Majid, Boster and Bowerman (2008): The Cross-Linguistic Categorization of Everyday Events

This file formalizes the stimulus clips of [MBB08] and the English descriptions they report. Speakers of twenty-eight languages described sixty-one clips of separation events, and a correspondence analysis of which clips shared a verb found four dimensions across the forty-three agentive cutting-and-breaking clips: the predictability of the locus of separation, tearing, snapping against smashing, and poking a hole. A clip is described by what the paper states about it, as a region of the substrate's Root.Content.

Main definitions

• stimulus: the instrument, object dimensionality and result the paper states for a clip
• tearing, pullingYarn, snapping, smashing: the clips named for Dimensions 2 and 3

Main results

• dim1_not_factorsThrough: the first dimension is a function neither of the instrument nor of the object
• tear_overlaps_stimulus, not_cut_not_break_of_tearing, break_overlaps_stimulus: the English fragment's tear, cut and break agree with the descriptions the paper reports

Implementation notes

Clips are the appendix numbers. A dimension the paper leaves unstated is unconstrained, so a root is compatible with a clip (Root.Content.Overlaps) when its regions contain the stated values. The paper classes rope as one-dimensional but not yarn, which is coded like rope. Positions on the first dimension enter only through the order the text states.

TODO

The per-language naming data are not in the paper. Its illustrations need fragments with separation roots: the placement of the karate chop by Chontal, Hindi and Jalonke, and the Yélî Dnye tearing verb's extension to carrots split along the grain (§3.1). The English fragment lacks the change-of-state snap (its snap is the manner-of-speaking verb) and the smash, stab and bodge the paper reports.

References

• [MBB08]

Clips

def MajidBosterBowerman2008.tearing : Finset ℕ

In the tearing clips cloth is torn by hand, completely (clip 1) or halfway (clip 36). Dimension 2 sets them apart from all other clips (§3.1).

Equations

• MajidBosterBowerman2008.tearing = {1, 36}

def MajidBosterBowerman2008.pullingYarn : Finset ℕ

In clips 35 and 38 yarn is pulled apart, and English, German and Dutch extend their tearing verb to them (§3.1).

Equations

• MajidBosterBowerman2008.pullingYarn = {35, 38}

def MajidBosterBowerman2008.snapping : Finset ℕ

In the snapping clips (25, 19, 57, 5) pressure on both ends separates a one-dimensional rigid object into two pieces. They form one pole of Dimension 3 (§3.1).

Equations

• MajidBosterBowerman2008.snapping = {25, 19, 57, 5}

def MajidBosterBowerman2008.smashing : Finset ℕ

In the smashing clips (40, 39, 21, 31) a blow fragments a rigid object into many pieces. They form the other pole of Dimension 3 (§3.1).

Equations

• MajidBosterBowerman2008.smashing = {40, 39, 21, 31}

def MajidBosterBowerman2008.stimulus (c : ℕ) : Semantics.Root.Content

stimulus c is what the paper states about clip c, as a region of root content. The hands tear cloth, pull yarn apart and snap one-dimensional objects, a hammer fragments the smashed objects, and clips 10 and 32 cut a carrot, one of the paper's one-dimensional objects (§2.2), with a knife and with a karate chop.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

The first dimension

theorem MajidBosterBowerman2008.dim1_not_factorsThrough {P : Type u_1} [Preorder P] (pos : ℕ → P) (h₁ : pos 10 < pos 32) (h₂ : pos 32 < pos 19) : (¬Function.FactorsThrough pos fun (c : ℕ) => (stimulus c).instrument) ∧ ¬Function.FactorsThrough pos fun (c : ℕ) => (stimulus c).patientDimensionality

Placement on Dimension 1, the predictability of the locus of separation, is a function neither of the instrument nor of the object (§3.1). The hands alone karate-chop a carrot in the middle of the dimension (clip 32) and snap a twig at its unpredictable end (clip 19); carrots are sliced at the predictable end (clip 10) and karate-chopped in the middle.

English

theorem MajidBosterBowerman2008.tear_overlaps_stimulus (c : ℕ) : c ∈ tearing ∪ pullingYarn → English.Verbs.tear_.rootContent.Overlaps (stimulus c)

English speakers labeled the tearing clips tear and extended the verb to pulling yarn apart (§3.1, Dimension 2); the fragment's tear is compatible with all four clips.

theorem MajidBosterBowerman2008.not_cut_not_break_of_tearing (c : ℕ) : c ∈ tearing → ¬English.Verbs.cut.rootContent.Overlaps (stimulus c) ∧ ¬English.Verbs.break_.rootContent.Overlaps (stimulus c)

English speakers labeled the tearing clips tear as distinct from cut and break (§3.1), and the fragment's cut and break, which want a blade and a fractured or fragmented result, reject them.

theorem MajidBosterBowerman2008.break_overlaps_stimulus (c : ℕ) : c ∈ snapping ∪ smashing → English.Verbs.break_.rootContent.Overlaps (stimulus c)

Some English speakers grouped the snapping and smashing clips together under break (§3.1, Dimension 3), the general verb beside the specific snap and smash to which the paper attributes the intermediate correlation of English with that dimension (§3.1.1).