2.3.2. Extension to other domains

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

In point of fact, Talmy (1991) is an ambitious attempt to extend this typology from the expression of directed motion events to other domains, such as aspect, state change, and action correlation. In all of them, the framing event is expressed characteristically either in the verb or in a satellite to the verb depending on whether the language is verb-framed or satellite-framed. According to Talmy, this shows that languages treat all of these domains in a similar way.

He illustrates aspect by using examples from Spanish and German. Whereas in German aspect is expressed mainly with verbal particles (Talmy’s satellites), in Spanish it is mainly expressed with verbal forms. (492-93):

(2.27) ‘to finish Ving’ / ‘to V to a finish/to completion’
Spn: terminar de V-inf
Gmn: fertig-V
Terminé de escribir la carta.
Ich habe den Brief fertiggeshrieben.
I finished writing the letter / I wrote the letter to completion.
(2.28) ‘to V again / re-V’
Spn: volver a V-Inf
Gmn: wieder-V /noch mal V
Volví a comer /Lo volví a ver
Ich habe noch mal gegessen. / Ich habe ihn wiedergesehen.
I ate again / I saw him again
(2.29) ‘to have just Ved’
Spn: acabar de V-Inf (acabar: imperfective forms)
Gmn: gerade V (perfect forms)
Acabo de comer. /Acababa de comer cuando llegó
Ich habe gerade gegessen / Ich hatte gerade gegessen, als er kam
I just ate. / I had just written when he arrived.

English has a dual system, with aspect expressed both by the verb, and by some aspectual particles or satellites. Talmy gives as examples, among others, on with the aspectual meanings: "continue V-ing without stopping", as in We worked on into the night; and "resume where one had left off in V-ing", as in She stopped at the gas station first, and then she drove on from there; and up with the meaning "V all the way into a different state", as in The log burned up in 2 hours.

To illustrate how this same typology applies to state-change, he gives examples from English and Spanish (497-99):

(2.30) I blew out the candle
Apagué la vela de un soplido/ soplándola
(2.31) He choked to death on a bone.
Murió atragantado por un hueso/ porque se atragantó con un hueso
(2.32) I burned him to death.
Lo maté con fuego/ quemándolo.
(2.33) The leaves withered away.
Las hojas se desintegraron al secarse

In all of these examples, the change of state is expressed in English with the particle or satellite, while the main verb encodes the supporting event, manner or cause. In Spanish, on the other hand, the main verb expresses the transition to a new state while the adjunct, either the prepositional phrase or the gerundive, expresses the supporting event. The parallel with directed motion sentences is quite remarkable.¹

To extend the typology to action correlation, Talmy gives the following examples:

(2.34) I played the melody along with him
Yo lo acompañé tocando la melodía
(2.35) I outplayed him
Yo lo superé tocando la melodía.

Again, whereas Spanish presents the action correlation in the main verb, English expresses it with satellites of the verb.

The main goal of Talmy (1991) is to be "a contribution on conceptual integration and unification as a fundament of human thought." (518). In this sense, the two ways in which languages of the world seem to pattern with regards to how they encode the framing event are illustrations of different ways of compacting and presenting information.

In the following chapters, evidence in favor and against Talmy’s typology will be presented applied mainly to English and Spanish.

NOTAS

1 These sentences are examples of what is known in the literature as resultative secondary predications. Although at first it might seem as if Spanish could not express them with a single verb, examples such as Los golpearon y quemaron hasta la muerte are becoming quite frequent in the mass media, probably as a result of the influence of English media.

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