2.2.3. Figure-type languages

In the third major type of lexicalization, the verb expresses Motion together with Figure. This pattern is present in Navajo and in most northern Hokan languages. Atsugewi, a Hokan polysynthetic language of northern California, is the prototypical example of this type presented in Talmy (1985). It has a whole series of verbs that express various kinds of objects or materials moving. Talmy draws an analogy using English examples. It would be as if verbs like rain and spit were the common way of expressing movement. The non-agentive rain would refer to rain moving, and the agentive spit to causing spit to move, as in the following sentences:

(2.12) It rained in through the bedroom window.

(2.13) I spat into the cuspidor.

(2.14) Atsugewi verb roots of Motion with conflated Figure

-lup- "for a small shiny spherical object (e.g. a round candy, an eyeball, a hailstone) to move/ be-located"
-t- "for a smallish planar object that can be functionally affixed (e.g. a stamp, a clothing patch, a button, a shingle, a cradle’s sunshade) to move/be located"
-caq- "for a slimy lumpish object (e.g. a toad, a cow dropping) to move/be-located"
-swal- "for a limp linear object suspended by one end (e.g. a shirt on a clothesline, a hanging dead rabbit, a flaccid penis) to move/be located"
-qput- "for loose dry dirt to move/be located"
-staq- "for runny icky material (e.g. mud, manure, rotten tomatoes, guts, chewed gum) to move/be located"

(2.15) Atsugewi expression of motion with conflated figure

a. /’-w-uh-staq-ik - ^a /
    Locative suffix: -ik "on the ground"
    Instrumental prefix: uh- "from gravity (an objects own weight)
    acting on it"
    Inflectional affix set: ’-w - -^a "3rd person subject (factual
    mood)"
    Literal: "Runny icky material is located on the ground from its own weight acting
    on it"
    Instantiated: "Guts are lying on the ground"
b. /’-w-uh-staq-ict- ^a /
    Directional suffix: -ict "into liquid"
    Instrumental prefix: ca- "from the wind blowing on the figure"
    Inflectional affix set: ’-w - -^a "3rd person subject (factual
    mood)"
    Literal: "Runny icky material moved into liquid
    from the wind blowing on it"
    Instantiated: "The guts blew into the creek"
c. /s-’-w-cu-staq-cis- ^a /
    Directional suffix: -cis "into fire"
    Instrumental prefix: cu- "from a linear object, moving axially, acting on the figure"
    Inflectional affix set: s-’-w- -^a "I subject,3rd person object
    (factual mood)"
    Literal: "I caused it that runny icky material move
    into fire by acting on it with a linear object moving axially"
    Instantiated: "I prodded the guts into the fire with a stick"