(Dis)appearence verbs

[tsunoda at TOOYOO.L.U-TOKYO.AC.JP]

1. The difference between the following pair is
interesting:
   (1) There appeared a man in the hill.
   (2)*There disappeared a man in the hill.
Pardon my ignorance, but would you please inform me of
a few that deal with this difference ?

2. Japanese has an aspectual form:
       V-te/-de                shimau
       verb-NONFINITE    put away
This aspectual form is often glossed 'perfect', 'perfective',
'completive', etc. It is also glossed 'emphatic'. An example is:
  (3) Taroo   wa      hon    o      yon-de            shimat-ta
        Taroo  TOPIC  book  ACC  read-NONFIN  put away-PAST
        'Taroo has/had completed reading a book.'
   Now, Motayasu Nojima, one of our students, examined a novel
that was written almost a century ago. In that Japanese, if I
remember correctly:
  (a) with intransitive verbs:
      this aspectual form occurs with verbs of 'disappearing'/
      'coming' rather than with verbs of 'appearing'/'going'.
  (b) with transitive verbs:
      this aspectual form occurs with verbs of obtaining rather
      than with verbs of discarding.
   In the present-day Japanese, no such tendency is observed. This
aspectual form seems to occur with almost any verb.

   Is this useful ?

Best wishes,

Tasaku Tsunoda