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'''Leonard Talmy''' is a linguist and professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo. His work concerns cognitive semantics, including the ways language organises space, motion, attention and force. The university lists cognitive semantics, typology and universals among his specialities.<ref name="profile">University at Buffalo, Department of Linguistics, [https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/linguistics/faculty/leonard-talmy.html “Leonard Talmy”], faculty profile. Accessed 9 October 2026.</ref>

Talmy's work is relevant to this library because it offers distinctions for analysing how a scene is described: which entity supplies a reference point, what appears to move, and how tendencies or constraints are represented.

== Background ==
Talmy completed his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. His 1972 dissertation is titled ''Semantic Structures in English and Atsugewi''.<ref name="profile" /> His two-volume ''Toward a Cognitive Semantics'' was published by MIT Press in 2000. The first volume examines systems for organising concepts; the second addresses typological patterns and processes, including how languages package event information.<ref name="volumes">Leonard Talmy, [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/TCS.html ''Toward a Cognitive Semantics''], author's contents and chapter links. Volume I: ''Concept Structuring Systems''; Volume II: ''Typology and Process in Concept Structuring''. MIT Press, 2000.</ref>

== Ideas and work ==
=== Figure and ground ===
In Talmy's account, the ''Figure'' is the entity whose location, path or orientation is being characterised. The ''Ground'' supplies a reference in relation to which that characterisation is made. These linguistic roles also help analyse relations between events.<ref name="figure">Leonard Talmy (2000), [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/Volume1/chap5.pdf “Figure and Ground in Language”], ''Toward a Cognitive Semantics'', Volume I, Chapter 5, especially sections 1-2. PDF hosted on the author's university website.</ref>

In the invented sentence “The bicycle stands beside the fountain”, the bicycle is located relative to the fountain. Reversing the sentence changes what is being located, even if the physical arrangement remains the same. ''Ground'' here means a reference entity; it need not mean the earth beneath someone's feet.

=== Force dynamics ===
Talmy's force-dynamic framework brings causing, resisting, preventing and letting into a shared analysis. It considers an entity's tendency towards action or rest, opposition to that tendency, and the resulting situation. He applies these distinctions to physical descriptions and to language about psychological or social pressures.<ref name="force">Leonard Talmy (2000), [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/Volume1/chap7.pdf “Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition”], ''Toward a Cognitive Semantics'', Volume I, Chapter 7, especially the introduction and basic framework.</ref>

For a fuller introduction, see [[Force Dynamics: Pressure, Resistance and Release]]. The analysis concerns how language represents a situation; a description of pressure does not itself measure a physical force.

=== Fictive motion ===
Talmy examines descriptions that use motion language while presenting something understood to be stationary. His broader account relates linguistic representations to perception and distinguishes different kinds of fictive motion.<ref name="overview">Leonard Talmy, [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/Recent/overview.html “Cognitive Linguistics”], author-hosted overview, section 4.2.</ref> The wiki's [[Fictive Motion: When Stationary Things Move|fictive-motion article]] develops this subject through spatial descriptions and research on comprehension.

== Comparing descriptions ==
These examples were written for this article. The table applies selected distinctions without presenting them as examples quoted from Talmy.

<div class="mom-table-scroll" role="region" aria-label="Leonard Talmy: comparing descriptions" tabindex="0" style="max-width:100%;overflow-x:auto;">
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
! scope="col" | Invented description
! scope="col" | Focus of analysis
! scope="col" | Question to ask
|-
| “The bicycle stands beside the fountain.”
| Figure and ground.
| Which thing is located by reference to which other thing?
|-
| “The latch kept the gate shut.”
| Prevention or restraint.
| What tendency or possible movement is being opposed?
|-
| “Removing the latch let the gate swing open.”
| Release of a constraint.
| Does the sentence identify what drives the opening, or only what permits it?
|-
| “The ridge runs down towards the lake.”
| Motion language describing spatial extent.
| What remains stationary while the wording introduces a direction?
|}
</div>

== Selected reading ==
* ''Toward a Cognitive Semantics'', Volume I, Chapter 2: ''Fictive Motion in Language and “Ception”''.
* Volume I, Chapter 5: ''Figure and Ground in Language''.
* Volume I, Chapter 7: ''Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition''.
* Volume II, Chapters 1-3: lexicalisation patterns and event integration.

The [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/TCS.html author's contents page] links these chapters. Read the examples alongside their definitions and compare nearby cases: changing a verb, a reference entity or the presence of a restraint can change the analysis.

== Related pages ==
* [[Force Dynamics: Pressure, Resistance and Release]]
* [[Fictive Motion: When Stationary Things Move]]
* [[Agency and Motion: Moving and Being Moved]]
* [[Image Schemas: Containment, Paths, Balance and Connection]]
* [[Metaphor in Context: Annotated Examples]]

[[People and authors]] | [[Concepts and language]] | [[Metaphor Research Library]]

== Sources ==
<references />

[[Category:People and authors]]
[[Category:Concepts and language]]

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 === Fictive motion ===
 Talmy examines descriptions that use motion language while presenting something understood to be stationary. His broader account relates linguistic representations to perception and distinguishes different kinds of fictive motion.<ref name="overview">Leonard Talmy, [https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~talmy/talmyweb/Recent/overview.html “Cognitive Linguistics”], author-hosted overview, section 4.2.</ref> The wiki's [[Fictive Motion: When Stationary Things Move|fictive-motion article]] develops this subject through spatial descriptions and research on comprehension.
 == Comparing descriptions ==

Leonard Talmy - Revision history

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