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.

Prediction is an important part of language processing. An open question is to what extent people predict language in challenging circumstances. Here we tested the limits of prediction by asking bilingual Dutch native speakers to interpret Dutch sentences into their English counterparts. In two visual world experiments, we recorded participants’ eye movements to co-present visual objects while they engaged in interpreting tasks (consecutive and simultaneous interpreting). Most participants showed anticipatory eye movements to semantically-related upcoming target words in their L1 source language during both consecutive and simultaneous interpretation. A quarter of participants during simultaneous interpretation however did not move their eyes, an extremely unusual participant behaviour in visual world studies. Overall, the findings suggest that most people predict in the source language under challenging interpreting situations. Further work is required to understand the causes of the absence of (anticipatory) eye movements during simultaneous interpretation in a substantial subset of individuals.