Motion verbs

1. Motion verbs

2. Typology of motion verbs As proposed by Talmy, path of motion constitutes the core feature of a motion event, and languages show two distinct lexicalization patterns by typically encoding path of motion in either a verb (e.g., exit, ascend ) or an associated satellite (e.g., go out, go down). Motion events also differ in terms of their degree of structural complexity. Thus, one can differentiate between a unitary event (e.g., he went into the room) and a complex one (e.g., he crawled into the room). A unitary event indicates only one dimension of motion, which, in this case is the path information (into). On the other hand, a complex event encodes both the manner (crawling) and the path (into) components of a motion event within a single clause (Talmy 2000).

3. S-languages and V-languages Languages differ in their ways of expressing the components of a complex event, with S-languages typically conflating mannerwith motion, and V-languages conflating path with motion in the main verb of a clause. The difference in conflation patterns has significant effects on the relative codability of the semantic domains that constitute the components of a motion event. Since S-languages prefer to encode path using satellites, the main-verb slot becomes available for a manner verb (e.g., walk/run/crawl ... in/out/across ...). This provides S-language speakers with a more accessible and easily codable linguistic option for indicating manner of motion. As a consequence, S-language speakers encode manner habitually, develop a richer lexicon of manner verbs, and make finer lexical distinctions within the domain of manner (Slobin 2000, 2003). By contrast, in V-languages, the main verb is chiefly reserved for encoding path information, and there is no other easily codable linguistic slot with which to encode manner of motion. Therefore, in contexts where attention to manner is salient, V-language speakers typically rely on subordinated manner verb constructions (e.g., enter/exit by running) to indicate manner, but due to the relative syntactic complexity of subordinated expressions, manner information is omitted in most in- stances in V-languages.

4. S-languages and V-languages The typological contrast becomes particularly salient with events that involve the crossing of a boundary (e.g., motion into or out of a bounded space), where the lexical constraints on encoding manner in the main verb are stricter for V-languages. Thus—as depicted in Figure 1—the preferred patterns for describing a simple motion event which involves both manner (running) and path (interior of the house as the goal of movement) components will be such that English speakers will choose to encode both manner and path by conflating motion with manner in the main verb and indicating path with the particle into as in he ran into the house.

5. S-languages and V-languages Turkish speakers, on the other hand, will typically encode only path by conflating motion with path in the main verb and leaving out manner information, as in eve girdi ‘he entered the house’. However, in instances where manner becomes perceptually salient, Turkish speakers may choose to encode manner as well, typically by subordinating manner to the main path verb of a clause (eve koşarak girdi ‘he entered the house running’).

6. S-languages and V-languages These linguistic differences, in turn, are likely to have effects on the organization of mental representations, leading to different mental imagery regarding how one navigates in space (Slobin 1997, 2000, 2003). Speakers of English have linguistic access to a richer array of motion events that involve manner due to the high codability of this dimension in their native language. Therefore, compared to Turkish speakers, English speakers may be more likely to pay greater linguistic attention to and detect more fine-grained variations in the manner dimension of motion events, which in turn may increase the conceptual salience of this dimension for them.

7. Comparing Turkish and English • Turkish • ak ‘flow’do ̈k(u ̈l) ‘pour’sız ‘leak’kay ‘slide’yuvarlan ‘roll’su ̈ru ̈n ‘crawl’tırman ‘climb up’ sendele, tökkezle ‘stumble’ atla, sıc ̧ra ‘jump, bounce’ atıl ‘leap’fırla ‘dart’dal ‘plunge’su ̈r ‘ride, drive’çek ‘pull’it ‘push’yu ̈z ‘swim’kos ̧ ‘run’kovala ‘chase’yürü ̈ ‘walk’ • English • flow, streampour, spill, slopleak, drainslide, sliproll, tumble, wallowcreep, crawlclimb, clamber, skyrocket, soarfalter, stagger, stumble, tripbounce, bound, jump, plummet, skip, spring, scrambleleap, lunge, lurk, launch, swoopdart, burst, bolt, surge, pop, spurtdip, plungeride, drivedraw, pullpush, propel, shovefloat, flood, swimrun, flee, fleet, rally, race, reel, surge, charge, flitchase, pursue, track, trailwalk, drift, ebb, flounce, linger, lumber, march, meander, roam, rustle, stride, tread, worm one’s way, hike, pace, ramble,snake, trample, trot, swarm, forge, hurry, rush

8. Verbs of motion: Aspectual marking and repeated verbs Umberto Eco’nun vurgulaması, bu haftaki Time dergisinin kapağıyla üstüste gelincebizim köşemizde de sağlık konusuöne çıkıverdi. He struggled to settle down again, but his mind kept wandering backto the road