Bipositions and motion events: How verb semantics motivates prepositional vs. postpositional uses of Finnish path adpositions

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-118
Author(s):  
Kersten Lehismets
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Subjective Motion

Abstract Finnish is one of the relatively few languages that have bipositions - adpositions that can be used both prepositionally and postpositionally. From a typological point of view, the class of bipositions is quite rare (Hagège 2010: 124). Prepositional and postpositional usages of Finnish bipositions may show remarkable differences, which are not only of stylistic but also of semantic nature. Semantic differences, for instance, may pertain to the opposition between actual and subjective motion. In this article, I discuss constructions containing the Finnish path adpositions (P-ADPs) läpi ‘through’ and yli ‘over, across’ and investigate the semantics of the verbs used in these constructions. I show that semantically more schematic motion verbs prefer postpositions, whereas more specific or contentful ones (such as those that elaborate the motion by emphasizing its incrementality or lack of directionality) prefer prepositions

scholarly journals The Role of Motion Verbs in Conveying Path-Related Information in English and Slovene Fictive Motion Expressions

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Frančiška Lipovšek
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
The Road ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Actual Motion ◽  
Fictive Motion

The paper presents a study on fictive motion (FM) uses of motion verbs in English and slovene from the point of view of conveying path-related information. An FM expression describes a static scene in terms of motion (e.g. The road weaves through a range of hills). Motion verbs in FM uses do not describe actual motion events, but may refer to certain properties of the path by virtue of their meanings. English and slovene FM expressions exhibit different behaviours in this respect. Many English verbs display meaning components that can be metonymically mapped onto the properties of the path. The meanings of slovene verbs are less specific, so that such properties need to be expressed verb-externally in slovene FM expressions.

Going beyond motion events typology: The case of Basque as a verb-framed language

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
High Tolerance ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
New Information ◽  
Different Types

AbstractThe concept of motion is present in all the world’s languages. However, the ways in which speakers of different languages codify motion do not seem to be so universal. Languages offer different types of structures to express motion, and speakers pay attention to different elements within the motion event. The goal of this paper is to examine in great detail how motion events are described and expressed in Basque oral and written narratives. This study focuses on three main areas: motion verbs, elaboration of Manner and elaboration of Path. Although Basque can be classified in Talmy’s terms as a verb-framed language, it is argued that it is not a prototypical example of this group with respect to the lexicalisation of Path. Unlike other verb-framed languages, the description of Path in Basque motion events is very frequent and detailed, not only in situations when it adds new information, but also in pleonastic cases. This characteristic seems to be related to Basque’s rich lexical resources for motion and space, as well as to its high tolerance for verb omission. On the basis of these data, the scope of Talmy’s binary typology is questioned. It is suggested that the verb- and satellite-framed language typology should be revised in order to account for these intra-typological differences.

A Comparative Analysis of Locative and Directional Motion Events in English and Arabic

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Ikbal Zeddari
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Parametric Approach ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Directional Motion ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
Crosslinguistic Variation

<p>This paper provides a contrastive analysis of locative and directional motion events in English and Arabic. Within a micro‑parametric approach to crosslinguistic variation, it argues that both languages encode the distinction between manner and direction in their inventory of motion verbs. In the prepositional domain, purely locative and directional prepositions are shown to exist in the two languages; they respectively derive locative and directional interpretations with manner of motion verbs. The class of ambiguous prepositions, which gives rise to both locative and directional interpretations, is shown to be distinctive of English. Implications of this contrastive analysis to the bidirectional acquisition of English and Arabic locative and directional motion constructions are discussed.</p>

Motion Verbs in Japanese

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yo Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Manner Verbs

Japanese is a language rich in verbs representing Path of motion, but it also has verbs representing Manner and Deixis. Examining how they are used can deepen our understanding of some of the interesting properties of the Japanese language. In typological literature on motion events descriptions, Japanese has been claimed to be the type of language in which Path is expressed in the main verb position rather than elsewhere in the sentence, with the use of a path verb. However, this view must be qualified in two ways. First, the language exhibits intralinguistic variation, using postpositions and other nonverbal elements to represent Path notions such as FROM, TO, and ALONG. Second, Path is expressed in the main verb position only when Deixis is absent from the sentence. One feature of manner verbs in Japanese is that they are not used very often, especially concerning walking events. This phenomenon is accounted for by the “cost” of expressing Manner in Japanese. Another property of manner verbs in Japanese is they are incompatible with a goal phrase, which has been previously accounted for in different ways. A close semantic examination of manner verbs suggests that this restriction can be attributed to the nature of goal marking, rather than the semantics of manner verbs. An examination of corpus and experimental data also reveals how Japanese speakers use deictic verbs. Deictic motion verbs are used very frequently, though this tendency is not observed in descriptions of the motion of inanimate entities. Finally, deictic verbs in Japanese are sensitive to the notion of the speaker’s interactional space or territory, not just restricted by the spatial location of the speaker.

scholarly journals MOTION VERBS IN PERSIAN AND ENGLISH: A FRAMENET-BASED CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Zolfa Imani ◽  
Rezvan Motavalian Naeini
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Semantic Frames ◽  
Animal Farm ◽  
Persian Translation ◽  
English Verb ◽  
English Equivalent

The current research aims at exploring and comparing the semantic frames of motion verbs in English and Persian. In pursuit of this goal, the novel Animal farm by G. Orwell (1945) was selected and compared with its Persian translation, Qale heyvanat (Atefi, 2010). The sentences including motion verbs were primarily extracted from the novel and then a comparison was made between each English sentence and its Persian counterpart. Afterwards, the semantic frames of the English and Persian motion verbs were obtained from the FrameNet database. It should be noted that when the motion verbs in English had an equivalent which could be interpreted in a different way in Persian, the Persian verb was searched for in one of the most reliable Persian to English dictionaries—Persian to English Dictionary (Aryanpur and Aryanpur, 2007). We searched for its English equivalent and then the newly obtained English verb was searched in FrameNet for the semantic frame. When comparing the semantic frames of the motion verbs in the two languages examined, we concluded that motion events in English and Persian were expressed through miscellaneous motion verbs each of which involves a semantic frame peculiar to it. Likewise, the frames may be similar or different cross-linguistically in case of semantic differences, or they might be pragmatically similar.

scholarly journals The influence of language-specific and universal factors on acquisition of motion verbs

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 927
Author(s):  
Rebecca Smyder ◽  
Kaitlyn Harrigan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Universal Distribution ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Motion Verb ◽  
Verb Acquisition ◽  
Manner Verbs

This study explores children’s encoding of novel verbs referring to motion events, and finds influence of both language-specific and universal constraints on meaning. Motion verbs fall into two categories—manner verbs encode how a movement happens (run, swim), and path verbs encode the starting and ending point of a motion (enter, fall). Some languages express path more frequently in the verb (Spanish, Hebrew), and others manner more frequently (English, German). Our study expands on this previous work demonstrating sensitivity to these language-specific distributions, as well as expanding to test environmental factors representing a predictable universal distribution. We find that children are sensitive to both the language-specific factors as well as the universal factors in motion verb acquisition.

scholarly journals The roles of language mode and dominance in French–German bilinguals’ motion event descriptions

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladina Stocker ◽  
Raphael Berthele
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Null Results ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Language Activation ◽  
Motion Event Descriptions ◽  
Manner Verbs

AbstractJuggling with structurally and semantically different language systems leads to constructions that differ from the typical patterns in a language. Typical patterns in the domain of motion are characterized by more verbs encoding path in French; and more verbs encoding the manner of motion in German. An increase of manner verbs in French, for instance, can be ascribed to an influence from German. The extent of typical or reversed patterns depends on interrelated factors such as speaker-related idiosyncrasies, language dominance configurations, and – arguably – the degree of language activation. Drawing on data from 154 French–German bilinguals who described motion events in different language modes, this paper combines interrelated questions on the role of language dominance, language mode manipulation and how these factors interact. Quantitative analyses on the use of motion verbs do not show the expected effects. The null results are discussed by comparing preceding studies showing contradictory findings.

On the nature of goal marking and delimitation: Evidence from Japanese

2008 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN BEAVERS
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Dative Case

This paper investigates two ways goals of motion events can be expressed in so-called ‘verb-framed’ languages (Talmy 2000), focusing on the Japanese postpositions -madeand -ni. It is typically assumed that these postpositions are both goal-markers, but differ in the exact goal semantics they encode, giving rise to non-overlapping distributions. Based on a range of distributional differences, I argue instead that they are more radically distinct than this: -mademarks the endpoint of event participants (including but not limited to paths of motion), while -niis a dative case that marks the goal argument of motion verbs. This suggests that it is possible for two functionally distinct participant markers to converge and give the appearance of being alternate ways of realizing the ‘same’ participant. Furthermore, adpositions such as -made, an inherently non-motion-encoding resource, represent an understudied strategy for marking goals across languages, something that has ramifications for how motion typologies are constructed.

scholarly journals The poverty of manner categories in motion verbs coding vertical relations. Evidence from Polish and Russian

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Joanna Łozińska
Keyword(s):  
Horizontal Plane ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Vertical Relations ◽  
Human Tendency

AbstractThe article discusses the ways in which lexicalization of vertical motion takes place in two satellite-framed languages: Polish and Russian. In this typological category the manner of motion is typically rendered by the verb. The analysis of the descriptions of motion events by native speakers of these two genetically related languages shows that the lexicalization pattern of vertical motion differs from the horizontal one. First of all, when describing vertical relations, respondents less frequently code the manner of motion in the verb than when talking about motion along the horizontal plane. What is more, the results show that both Russian and Polish respondents use more motion verbs to describe vertical than horizontal relations, which points to the natural human tendency to code novel situations.

scholarly journals The Manner Result Complementarity and the Lexicalization Pattern of Chinese Motion Verbs

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1598
Author(s):  
Lei Qiu
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Complementarity Hypothesis ◽  
The One ◽  
Basic Motion

Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998, 2010) propose manner/result complementarity hypothesis (MRC), i.e. verbs can not lexicalize manner and result simultaneously at a time. As to the encoding of motion events, Levin et al. (2009) also claim that manner of motion verbs across languages simply lexicalize manner and no direction is entailed. However, three basic motion verbs in Chinese--zǒu ‘walk’, pǎo ‘run’ and fēi ‘fly’, which are regarded as prototypical manner of motion verbs but also seem to lexicalize directed motion when used in some constructions. Then questions arise: do these verbs lexicalize direction of motion and are they counterexamples of the MRC? Based on evidence gained from a series of linguistic tests, this study argues that on the one hand different from views of Levin et al. (2009), the three manner of motion verbs can indeed lexicalize directed motion, but on the other hand they never encode the manner and direction of motion simultaneously and thus they are not counterexamples of the MRC. The fact that manner of motion verbs exhibiting similar lexicalization pattern can also be found in other languages indicates that the prototypical manner encoded in these verbs may be the conceptual condition for the special lexicalization pattern.

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