2.2.1. Manner-type languages

ISSN: 1139-8736
Depósito Legal: B-48039-2000

In one group of languages the verb expresses both the fact of motion and its manner or its cause. In these languages there are typically a set of frequently-used verbs that express motion "occurring in various manners or by various causes" (62). Chinese and all branches of Indo-European (except Romance languages) seem to be of this type. Talmy illustrates it with examples from English, "a perfect example of the type" (62):

(2.1) English expressions of Motion with conflated Manner or Cause:
    move + Manner
    non-agentive
a. The rock slid/rolled/bounced down the hill
b. The gate swung/creaked shut on its rusty hinges
c. The smoke swirled/squeezed through the opening
    agentive
d. I slid/rolled/bounced the keg into the storeroom
e. I twisted/popped the cork out of the bottle
    self-agentive
f. I ran/limped/jumped/stumbled/rushed/groped my way down the stairs
g. She wore a green dress to the party
    move + Cause
    non-agentive
h. The napkin blew off the table
i. The bone pulled loose from its socket
    agentive
j. I pushed/threw/kicked the keg into the storeroom
k. I blew/flicked the ant off my plate
l. I chopped/sawed the tree down to the ground at the base
m. I knocked/pounded/hammered the nail into the board with a mallet

Any attempt at translating these sentences into Spanish will reveal that, as will be shown below, Spanish does not "characteristically" express them as English does.

Talmy notes another fact about English, namely, that it has a system of what he calls lexicalization doublets. Many verbs can be used either with or without the incorporated idea of motion. Talmy presents float as an instance of this. Float can lexicalize motion or just location, as seen in the following examples (64):

(2.2) The craft floated/ was afloat on a cushion of air
(2.3) The craft floated into the hangar

The fact that both senses can be combined is a further indication of the two lexicalizations:

(2.4) The craft floated into the hangar on a cushion of air

An agentive verb such as kick also constitutes an instance of a lexicalization doublet. The following sentences illustrate kick’s double nature (65):

(2.5) I kicked the wall with my left foot

(2.6) I kicked the ball across the field with my left foot

As a further argument to prove the existence of these two different lexicalizations, Talmy presents verbs that only show one or the other. Thus, lie is a verb that can only express the location lexicalization:

(2.7) The pen lay on the plank

(2.8) * The pen lay down the incline (with a motion sense)

On the other hand, drift and glide only express motion through space, as the ungrammaticality of the following example demonstrates:

(2.9) *The canoe glided on that spot of the lake for an hour

Anterior I Siguiente I Índice capítulo 2 I Índice General

ISSN: 1139-8736
Depósito Legal: B-48039-2000