[Lingtyp] motion verbs

[Nigel Vincent]

A volume that I have found useful in this context is Maud Devos & Jenneke van der Wal (eds) 'Come' and 'Go' off the Beaten Grammaticalization Path (De Gruyter 2014).
Nigel


Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
The University of Manchester

Linguistics & English Language
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
The University of Manchester



https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Daniel Ross <djross3 at gmail.com>
Sent: 07 June 2022 8:37 AM
To: Guillaume Jacques <rgyalrongskad at gmail.com>
Cc: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] motion verbs

Yes, I agree: it would also express deixis, but would reinforce the motion also.

(I'm not aware of any specific cases of deixis-neutral motion verbs used in such constructions, although there are languages in such verbs exist, so it seems possible. There are also AM morphemes that are neutral with regard to 'go/come and do', so that might be possible. The most neutral, general or abstract "motion" affix I've seen is in Barasano, as mentioned briefly in my chapter. It seems to combine generally with motion verbs but it isn't clear whether there is any semantic contribution, so it might be exactly this type, although more data should be gathered because my analysis was based on limited descriptions and examples with only a few lexical verbs.)

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 11:30 PM Guillaume Jacques <rgyalrongskad at gmail.com<mailto:rgyalrongskad at gmail.com>> wrote:



As an aside, I have been wondering about whether manner verbs like "run" (for example) are truly motion verbs, in the sense that they necessarily predicate fact-of-motion. If we think of exercising on a treadmill, we can say "I ran in place without moving", where it seems like "run" refers to a bodily motion (moving legs, moving arms, bouncing up and down, etc.) but not strictly translational motion of the person from one place to another. Similarly, birds can "fly" into the wind without changing position. So in that sense, I would also question what exactly it means to be a "motion verb".

Good point ! The example with birds stopping in the wind is particularly appropriate; we could also think of hummingbirds, or insects that are able to do static flight to collect flower nectar.

 would be typically used to reinforce motion from one place to another, i.e. "run go (to) store" rather than just "run (to) store".

In cases like this however, the use of "go" might be rather to express deixis (run go vs. run come, as in  Chinese 跑去 vs. 跑来), since "run" is generally deixis-neutral.


--
Guillaume Jacques

Directeur de recherches
CNRS (CRLAO) - EPHE- INALCO
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