen organization-from-gen Asia-gen one- country-gen withdrawal-top
mitomerareta kedo,
was approved though(one >/< most)‘lit. Though from most organizations one Asian country’s withdrawal was approved,’b. [yooroppa-n ikka-koku-n to]-wa mitomerarenakatta.
Europe-gen one country-n one-top was not approved(one >/< most)‘lit. one European country’s one was not approved.’ (M&T: Kyushu [Nagasaki] dialect)
Under the assumption that the presence of scopal parallelism is the result of ellipsis operation,NP-ellipsis must be involved in (2b). Consequently, we now need to explain the fact that NP-ellipsis
has taken place in (1) and (2b), but ga and to have “escaped” from the domain of NP-ellipsis.
M&T argue that the pronominal elements under question are different phonological realizations ofE-feature (Merchant 2001) residing in n, as illustrated in (3):(3) [DP … [nP NP [n ga/to]]In (1) and (2b), the presence of ga and to signals the presence of E-feature, triggering NP-ellipsis.
Notice that under M&T’s proposal, the subject DP involving a relative clause in (4) may have thestructure in (5), with the NP syujyutsu ‘operation’ elided:(4) kinoo
okonawareta to-wa kantan-yatta.
yesterday was performed one-top simple-was‘The one that was performed yesterday was simple.’(Kyushu [Nagasaki] dialect)(5) [DP [Relative Clause kinoo okonawareta] [nP [NP syujyutsu] [n to]]]Yet, Miyamoto (2013) highlights that examples of the type in (4) do not involve NP-ellipsis;
significantly, given appropriate context, (4), for instance, does not require a linguistic antecedent.
The current paper argues that ga and to, being light nouns (Hiraiwa 2012), are subject to N-to-D
raising (Abney 1987, Kishimoto 2001), and they move out of the domain of NP-ellipsis. Accordingly,
the boldfaced DPs of (1) and (4) have the structures in (6) and (7) respectively. Note that in (6),Hanako-no, being an argument, is raised to DP SPEC. Since NP-ellipsis requires DP SPEC to befilled (Saito and Murasugi 1990), NP-ellipsis can take place in (6), but not in (7):(6) [DP [DP Hanako-no] [NP [DP Hanako-no] [N’ ga]] ga](7) [DP [NP [Relative Clause kinoo okonawareta] [N’ to]] to]Superficially, however, no obvious difference results between (6) and (7).
Interestingly, other light nouns mono and yatsu also observe the scopal parallelism restriction onNP-ellipsis.

(8)

a.

taitei-no soshiki-kara-n
ajia-nikka-koku-n
dattai-wa
most-gen organization-from-gen Asia-gen one- country-gen withdrawal-top
mitomerareta kedo,
was approved though(one >/< most)‘lit. Though from most organizations one Asian country’s withdrawal was approved,’b. [yooroppa-n ikka-koku-nmono/yatsu]-wa mitomerarenakatta.
Europe-gen one country-gen thing/thing-top was not approved(one >/< most)‘lit. one European country’s one was not approved.’(Kyushu [Nagasaki] dialect)
Crucially, these light nouns are also not elided in (8b). This supports the claim that these nouns arealso subject to N-to-D movement, and they thus move out of the NP.
As Bae (2012) observes, numerals cannot trigger NP-ellipsis in Kyushu and Shikoku dialects, as
exemplified in (9):(9) *Taroo-wa ichi-nichi-ni san-satsu-no hon-o /ba yomu kendo,
Taroo-top one-day-in three-cl-gen book-acc read though
Hanako-wa go-satsu-no ga-oyumu.
Hanako-top five-cl-gen one-acc read
‘Taroo reads three books in a day, but Hanako reads five ones.’(Shikoku [Kochi] dialect)
This suggests that cases with a numeral, which I assume is an NP-modifier (Saito, Lin andMurasugi 2008, Miyamoto 2009), receive the same account as (4). Accordingly, the structure of theboldfaced DP in (9) is as shown in (10):(10) [DP [NP [Numeral go-satsu-no] [N’ ga]] ga]
Worth noting is the fact that (9) is grammatical if the numeral under question is interpreted as ‘infives’. Note that when go-satsu-no is attached to mono/yatsu, the same “set” reading results, as shownin (11):(11) Hanako-wa go-satsu-no mono/yatsu-o/ba yonda.
Hanako-top five-cl-gen thing-acc
read‘Hanako reads things in fives.’(Kyushu [Nagasaki] dialect)
The parallelism between (9) and (11) is shown to further support the current analysis.
This paper concludes that pronominal ga and to are light nouns; accordingly, they are subject toN-to-D raising, making it impossible to detect on the surface whether NP-ellipsis has taken place.
Selected References
Bae, S.-H. 2012. NP languages do not have NP-ellipsis: examination of Korean and Japanese. Ms.
Harvard University.
Maeda, M. and D. Takahashi. 2013. NP-Ellipsis in the Nagasaki Dialect of Japanese. JK23, MIT.