Typological differences and cognitive load in manner processing: a corpus-based study of Chinese–English and English–Chinese consecutive interpreting

Abstract The influence of inter-typological variations on the processing of manner information has been extensively examined in the domain of motion. Manner, however, extends to more other semantic domains, as demonstrated in the onomasiological approach to manner analysis. This study, based on this approach, analyses the influence of directionality and cognitive load (measured by interpreting performance) on the transfer of manner under high cognitive demands, using bidirectional corpus data of consecutive interpreting between Chinese (an equipollently framed language) and English (a satellite-framed language). The results indicate that (1) increased interpreting performance correlates with higher transfer rates of both manner adjuncts and verbs; (2) transfer rates for manner verbs are significantly higher when interpreting into English (CE) than into Chinese (EC), supporting previous findings on the salience of manner in English; (3) interpreting direction influences resistance to cognitive load, with manner adjuncts showing greater resistance in the EC direction due to Chinese’s more flexible locus of manner information, while manner verbs exhibit better resistance in the CE direction, reflecting English’s higher verbal codability of manner. These findings suggest the broader applicability of Talmy’s typology to semantic domains beyond motion and to processing under high cognitive loads in different language combinations and interpreting modes.