English, Japanese, and the typology of motion event descriptions: A crosslinguistic experimental study with a special attention to deixis

众所周知，英语和日语在描述运动事件时表现出不同的语言模式。然而，在以往的作品中，指示语的表达并没有得到充分的考虑。在这项工作中，我通过检查通过视频实验获得的数据，比较了两种语言用于描述包括指示对比的运动事件的语言表达。结果表明，两种语言包含指示信息的条件不同。说日语的人几乎是义务性地描述指示语来代表他们眼前发生的运动事件。另一方面，说英语的人倾向于将指示语限制在说话人的领域内的运动描述，这通常伴随着移动的人与说话人之间的社会互动。

It has been known that English and Japanese exhibit different linguistic patterns in describing motion events. In previous works, however, the expressions of deixis have not been fully considered. In this work I compared linguistic expressions of the two languages used in describing motion events that include deictic contrasts, by examining data obtained through video experiments. Results show that the conditions for including deictic information differ between the two languages. Speakers of Japanese almost obligatorily describe deixis in representing motion events that develop before their eyes. English speakers, on the other hand, tend to limit deixis to the descriptions of motion to the speaker's domain that is typically accompanied by social interactions between the moving person and the speaker.