2.2. The Three-way Typology: Lexicalization patterns

Talmy (1985) is the first scholar to consider extensively the difference between English and Spanish  in how they convey directed motion events.¹  This he does in terms of what he calls lexicalization patterns. Talmy establishes a three way typology according to how, in a given language, the meaning of the verb "characteristically" encodes the motion event.² For Talmy, some languages lexicalize in the verb the manner or the cause of motion, other languages lexicalize the path, and finally a few languages the figure or object that moves.

NOTAS

1 Although Talmy is acknowledged in the recent linguistic literature with having come up with this distinction across languages, the fact is that many other authors, particularly traditional grammarians and comparative stylistics scholars have been discussing this issue for a long time, especially with regards to French compared with Germanic languages, mainly German and English (cf. Bergh 1948, Malblanc 1968, Vinay and Darbelnet 1958, Tesnière 1957, Wandruszka 1976).

2 “Characteristically” means that: “(i) It is colloquial in style, rather than literary, stilted, etc. (ii) It is frequent in occurrence in speech, rather than only occasional. (iii) It is pervasive, rather than limited, that is, a wide range of semantic notions are expressed in this type” (62).