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

6.2.1.3 The Various Senses of the Caused Motion Construction

Goldgerg lists the following related senses for the construction:

‘A. X causes Y to move Z’. Examples include:

(6.87) Frank pushed it into the box.

(6.88) Frank kicked the dog into the bathroom.

(6.89) Frank sneezed the tissue off the nightstand.

(6.90) Sam shoved it into the carton.

B. The conditions of satisfaction associated with the act denoted by the predicate entail: ‘X causes Y to move Z’.

This sense encompasses force-dynamic verbs (in the sense of Talmy 1988) that refer to a communicative act. Examples are:

(6.91) Sam ordered him out of the house.

(6.92) Sam asked him into the room.

(6.93) Sam invited him out to her cabin.

(6.94) Sam beckoned him into the room.

(6.95) Sam urged him into the room.

(6.96) Sam sent him to the market.

Motion is not strictly entailed. Only if the "conditions of satisfaction" (Searle 1983) are met, the motion will take place.

‘C. X enables Y to move Z’

This class comprises force-dynamic verbs that entail the removal of a barrier, such as allow, let, free, release.

(6.97) Sam allowed Bob out of the room.

(6.98) Sam let Bill into the room.

The enabler must retain agentivity. In other words, enablement that does not involve the removal of the barrier in an active way is not acceptable within this construction, as the following example shows:
(6.99) a. * Sara let Bill into the room by leaving the door open.

b. Sara let Bill come into the room by leaving the room open.
In this case Sara is not actively involved in the removal of the barrier.

A. ‘X prevents Y from moving Comp (Z)’

This is the reverse of the previous one. The agent imposes a barrier that causes the patient to stay in a location. It includes verbs like lock, keep, barricade.

(6.100) Harry locked Joe into the bathroom.

(6.101) He kept her at arm’s length.

(6.102) Sam barricaded him out of the room.

The path argument, Comp(Z), codes the complement (in the logical sense) of the potential motion. Thus, (6.100) implies that Joe could not move out of the bathroom.

B. ‘X helps Y to move z’

This sense involves ongoing assistance to move in a certain direction.

(6.103) Sam helped him into the car.

(6.104) Sam assisted her out of the room.

(6.105) Sam guided him through the terrain.

(6.106) Sam showed him into the livingroom.

(6.107) Sam walked him to the car.

A few verbs do not fit in any of the patterns above, such as verbs like accompany, trail, follow, tail and chase .
(6.108) Sam accompanied Bob into the room.

(6.109) Ann chased the squirrel out of her house.

They entail that the agent argument and the theme argument move along a specified path, but the agent is not interpreted as causing, enabling or preventing the theme’s motion.

The central sense is A. All the others are extensions of it.

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