How bilinguals refer to Mandarin throwing actions in English

Abstract

In the present study, we tested how Mandarin-English bilinguals choose English words to refer to prototypical Mandarin throwing actions. Languages differ in how they refer to events. In Mandarin and English, words for throwing actions differ notably on a variety of dimensions so there are few perfect translation equivalents. In previous studies, when faced with the challenge of how to speak about such events, bilinguals sometimes use language-specific ways in each language, sometimes show convergence, sometimes use more general terms, and there are times when they can be quite creative.