Luận văn verbs of motion and their lexicalization patterns an english vietnamese comparative study from cognitive approach

Scope of the study 1.2 The syntactic and semantic featarcs af English motion verbs 1.3 The syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese motion verbs 1.4 The similarities and differenc

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSILY — HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES,

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

MAL TH] THU HAN

VERBS OF MOTION AND THEIR LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

AN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE COMPARATIVE STUDY FROM

COGNITIVE APPROACH

(Động từ vận động và các mô hình từ vựng hoá của chúng Nghiên cứu so sánh Anh Việt từ góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 602215

Hanai - 2010

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUA: r

MAT THI THU HAN

VERBS OF MOTION AND THEIR LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

AN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE COMPARATIVE STUDY FROM

COGNITIVE APPROACH

(Động tử vận động và các mô hình lừ vựng hoá của chúng

Nghiên cứu so sánh Anh Việt từ góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Tran Hữu Mạnh

Hanoi - 2010

DECLARATION

1Ÿ" Aims of the shuẩy

3 Scope of the study

1.2 The syntactic and semantic featarcs af English motion verbs

1.3 The syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese motion verbs

1.4 The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese motion verbs

1.5 Summary

CHAPTER 2: COGNITIVE SEMANTICS AND THE THEORY OF

LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

2.1 An overview of Cognitive Linguistics anil Cognitive Semantics

2.1.1 Cognitive Linguistics and the key concepts

2.1.2 Cognitive semantics and its main tenets

2.1.3 Figure and Ground

2.2 The theory af lexicalization ratterns

2.2.4 A two-way typology of motion event

2.3 Summary

CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS OF

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE MOTION VERES

4.1 Intraduciian

3.2 Lexicalization patterns of English and Victnamese motion verbs

3.2.1 Lexicalization pattem 1: Motion + Co-event

3.22

jcalivation paltsmn 2: Motion = Path

3.2.3 Lexicalization pattem 3: Motion ~ Figure

3.2.4 Other minor patterns

3.3 Spitt and parallel system of conflation

3.4 The parallel pattern of conflation in Vietnamese?

3.5 Summary

CILAPTER 4: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF MOTION VERBS AND

THEIR LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS IN A SPECIFIC NOVEL TEXT-—

APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATORS AND LANGUAGE TEACHERS

4.1 Intraductian

4.2 A comparative analysis on the motion verbs and lexicalization patterns of

motion verbs in the chapter ‘The Battle of Llogwarts’ and Its Vietnamese version

4.3 Applications for translatars and language teachers

Appendix 1: Betl Levin (1993)'s classification of motion verbs in English and

the Vietnamese equivalents

34

34

40 4l

Appendix 2: Motion verbs in English (Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts) liiil Appendix 3: Motien verbs in Vietnamese (Chương 31: Chiến tưởng

Hogwarts)

Appendix 4, Aualysis of sample motion verbs in chapter 31; The Battle of

Tlogwarts and the Vietnamese version

Appendix 5: A table of contrast between basic English and Viemamese motion

verbs

Appendix 6: Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts (Motion scene 2)

Appendix 7 Chuony 31: Chién trutmg Hogwarts

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LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

Diagram 3.1: Co-cvenl conflated in the Motion verb (adapted from

Talmy, 2000b: 28)

Table 1.1: Path verbs and Directional complement verbs in Vietnamese

Table 4.1: Lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion

verbs in chapter 31 “The Battle of Hogwarts’

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Motion verhs - ‘the verbs that describe movement are first learned, mast frequently

used and conceptually dominant’ (Miller & Johnson-Laird (1977-527) Coguilive semantics

classifies motion verbs based on the sort of semantic information which their verb roots charactcristivally encode, In gencral, notion verbs, both transitive and imlransilive, lypically

express only one of the three semantic entities route, manner, or shape, and the general

tendency for analysing motion verbs is to separate manner verbs from path verbs Talmy’s (2000) work distinguishes two different types of languages, ie., satellite-framed and verb- framed languages, according to the way the different elements of a motion scene are mapped onto linguistic elements English, a3 a satellite-framed language expresses the core componenl of totion, ie., Path or the trajectory of motion, in satellites (e.g., up, down) or

in prepositional phras

(cx, intolout of the house), leaving the verb slot free to encode

Mamner-pf-motion

Relying on the basic assumption that languages vary lypologically in terms of how

they map lexical syntactic elements onto semantic domains, Talmy (2000) deeply investigated the regular associations (lexicalization pattems) among meaning components and the verb, providing a cross-linguistic study of lexicalization pattems connected with the expression of

motion He was mainly interested in evidencing typologies, ie small number of patterns exhibited by gronps of languages, and universals, ie single patterns shared cross- linguistically According to Taimy, some languages lexicalize in the verb the manner ot the

cause of motion, other languages lexicalize the path, and finally in a few languages the figure

or object thal moves is worth mentioning

This theoretical framework arises im te as to whether th

differences between English and Vietnamese motion verbs, how lexicalization patterns are cross-linguislically applicd lo analyzing English and Vieurncse motion verbs, aud whal

might be the lexicalization pattems of Vietnamese motion verbs These questions are the

strong motivations that inspire me to carry out this small research with a view to uncovering

the notions of motion verbs and applications of lexicatization patterns in both English and

Vietnamese

2 Atms of the study: The paper aims to

@ Examine, in some depths, the main concepts of cognitive scmantics, its main concepts and tenets, the theory of lexicalization patterns with its typological and universal principles across languages,

12

(ii) Provide an insight into the analysis of motion verbs in Uinglish and Vietnamese and sel this as the basis for ihe English and Vietnamese comparison of lexicalization pallens of motion verbs

Gi) Find out and compare the lexicalization pallerns of molion verbs i: English and Victamese; based on which to discover som sinnilaritiss and differences between English and Vietnamese iexivalization pattems of motion verbs

Gv) Apply the theory of lexicalization pattems to analyzing motion verbs in an English novelist text and its Vietnamese version with the aim to confirm the results of the

preceding parts,

3 Scope uf the study

This study csscntially adop Leonard Talmy (2000)’s theory of lexicalization patterns

of motion verbs and some notions proposed in Talmy-related studies by Slobin (1996, 2004,

2006)

Furthermore, the study explores the meming-surface relations between the semantic clements like Motion, Manner, Cause, Path, Figure and the verbs of motion as the surfaes element chosen, ‘The direction of the study will be to hold ‘verbs of motion’ as constant selected surface entity and then observe which semantic entities namely Figure, Ground,

Manner, Cause, Motion, Path are variously expressed in i

In addition, because of the limited scope, we mainly focus on the first three lexicalization patterns among Talmy’s eight pattems as they are more representative, For the rest five pattems, we just do the job of recognition rather than go futher into their details

novel ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ and the Vietuamese version?

5, Contributian of the study

The study hopes lo explore the main concopls af cognilive scmantios and lexicalization patterns of verbs of motion with typological and universal principles embedded

in them It is hoped that the results of the study will partly contribute to the development of cognitive semantics in general and their lexicalization pattems of verbs of motions in

particular In addition, all the cognitive underpinnings of these patterns are expected to be uncovered, and the sirnitarities and differences are hoped lo be drawn The study, then, will bring in practical benefits to language teachers, translators and those who are in favour of it

6 Methodology of the study:

This study uses a combination of some different methods:

‘Together with these methods, we also use the quantitative procedures that are based on data, facts and [ealurss to examine motion verbs and (heir lexicalivation patterns used in a novel and its translated version in the mother tongue Given this method of inductive reasoning, we expect to roach a confirwation for the conclusions drawn oul Supporting techniques such as referonec 1o the publication, consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colicagues, and parsonal obsarvations are also of great significance

7 Design of the study: The study is divided into thres main parts presented as follows

Part 1: Introduction, which states the reasons, reveals the aims, narrows the scope,

identifics the rescarch questions and presents the significanec, methodology as well as the organization of the study,

Parl 2, including four chapters, reports on the main contents of the study Chapler 1 is concemed with exploring the similarities and differences of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese Chapter 2 is dedicated to examining some main concepts of cognitive semantics and the theory of lexicalization patterns, Chapter 3 deals with the comparative analysis of

of analyzing an aspect of language from a different point of view

Part 3, the last part of the study, is the conclusion which summarizes what has been done, what has nial been covered, accompanied by suggestions for fisther stuty There ars also appendixes where supplemental materials and list of' reference books are provided

14

CHAPTER 1: VERBS OF MOTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

1.1 What is a verb of mation?

Verbs are semantically defined, i.e, as ‘words that designate actions (kiss, rmm), processes (grow, change), experiences (know), or states of being (be, have)’, (Delahunty, 1994: 117) The semantic fimetion of a verb is lo describe a motion, an act, oecurcnee, or mode of being A verb of motion, as its name suggests, is simply a verb that will take agents

from one place to another (e.g go, walk, swim, rast .) Van Valin (1997: 109) argues that

‘for motion verbs, we need fo present the motion plus the change of lovation over time’ The English verbs of motion tend to incorporaie certain specific kinds of semantic features ot components such as Manner (rum, slide, fly), Cause (blow, pull, kick), or Path (enter, rise, follow)

1.2 Classification of English and Vietnamese motion verbs

English language cnhanccs the different classifications of motion verbs fiom the

different points of view We are especially interested in the contributions of Beth Levin

(1993)’s classification With regard to transitive and intransitive motion verbs, Levin (1993: 263-270) proposed the following seven verb classes (See Appendix 1):

a Inherently directed motion: arrive, come, The meanings of these verbs include a

specification of the direction of motion E.g ‘The convict escaped the police

b Leave verbs: abandon, desert, leave, etc These verbs do not specify Manner of

totion; they just indicate thal motion away from a location has laken place Eg We

abandoned the area

¢ Mamner of motion: including Roll verbs (bounce, float, move, ) and Run verbs

(bounce, float, jump, .) Roll verbs specif; manners of motion characteristic of inanimate

entities, and Run verbs descrihe manners in which animate entities can move

d Manner of motion using a vehicle: including Vehicle name verbs (bike, cycle, .), and

Verbs not associated with vehicle names (tly, row .) Verbs that are vehicle names mean

roughly “ga using she vehicle named by the noun’ F.g They skated along the canaV/across (he

lake Verbs that are not vehicle names denote motion using a vehicle but the vehicle name

does not coincide with the verb For instance, /fy implies an airoraft

¢ Walt verbs dunce foxtrot, tango, (apdance, waliz, ctc These verbs mean rouglily

“perform the dance’ E.g They waltzed across/into/through the room

f Accompany verbs: accompany, guide, lead, etc ‘These verbs relate to ans person

taking another fiom one place to another E.g Jackie accompanied Rose to the store

x Chase verbs chase, follow, pursue, shadow, tail, rack, trail, etc These verbs are

typically transitive, with the chaser as subject and the person being chased as object T.g

Jackie chased the thiet

Some famous Vietnamese linguists such as Diép Quang Ban (2003, 2004), Xguyễn Tải Cần (2004), Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Định Văn Đức (1986), Nguyễn Tai (1990), Nguyễn

Kim Than (1977) who have done research into verbs and motion verbs all divide motion

verbs into two main types: verbs of movement such as chay, bay, bỏ, leo, trượt, lưới and

directional verbs such as ra, véo, lén, xndng However, these linguists tend to pay more

attention to the latter verb group because of its special syntactic and semantic characteristics

In this study, we will explore the similarities and differences of basic Unglish and Vietnamese

1notlon verbs based on the seven motion-verb groups taken from Beth Levin’s classification

and their Vieinarnese equivalents

1.3 The syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of motion

Late traditional grarmmar classifies verbs info seven major scrnantic domains: velivity verbs, commumication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, occurrence verbs, existence verbs and aspectual verbs (Biber, 1990: 360) Verbs of motion, which primarily denote actions, fall into the group of activity verbs Examples are come, go, leave, move, nay, ele

(1) They ran through a green paddy field

Verbs of motion, are the head alone in the verb phrase or head of the verbal predicate and take a subject with the semantic role of Agent According to Biber (1999), every varb can ovvur with spacific patterns of clause clemenls which conlain a subject and can also inchide additional adverbials In the Look ‘Longman grammar of spoken and written English’, No proposes five valency patterns for single-word lexical verbs: intransitive, Monotransitive, Ditransitive, Complex transitive and Copular Generally speaking, motion verbs should be grouped inia ths following types

+ Intransitive: Intransitive motion verbs occur in the SV pattern with no object or predicative

complement, For example:

(2) Most people (S) came (¥) Iowever, this type can occur with optional adverbials (in the form of a prepositional phrase) as in:

(3) They (8) went (V) lo Holyhcad and onto Dublin (A)

* Transilive: In terms of transilive verbs, mantion verbs fall into the following typos

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- Mono-transitive: Mono-transitive motion verbs occur with a single direct object in the

pattern SVOa, (4) Then you (8) should move (V) any obstacles (Od) before

- Complex transitive: Complex transitive motion verbs occur with a direct noun phrase followed by an obligatory adverbial in the pattern SVO«A (as in 5) or by an object predicative SVOPo (in most cases adjective as in 6)

(5) He (8) led (V) me (0) to the storchouse (A-obligatory)

(6) He (S) hit (V) the cat (0) dead (Po) Sementically, the English verbs tend to conflate certain specific kinds of semantic

components Manner and path are two important aspects of verb representation that are

systematically conflated in motion, In this rogard, manncr-of:motion verbs refer to the way in which a figure caries out @ motion: whereas path-of-motion verbs refér to the trajectory over which a figure moves, typically, with respect to another refzrence object Linglish intransitive manner verbs in general do not encode information about any specific direction of motion unless they combine with an explicil directional phrase In Ihe sentence “77e walks across the road’ -watk

is the motion verb, which goes with the preposition across which denotes the transversal path, In these cases, the verbs of motion appear to conflate the manner of motion and the prepositions or parheles incorporate the palh ar dircetion of the verbs

Lowever, Linglish also has a handfill of Path verbs, which denote the path of motion such as descend, ascend, exit, leave ‘These verbs exist to a very limited extent as Latinats borrowings They are mute about any specification of the manner in which the movement is carried out; but they include a specification of direction of motion, aven in the absence af an

overt directional complement, ie fle entered

Traditionally, both English transitive and intransitive motion verbs need a locative- Object as in He entered the house on He van into the garden In addition, Tylor, A & Evans,

V (2003) stale that, Fnglish part

numerous meanings associated with them, People offen assign spatial particles based on the

es are spalial oriented; and these spalial particles have

gcometry of a visual scone, In English, spatial oricntation means the location of an object in tolation lo another object, from the point of view of the speaker, wilh respect to the orientation

of ths object itself or with respect to the actual diection of the motion of the object ‘The English particles which complement Path to the main motion verb are likely to encode some scmantic information like goal in (7}, source in (8), vie in (9) and direction in (10)

(7) Ile ran to the store

(8) [ran ftom the store

(9) T slid the sleeve over Ihe valve (10) T slid the coupling mul forward

As understood, English particles can be either spatially-located (above, below, over, in, on, under, undemeath, af) or directionally-oriented (to, toward, onto, into, by; over, past )

1.4 The syntactic and semantic features at Vietnamese motion verbs

Our notion of motion verbs focuses mainly on the viewpoints proposed by Nguyén Lai (1990), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), Nguyễn Tài Cần (2004), Nguyễn Kim Thin (1977) and som other siuđios on Victramose vetbs by Nguyễn Đình Hod (1979), Sophana Srichampa (1997) and Henry Beecher (2004) According to these grammatians, Vietnamese verbs directly express motions of the entities, including actions and states Motion verbs (ineluding directional verbs) take an object or predicative complement In these cases, they are offen transitive verbs with the suibject taking the semantic roles of Agent As seen in Appendix 1, classified as transitive, Vietnamese motion verbs can be mono-transitive (with a direct object)

or complex transitive (with a direct noun phrase followed by an object complement), For example

(1) Mono-transifive: Anh ay (S) kéo (V) ti (©) (He pulled me)

(12) Complex-transitive: Anh ta (8) din (V) tôi (O) ra vườn (A-obligatory)

He led mec ta the garden

As intransitive verbs, Vietnamese motion verbs can ocour without any object or verb

complement like in 141 chay or take an optional adverbial like “vào nhà” in Tôi chạy vào nhà

(1 ran into the house)

Vietnamese motion verbs are mainly manner-of-motion verbs which go together with another word which expresses ‘path’ ot the trajectory of Motion such as chay, bay, bd, treo,

hot, thdi The verbs are used to express the Manner i.e Hén chqy rất nhanh and Cause of

the Motion ic Gid théé dO cay All those associalive clernents associala with cach ofher to

constilufe a motion event

Interestingly, Vietnamese tends to appear in the form of serial verb constructions

With regard to this matter, in the study ‘Serial verb constructions in Vietnamese’, Stichampa,

8 (1997) defines serial verb conslmetions (SVCs) as a sequence of verbs oxcurring logelher with non-overt object and/or non-overt subject; the sentence with non-overt subject is claimed

to be an uifinitival clause which is the adjunct of the main clause For example:

(13) Bà ngữ lăn ra đái (Grandma fell roll on the ground)

In (13), there are two verbs in the sentence: ‘ngd' and ‘lan’ The non-overt subject of the

infinitival clause (Jan ra dit) is controlled by the subject of the main clause, that is ‘Ba’

Another Fingnist on Asian language

Boucher, H (2004: 1) identifies three prominen! variety of SVCs:

18

@ Activity-Goak Tôi điãn com (1 went to eat rice)

Téi dén tim em (I came to look for you)

Gi) Resultative: Gió thôi đỗ cây (The wind blew down the trees)

Guân đối ta đánh thắng giặc Mỹ xâm lược

(Our army has defeated the American invaders) đi) MotioPath — Tôirơi vào một cái lỗ, (I fall into a hole}

As sunmwrizod by Trần Hữu Mạnh (2007:116), VicLnar

grammarians consider tha first verb in a series the main verb, and other elements following the main verbs are post- modifiers In (9, (i) and (ii), the second verb conveys the Purpose or goal, the Result and the Path of the main verb respoctiv

The Motion-Path SVCs often consist of a manner verb indicating movement and

change of location which can be combined with directional verbs ra, vào, lên, xuống, sang, qua, vỗ, lại, di, dén as in chay ra (can out), di vio (come in/into), đrèo lên (clianb tp), nhậy

xuống (jump down) At this point, Nguyén Kim Than (1977: 79) confirms that these

directional verbs are originally full verbs but when they are placed after another verb, they bleach their full meanings and grammatical features, and become functional words denoting dircetionail mesmings He states that this word group only acts as ‘grammmalicat taol” that adds directional meaning to the main verbs and calls them ‘phé déng tt phuong hung’ Dinh Van Dnte (1986), Diép Quang Ban (2004) agrees that these verbs are not filll directional verbs any inore, but become ‘tir phy’ (complement word) encoding Path of the preceding motion verb Nguyễn Lai (1990) considers these wards ‘trang-gidi tir (prepositional adveths) which connect the main verb and its complement and confine in themselves two semantic meanings

of motion verbs: Motion and Direction

In our sense, those directional verbs take the tole of a complemont to the main verb and acl as the “directional complement verbs’ In this regard, the information of motion in a sentence consists of three semantic elements: Motion, Manner and Direction For example

Molion+ Mamer Direction When placed after a manner verb, the directional complement verbs can not be left out,

as if they are omitted, the sentence is grammatically incorrect It is clear that (14) cannot be transferred into ‘Xe dé chay cite’, These directional complement verbs, therefore, are dependent

to the main verbs

Interestingly, in Vietnamese, these directional complement verbs can function as the

in thernsclves

min verbs which cneode gath-oFinotion verbs These path verbs camry two

semantic meanings and ofien require an Olecative: Motion and Direction of Motion:

Motion + Direction

Regarding motion verbs, we present here a list of main path verbs which may fianction

as both full verbs and directional complement verbs conveying the meanings of prepositions in

Path yerbs/ Directional Full verbs (in English | PFvosttlon

1 | qua/sang, to cross/get (over), pass | across

denote more semantic meanings in Vietnamese l'or example, ‘ra’ (go/come out) goes from a

narrow point and moves to a wider point, It refers to direction, not personal relations The schema for this verb may be diagrammned as follows:

‘These verbs in Vietnamese have wider usages especially when there is an implication

of geographic dircetion af movernent Vietnam is divided into threo regions: the North, the Cente and the South So, the direction from a ‘northern province’ to a ‘southern province’ is vào (eorme/go in), movement in the opposite direction with the verb ra (come/go out) Kor example, a parson in Hanoi (in the North) will say

(1Ø) Mai tở sẽ di vào Hué - I will ge to Hué tomonow

Mai tớ sẽ đi lên Sa Pa/ Lạng Sơn

Mãi tớ sẽ đi sang Lâo

Mai tở sẽ đi xuống Ninh BinlL

- Iwill ge to Lang Son tomorrow

- Twill gp ta Taos tomorrow

- I will go to Ninh Binh tomonow

20

As it can be seen, the directional complement verbs are much more specific in

denoting Path in Vietnamese The English preposition ‘to’ is used to replace its Vietnamese

counterparts ‘vao, lén, sang, dén, xu6ng’ The diversity in geographic direction of movement

in (16) can be represented in the following schema

One more different thing lies in the semantic description of manner In English

manner verbs, manner category is encoded in the verbs themselves Not to run parallel with this, Vietnamese tends to use more neutral motion verbs plus an adjunct adding manner

information to the main motion verbs For example, English verbs amble, backpack, meander,

inch, limp, mince express different ways of walking, and they are translated into

Vietnamese as di nirée kiéu, di lang thang, di ldn lan, di khdp khiéng, di dng eo, (see

Appendix 1),

1.5 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese verbs of motion

Taking English and Vietnamese verbs of motion into comparison, the study finds out the following main similarities and differences on valency patterns and verb meanings

+ Similarities:

1 English and Vietnamese motion verbs both fall into the group of activity verbs They take the semantic role of describing motion and are the head in the verb phrases

2 Both English and Vietnamese motion verbs are transitive and intransitive verbs They

appear mostly in the patterns of SV and SVO They can be used either as simple verbs (one-

word verbs) in J cross the road or as compound verbs in J rode across the road or Tôi chạy

vào nhà

3 Vietnamese motion verbs pattern with English equivalents in that many of them are manner-of-motion verbs which couple with another word to express the path of motion.

4, English and Vietnamese verbs of motion both have a group of verbs that incorporate the path or direction of the veris, They are: crass, arrive, come, go, ascend descend, enter, exit inTnglish

ml và, ra, lên, xuống, đồn, Ãi, và, qua, Iai in Vietnam

5 Tinglish particlos and Vietnamese counterparls are spatially oriented

+ Differences

1 Besides the common SV pattern, Vietmamese motion verbs tend to encode a complex motion event fonning serial verb constructions There are three formations of SVCs: Activity-Goal, Resultative and Motion-Path SVCs ‘I'hese formations are hardly seen in English ‘The typical

formation of motion verbs in Linglish is Verb-particle constructions

2 Vietnamese uses path complement verbs to encode ths Path of Motion (Vmannercause | Directional Complement verbs) whereas in English, the path of motion is incorporated in the

particles (Vmannericause particles)

3 In Brglish, the Latin-derived pall-incorporaling verbs such as ascend, descend, enter, exu are only directional full verbs The Vietnamese counterparts of these words are categorized as

both full verbs encoding the Path of the motion, and ‘directional complement verbs” which

stand after motion verbs and convey prepositional meanings

4, Both path verbs and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese are spatially oriented,

Vietnamese path verbs encode Motion and Path, and at the same time, they convey the spatial scope of the located object (vao- enter- goes from a wide point to a narrow point) In English,

the spatial meaning is often encoded mm the spatial particles

3 Manner information is more allen encoded in English motion verbs themselves and in

CHAPTER 2

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND THE THEORY OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

2.1 An overview of Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Semantics

2.1.1 Cognitive Linguistics and the key concepts

In the cightics, a new approach to the study of language began to develop: Cognitive Linguistics (CL) This school of linguistics was born as a reaction against formal approaches

ond gensration of Cognilive

Scicnee in the 1970s, which studies the harman mind

Coqnitive linquiscics i] is sn approach to lanquade

that is based on o: experience cf the worid snd the

way we perceive and conceptualize it

(Ungerer & Schmid, 1997: x)

CL emphasizes that the study of language is the study of language use (Fauconier, 2000) because language is an integral part of cognition which reflects the interaction of social, cultural, psychological, communicative and functional cognitive development and mental processing The followings are the key concepls in CLs

» Conceptualization: Conceptualization refsrs to the ways people perceive things or siluntions Ons thing or situation em be concoptuilized tn different ways, rosulling in different linguistic cxpressions, Langacker (1991:2) claims that ‘meaning is cquated with

conceptualization’

+ Embodiment: The meaning of fanguage is cmbodicd, that is, the spcakex/writer’s bodily experience triggers the linguistic expressions, People perceive things or event differently, and thus, language used by us is a description of human perception of reality

» Experience: Experience refers to the perception people hold of the world around them What we perceived from the world is stored in our mind and turned into knowledge ‘This experience is then expressed through languages ‘The experience of each person may be

+ Frame; Charles J Fillmore (1982) develops a theory of ftaine semantics which argues that speakersiteaders would not understand words without accessing the entire knowledge relating

to that word, In other words, a word activates a fame of semantic knowledge relating 10 specific concept to which it refers

Perspectives: Perspectives inchude ‘orientation’, ‘vantage point’, ‘directionality’,

subjectivity’, ote, The cxtemal world (reality) is perccived difftrently by different pcople from different standpoints dz lo their differences in their perspeetive viewpaint Then, different concepts are produced in the parceivers, leading to different construals which result

in different linguistic expressions

structure, which emerges from bodily experience According to Gardenfors (1995), meanings can not stand apart ftom the people who use and create them because all linguistic expressions

must come fiom and be activated by our mind and brains Cognitive semanticists are guided by four central assumptions or tenets as summarised by Evans & Gres (2006; 157):

@ Conceptual structure is embodied Ow conceptual system arises fiom our bodily

experiences and is sucaningful by virtuc of its grounding in these experiences From this

assumplion it follows thal any theory of conceptual struchms should be consonant with the

ways in which we experience the world around us

b Semantic structure is conceptual structure The meanings conventionally associated with

words and other linguistics units (bound morphemes, constructions, ele) can be oquated with

concepts This is noi to say that semantic structure and conceptual structure are identical:

linguistic concepts are only a subset of the possible concepts in the mind of the speaker

© Meaning representation is encyclopaedic, words do not represent ‘neatly packaged

bundles of meaning [ ] but serve as poinis of access lo vasl repositories of knowledge?

(livans & Green, 2006: 160) in order to understand the meaning of a given utterance, we

draw on our encyclopaedic knowledge relating to the specific situation depicted by the

utterance to construct its meaning

@ Meaning construction is conceptualisation Meaning is not fixed but a matter of construal

and conventionalisation ‘Meaning construction is | | a dynamic process whereby linguistic

units serve as prompts for an array of conceptual operations and the recruitment of background knowledge It follows ttom this view that meaning is a process rather than a disorete ‘thing’ that can be ‘packaged’ by language.’ (Evans & Green, 2006: 162)

2.4.3 Figure and Ground

Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Talmy propascs thal in tanguag:

fundanental eoguilive functions: Figure and Ground (2000: 311) This pair of concepts can

24

path, site of orientstion is conceived as a variable, the

particuler value of which :s che relevant issuc

stations tting relative ta a refer Ẽ

respect to which the tFiqgure's path, site or ori

character zed

With regard to the linguistic representation of Figure and Ground, Talmy (2000a: 334) proposes an order of precedence regarding their occurrence in syntactic structures ‘The principle states:

a Lheic basic foc, Lhe É

ever che Gecund’

"this precedence order is determined by the general human conceptualization of the Figure and Ground in a motion event (Higure- the moving entity and Ground- the stationary setting) Specifically, Yalmy points out:

For mominals in a single clausc, Lhis pe

dence cong

OL expression along a case hiccarchy Ia a avs-agenlive

g.ausc, tue Fleure is subjeck ane she Czound is [oblique]

objecl In ai agenlive clause, where Lae Agenl is

sukjec., Lhe Figuse is dizecL objecL and Lhe Ground is

oblique ob le

With regard to Figure and Ground in single sentences, ‘Talmy (2000) presented a list of

‘detinitional and associated characteristics’ as under:

Dolins tienal Has wnksown spalia— Aels as a colerense

characteristic (or temporal} entity, having knewn

oropert'es so be pertias that can

+ Targer + geometrically + geometrically moze simpler in its comples in ius Lcealmenl Lrcalme:l

‘more salienz, orce + more back grounded,

The Figure and Ground relation is most obviously seen in sentences with prepositional phrases Tn lhe sontonce “The pen rolled off the zable’, the Figure is ‘che pen’, a movable object, the primary one and whose path and site sct on the stationary “aable’ - the Ground, a reference entity, the second object for ‘dhe pen’ to move It can be seen that the relevance of cognitve- semantic catagories shows up in relation to a semantic event of motion and location, that is, an event conceptualized as involving one physical object moving or located with respect to another

2.2 The theory of lexicalization patterns

2.2.1 What is lexicalization?

Lexicalivalion is ong of those terms whieh linguists do nol usc in the same way and

Lipka (1990: 95) argues that there is no single, comect definition of the term Lipka puts

lexicatizalion more succinctly

2 would like to define lexicalization az tke phenomenon that a compiex lexeme once coined tende to become a single

corple.e Le Ail, a simple lexem2, Through Lhis proc

none of the meaning of under and none of the meaning of stand

lexicon of a language and the process of establishing a new unit in any specific lexicon is

commonly refarred (o as Iexicativailion In other words, lexiealizalion is the pros

by which concepts arc cneoded in words

Involune If of Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Leonard Talmy delves into the exploration of the systematic rclations in language between meaning and overt linguistic forms, in other words, into the process of lexicalization (Talmy, 2000b: 24);

Leziczlisazicn is involved where a parzicular meaning

36

‘Talmy’s basic assumption is that we can isolate elements or components separately

willin the domain of meaning and within the domain of Rnguisti s Mustraled,

an English molion verb (surface

zero), and interpretation

2.2.2 The Motion Event

So far, there have been some interesting cognitive approaches to motion

conceplualivation, Fillmore (1985) developed @ theory af Frame Semantics in which he specifics the four basic components of the anotion frame: some culity (Theme) starls oul in one place (Source) and ends up in some other place (Goal), having covered some space between the two (Path) For example:

(1) The policeman rushed away fiom the door, and toward the crowd

Langacker (1987) characterizes motion in terms of a sequenced transformation of

component states situated in time Specifically, motion is defined as a mover m’s successive occupation of location /7 at the time moment #2, occupying location £2 at ths moment t2, location (3 al moment 13, and location Ii at tmoment #2 Langacker’s framework relies on the general concepls of mover (trajector), time (moment and sequence), and

location, logether with the conceplualiver (ef Langacker 1987: 145, 166-8)

According to Jackendof (1990), the ga 1 conceptual structure of thotion contains a

set of abstract categories such as Thing, Event, State, Action, Place, and Path in an organization that he calls ‘a function-argument’ with basic ‘conceptual functions’ include GO, STAY, FROM, TO, VIA, LET, CAUSE For example, the ‘motion! sentence The train went from N¥ to LA can be analyzed as follows (Jackendot£, 1996: 108)

[ROM (NYD]

[Rvent GO (Thing TRAIN], [Pen TO([LA] b

‘The most fully specified treatment of motion however, can be seen m ‘Motion livent” proposed by Talmy (2000) In volume TI, 2000, Toward a cognitive semantics, Talmy

classifies motion into Iwo Iypes, based on the types of motion found in motion evens: translational motion and self-contained motion In Talmy’s (2000b:35) words, ‘lif tvanslational motion, an object’s basic location shifts ftom one point to another in space In

self-contained Motion, an object Keeps its same, or “average.” location Self-contained Molion generally consists of oscillation, tolalion, dilation (expansion and contraction),

wiggle, local wander, or test’, Let us consider examples

(15) Ray enlsred the room = translational motion

(16) The bullerfly havered over the lower = self-contained motion According to Talmy, an event is a portion of reality which has been delimited or bounded by the human mind, Moreover, an event can be conceptualised as having a particular type of internal structure and degree of complexity Talmy considers a situation containing motion and the continuation of a stationary location alike as a motion event, He developed an analysis of basic motion events with fonr basic semantic components: (i) Figure: the entity that is moving or located; (ii) Graund: the entity which acts as a spatial reference point for the motionocation of the figurs: (iii) Path: the path of motion of the figure and (iv) Manner the manner of motion by which the figure moves along the path (Talmy, 2000b: 25)

Inaiddition, Talmy proposes that he cormponcnl of Mation (with capital M) refers to the

presence per se of motion or locatedness in the event | | In addition to these internal

components, a Motion cvent can be associated with an cxtcrnal Co-event that most often bears

the relation of Manner or of Cause to it Let us ukustrate it with the following example:

(17) Potter walked quietly down the stairs

Potter is the Figure, the stairs is the Ground and down is the Path ‘Ihe verb, to walk expresses simultaneously the fact of Motion (framing event) and the Manner of motion

(Co-event)

With reference to Motion event, Slobin (2004) thinks that Talmy’s semantic

components are too general, He broke these elements inte more fine-grained categories:

- Source: initval 'oeatio"

- Goal: final “ocation

Milestone: locatzon passed alozg path

+ Path (the trajectory of che + r- Direction of movement:

forward, up, north, ets

- Deixs: direction with reqard to viewpoint

The mannct-incorporating type expresses manner in the main verb An cxample of a

manner-ineorporating language, according to Talmy’s typological classification, is English, ie He went inio the house, The bottle flouted mio the cave, Vietnamese also appears to be grouped into

‘this type, ie Né ehay vao nha, In these examples, the manner 1 expressed by the main verb (in

boldface), and the path is expressed by an element other than a verb (in italics), which ‘Talmy calls

a satellite of the main verb

‘The path-inoorporating typ:

‘Vistnamese motion verbs are of this type, like in Ané 4y va o nha (Ile enters the house), or

expresses path instead of manmer in the main verb Many

C6 Ấy đến hâm qua (Sho came yasterday) in which Ihe path is expressed by Lhe varbs (in boldface}

The grounctincorporating type express

saticnl properties of the ground in the main verb such as shape and consistency An example of a ground-incorporating language according to Taliny’s typology is Atsugewi (Talmy 2000: 24), translated into English as

‘Runny icky material [2.g guts] are lying on the ground.”

2.2.3 Satellites

‘The path is expressed in English by a category which Talmy calls satellite According

to Tahrny (20000):

the satellite to the verb or simly, the satellite,

is the grammatical category of any constituent cther than a noun phrase or prepositional—phvase complenent, chat -s in a sister relation to the verb rcot It relates zo che verk oct

as a dependent to a head The satellite, which can øe either

a bond allix or a irece word, is Lhus inlended Ly encompass

al ol Lhe following grammatical Lorms, wich -rauilionally

Rrglish verb particles, Germar separable and inseparad’e vero

crefixes, Laci or Russian verb prefixes, Chinese vero

volysynlhevic allixes around Lhe verb rool

2.2.4 A two-way typology of motion verbs

Besides the three-way typology of motion verbs; that is, motion verbs encode in themselves manner, path or figure, Talmy (2000b: 117) also postulates a two-way typology of lexicalization of motion verbs which looks at the morphosyntactie constituents encoding the Path component of a motion event In this regard, Talmy’s (2000) work distinguishes two

different types of languages, ie., satellite-itamed and verb-framed languages Verb-framed languages (S-languages) lexicalize the trajectory of motion, aspect, change of state, action

correlation and realization in the main verb (1 b/ew out the candle - change of state), whereas

lexicalization is expressed by parlicles or saicllites in the satellite languages (S-

languages) The two types of conflations can be represcuted as follows:

Sutellite-framed lexicalization:

V (Manner/Cause | Move) + Sat (Path)

Verb-framed lexicalizalion:

V (Path + Move) (+ adjunct Manner/Cause expression)

As regards Talmy’s typology, English is characteristic off an Sdanguage while Vietnamese is

likely to bear the characteristics of both an S-langnage and a V-language

2.3 Summary

This chapter has dealt with the birth and main tencts of CLs and the theory of lexicalization patlors with ils typological and universal principles across languages It can be

30

seen that ‘Talmy’s work is the exploration of the systematic relations between meaning and linguistic forms i order to find out whether langnages exhibil a small number of patterns (ic, a lypology) or a singls paltern (ic, a universal) In his exploration of the domain of motion, he proposes the typology of path conflaling, mammer-conflating and ligure-conflating languages, by looking at which linguistic forms typically encode the Path of motion, the typology of verb-tiamed and satellite-ftamed languages is put forward,

CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

OF MOTLON VERBS LN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

3.1 Tntraduction

In the theory of lexicalizvalion patterns, Takny (2000) praposes a three-way typology

of the verb root, Three typologically principal fexicalization types for verb roots are presented

by virtue of the verb root expressing either the Co-event (Manner or Cause), the Path, or the

Vigure in addition to the fact of Motion Other conilations or minor patterns may exist within

a language, though languages are categorsed according to the most characteristic lexicalisation pattern they exhibit In most cases, a language uses only one of these types for the verb in its most characteristic expression of Motion Accarding lo Talmy (2000b: 27),

‘characteristic means thal (1) iLis collaguaal in style, rather than litzrary, stilied, and so on, (2)

i is frequent in occurrence in spoceh, rather than onily occasional; (3) it is pervasive, rather than limited’

In this chapter, we would like to make a comparison between lexicalization pattems of English and Vietnamese motion verbs The motion verbs used for analysis are taken from four sources; Takiny (2000)’s examples, Levin (1993)’s classification of motion verbs in Appendix

1 and their translations from ‘The English-Viemamese dictionary of Institute of Linguistics

(2006) and real-life spoken language realized by the author

The method for comparison is to analyze the lexicalizalion patterns of motion verbs in the two languages under ‘Talmy’s theory in order to find out how these patterns fit into the twa languages as well as [ho similarities and differences,

3.2 Lexicalization patterns of mation verks

3.2 Lexicalization pattern I: Motion + Co-event (Manner‘Cause)

Tn one group of languages, the verb oxprssses both the facl of motion and its marmsr or

its cause In these languages there are typically a set of frequently-used verbs that express

motion “ooourring in various manners or by various causes" (I'almy, 2000b:27) In other words,

the verb typically expresses at once the Motion and a Co-event, usually either the Manner or the Cause of the Motion English is thz pratolypical exampls of this group Tls sonmtic-Lo-si facz relationship here can be represented as follows:

Motion + Co-event (aanaecanse) + (Path Sutellites + Ground)

Or in dhe accompanying diagram as under

[Figure Mơưim Pah Cremdliesm © Relation [vent] io-crent

Euabiement Conse Mimmr

Non-agentive a The rock slid’rolled’bounced down the hill

b The gate swung/creaked shut on its rusty hinges

6 The smoke swirled/squeesed through the opening

Agentive d I slidvolled/bounced {he keg inlo Ue sloreroom

6 | hristed!’popped the cork out of the bottle Self-agentive L Lrawlinpedjunped/stunbled/rushed/groped my way down he stairs

g She wore a green dress to the party

Move + Cause

Non-agentive h The napkin blew off the tuble

i The bone putied loose from its socket

j The water hailed down to the midline of the pot

Agentive k, I pushed/threwhicked the keg into the storeroom

LJ blewéflicked Ibe anl off my plale

Ti | chopped/sawed the tree down to lhe ground at (he base

0 | knocked‘pounded’ hanwmered the nail into the board with a mallet

Let usillustrate the Motion Co-event conflation in two of Talmy’s examples above:

32

In both cases, the subjects of the sentences ‘dhe rack’ and ‘the napkin’ plays the role of the Figure and (he objects “the dill” and “the table’ play that of Ue Ground which in these examples also expresses source of movement, In the sense of this study, Figure is the moving object while Ground is the entity that the igure is moving in relation to The rock and the napkin in thesc examples ae the moveable objects while se hill and the table function as fixed places The particles down and off function as the Path, The verbs rolled and blew

express the Motion components In addition, rof! in (a) offers information about the Manner

of motion, Uhul is the way in which Motion is performed; and Alew in (j) about the Cause of motion or what originates the Motion itself,

At this point, it is necessary to describe in more details the semantic categories of

basic componcnis ofa Motion avert, As discussed by Tabny (2000b:t52), Marner refers to a

subsidiary action or state that a Patient manifests concurrently with its main action or state It

is regularly incorporated in English vetbs of motion a3 float in The balloan float into the church, which means ‘move, floating in the process’ In order to cast more light on the specific details cucoded in verbs, some linguists such as Ibarrctxc-Antuiiano (2006a), Ozgaligkan (2004), Slobin (2000, 2005) have subdivided Manner into different semantic categories Our study adopts Tharretxe-Antufiano (2006h)'s summary list of fine-grained

ananner categorics as the basis for the analysis of motion verbs:

1 Motor pattern: basic lucomslive ubililies: ways of walking,

canning, lumping, swimming and flying

2 Energy: stawina required for performing worion; e.g throw, fling, shure

3 Forced motion: notion “aqui res an effort to be performed:

7 Leisurely motion: molion Lor pleasures e.g., fino, Leck

8 Wo aim in motion: nu syccizl purpose; c.g., coum, saunter

9 Violent motion:

qe, Charge, dash

10 Unsteady motion: unbalanced motion: a.q., totter, stagger

11 Rate: speed of motion (fast or slow ; incre

decreasing ); @.g., hurry, dash

12 State of Figure: physical or psycaologival state; £.g

rh roots of English languages expre:

the verb blow in (j) means ‘move from (cue to} the air blowing on it’, Both Manner and Cause are not indicated inflectionally

In comparison, Vietnamese also demonstrates the features of a satellite language in which Manner and Cause of motion can be conflated with Motion in the main verb of

a clause, inthis regard, we propose a list of Vietnamese equivalents of this conflation type

(2) Move + Manner:

Non-agentive a” Quả bỏng lăn xuống dường

b” Cái cửa bị thôi đóng lại ø' Khói cuộn lên mải

Agentive d” Tôi lăn cải thùng vào kho

e” Tối nhắc cái bát trong nồi ra

Self-agentive Con mẻo nhảy lên mái nhà

°, Cô ây nặc một chiếc váy xanh tới bữa tiệc,

Move + Cause

Non-agentive h’ Ta giay bi thổi bay ra khỏi bản

i” Khoá bị kéo long ra khỏi ố

J’ Nước sỗi xuống tân đáy xoong

Agentive K” Tôi đây cải thùng vào kho

1 Tôi thỏi con kiến khôi cái đĩa

in’, Téi chit cai cay xuống tận gốc

nỉ Tôi treo bức tranh lên tưởng bằng một cái móc

Take a’ and 2’ into consideration, fhe conflation of Manner and Cause are sect

Motion Event of Vietnamese motion verbs

‘Vietnamese, ig blow down - thai ngã, thôi đồ, thổ

For this reason, Vietnamese equivalents of English motion verbs are more complex and

encode more semantic companenis than the original ones

Searching through Levin’s classification of motion verbs and its translation, we have

found that in Victnarnese, there exisl no group verbs that are vehicle names such as balloon,

bicycle, bike, boat, bus, taxi or Waltz verbs that are names of dances such as samba, tango

Instead, Vietnamese language often uses some neutral verbs like di chay, nhdy plus names

of vehicles or dances, for example: dé (bang) 6 16, ahdp diéu samba Therefore, il can be

concluded that in Vietnamese has no event that conflates Move with vehicle names or dance

names

As stated carlicr, in English manner verbs, manner information is cneoded in the verbs

themselves while Vietnamese tends to use more neutral motion verbs plus an adjunct adding

manner category to the main motion verbs For example, in Vietnamese, people often say: véi

vàng chay, chay nwée kigu, wilh chay as (he neutral maint verb plus vi vang, miedo kids as adjunets to provide more manner information to chay In English, manner verbs appear to be

more dynamic and people just say: jury and canter ‘These show that Vietnamese is likely to

omit the manner information in the main verbs, or in other words, seert Lo favour tess dynamic descriptions of manner In order to supply the same quantity and specificity of

information that is contained inglish motion | manner verbs, Vietnamese is prone to an

lên, xuống .) However, with the use of directional complement verbs after manner-of- motion

verbs, Vietnamese tends lo choose and empha

the whole Irajectory of Motion, ic from

outside to inside or from inside to outside (C8 ấy chạy ra sân), whersas ít is likely that in

English, the irajectory of Motion incorporate different ‘dircetions’; i.c both outside and into

(She ran out into the garden) This can also be seen in the pair examples d and d’, j andj’, k and

&*, mand m’, and nand 1”

Moreover, direclional complement! verbs in Vietnamese and particles in English arz both spatially oriented Ly Toan Thang (2005: 247) asserts that this results from the cognitive

process in human minds in the interaction with the outside world, He gives an example of the preposition ‘oul? in English and ils equivalent: the directional complement verb a” in

Vietnamese In English, ‘out’ is a preposition that specifies a Direction from a place to

another separated place, from Inside to Outside In Vietnamese, ‘ra’ modifies a Direction

from Tnside to Outside, from a narrow, dark point lo a larger and brighter point In view of

(c) Khoi euén én mdi, the Vietnamese people often think of the smoke rolling ftom a kitchen

that is small, narrow and dark to the space that is open and much larger

Up to this point, we have discussed the relation between the Co-event and the motion

However, in the languages that have it, the pattern sccn so far for Co-cvent conflation

normally applizs far beyond the expressions of simple Motion Rather, it can bear a wide

range of relations (Talmy, 2000h: 42-47):

+ Precursion relation: the Co-cvent precedes the main motion cvent bat docs not cause or

assist 1ts occurrence

(3) The glass splintered onto the floor

(3°) Cai ly roi vé trén san nha (The glass fell splintered on the floor)

+ Enablement reiation: the Co-event directly precedes the main motion event and enables the

oveurrence af an event that canses the Motion bul does not itself cause tlis Motion All (d), (@), Œ), (, (a), (a) are exaunples of this relation Let’s take (@) and (¢") as examples:

(e) Ltwisted the cork out of the bottle

(`) Tôi nhắc cái bát trong ndi ra? (I look the bowl out of the sauccpan)

In these examples, the cork and the bowl themselves can not move out of the bottle/saucepan, Rather, that is the movement of our band and arm, which are the events that

do cause the motion

+ Causal relation: ‘the Co-event can precede the main Motion event in the case of onset causation, or it can co-occur with the main Motion event in the case of extended causation”

(Talmy, 2000b: 44-45), TL is construcd as bringing about the occurence of this motion and the

36

motion event would not take place if the Co-event did not occur Analyzing the English examples, we can sec that (2), ©, (m), (n) belong to the Onscl causation, and (h), 1, @ conglate extended causation:

(k) | pushed the keg into the storeroom

() The water boiled down Lo the midline of the pol

(4) Gid thổi chiGc nmi roi xuống đất

(the wind blew the hat fall downto the ground.) (5) Nước cuộn lên bở 42 (Water rolled nto the dyke’s base)

+ Concomitance relation: the Co-event co-occurs with the main motion event and is an

activity that the Kigure of the motion event additionally exhibits ‘he woman in She ware a

green dress ta the party could weer a green dress wholher she wend to the party or not, and without any effect on her path to the party Similarly, Vietnamese also has the same examples expressing concomitantce relations like this:

(6) 1iắn xách chai đến nhà Ba Kiến (Nam Cao: 1?)

(He took the bottle came to Ba Kien’s house.) One more thing that is worthily noted is that Vietnamese does not conflate MOVE with concomitant sods emitted by a Figure during its moving as in English On the contrary, English has a fair share of such conflations in motion verbs such as roar, wheeze, whisile, ory

Ind whistled past the graveyard, Talmy (2000b-46) argues that the Figure (J) Move while

emitting a whistle Contrastingly, Vietnamese is likely lo use a separale advertial clauselphrase

or a coordination with co-ordinators ‘vita vita’; Le Toi vite di vie phòng vừa huyt sao; Vira di

vào phông tôi vừa lagjt sáo; ar Tôi huội sáo lửn đĩ vào phòng,

- Caneurrent resuit: the Co-everd results from or is caused by ths main motion evend, and would not otherwise occur, (0) and (b") are typical examples of this type: the gate/window shut as a result of and concurrently with the air’s motion swinging blowing onto it

(8) Tho gate swung stul on its rusty hinges (b) Cải cửa bị (gi6) théi déng lai, (The window is blown shut)

+ Subbsequence relaiian: the Co-cvent takes place dircelly after tho main motion evenl, and is enabled by, caused by, or is the purpose of that motion event Example (k) in English is

equivalent to (k") in Vietnamese:

k) | kicked the keg into the storeroom, (`) Tôi đá cải thùng rỗng vào kho

In all examples depicting varying relations of Motion with the Co-event, the general contrast belwcon English and Vietnamese is (hal Victnames:

in the form of a SVC which has two verbs (#idi roi, di déng, cuận lên, rơi rỡ .) in a SVC

to express the MOVE In the English version, we only use 1 verb to encode the MOVE and

cneades a complex motion avert

the satellite to express the palh of Motion, Victnamese language uscs directional complement yarbs: lên and xuống as satellites to denote the Path of Motion, whercas in English, the Path

of Motion is encoded in the prepositions

Beyond thal, Ihe expression af Path in Fnglish seems lo be more complex than in

Vietnamese, With the use of the prepositions like onto in 2, ott of in 2, down fo in 3 or into ink, English appears to focus on more than one path information, ie into expresses both location

‘or and direetion/destinalion ‘lo’ of the Motion Vielnar can mol cncode both this

information in its preposition or complements Instead, it tends to relocate the position of Path

component, from preposition in English to verb in Vietnamese in (2) the direction of

motion (encoded in preposition to in English) is mapped onto one of the serial verhs (Le ra)

Now that we have cxamined the scmantic components which underpin the

conceptualisation of the Motion Event and its varying relations with a Co-event, we see in the first place the following simitarities: (4) Lexicalization pattern | (Motion : Co-event) is

typical in English and it docs exist in Victnamesc Victnamecsc exhibits characteristics that

have been associated with satellite-framed language as English Vietnamese patterns with English in thal il uses a rich range of manner-ofmotion verbs coupled with another word

which expresses ‘path’ (ii) Vietnamese and English language both bear the varyuig relations

beyond the simple motion encoded with Manner and Cause They are Precursion,

Enablement, Concomitance, Causal, Subsequence and Concurtent For these reasons, it can

first he cơnehuded thal Victnames

Some differences have been also worthily noted: (@) In English, the Path of Motion is

encoded in the prepositions; while in Vietnamese, it is incorporated in a number of directional

it tends mainly mapped onto manner adjuncts in Vietnamese (iv) English expression of Path

in this lsxiealizalion paHem lends lo be more complex than that ia Viclnamese Different

English prepositions and particles can be combined together after the main verbs to encode

38

different directions of Motion: out into, down to, in through, up towards (v) Vietnamese

motion verbs do not conflate Move with sound emission and they also do nat have verbs

using vehicle or dance names

3.2.2 Lexicalization pattern 2: Motion + Path

In the second typological pattern tor the expression of motion, the verb conflates both the fact of Motion and Path, Romance languages are of this type In these languages, there are a series of surthce verbs which express motion along various paths The conilation pattern can

be represented schematically as follows

Motion + Path + (À dịun€tMamaerCame expression + Ground)

According to Talmy (20000), Spanish molion verbs are perfect examples of this type: Spanish expressions of Motion with conflation of Path taken (rom Talny (2000: 49-51)

and Vietnamese addition by translation

(7) Motion + Path (non-agentive and agentive)

Non-agentive

a La batella eniré a la cueva (flotando)

The bottle MOVED-in to the cave (floating)

“The bottle floated into the cave’

Cái clui trội vào trong hang

b La botella sales de la cueva (flotando)

The botile mMoven-our from the cave (floating)

“The bottle floated ont of the cave’

“Cải chai trôi ra ngoài động

t Labotella ga pơ le piiứadiaandd) thebotle moved-by past the rock (floating)

“The bottle floated past the rock’

Cải chai trôi qua ting da

a Labotella pasd por el tubo (flotando) thebotle moved-through through the pipe (floating)

“The bottle floated through the pipe’

Cải chai trôi qua ống thoát nước

Agentive

e Meti el barril a la boáega - rođándolo 1aMOvHb-in the keg to the storeroom rolling-it

‘Lrolled the keg into the stareroam’

Toi kéo cái thủng vào kho

£ Saqué el corcko de la botclla retorciéndolo Lamovan-ont the cork fromthe hottle twisting-it

“Towisted the cork ont of the boitle®

Tôi văn cải nút chai ra (khỏi cải chai).

It can be seen ñom the examples in (7) that the Spanish verbs euró, salió, pasó,

barril, corcho incorporate the Motion and the Path component Furthermore, as the examples

(a-d) illustrate, if the Co-event (either Manner or Cause) is expressed in Spanish, it tends to be

in an independent element, usually adverbial adjuncts, as in (a), (b) for Manner and (¢), (d) for

Cause

English does not run parallel to this tendency From the added translations, Vietnamese

appears to pattern with English in that both have a Motion verb complemented with another

element (particles in English and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese)

However, on the other hand, patterning with Spanish, Vietnamese also has directional

full verbs that incorporate the path or direction of the verbs vio, ra, lén, xudng, dén, di, vé,

sang, qua, lại, tới , Le: Bác vào nhà chơi; Bác lại nhà

Taking Path components into consideration, Talmy (2000b: 53-55) presents three

main components: Vector, Conformation and Deictic Slobin (in press) proposed a fourth component, Earth-based orientation This component relates direction of motion to earth- based geometry: north-south-east-west, up-down, and other absolute coordinates (upstream, downstream)

The term ‘Vector’ refers refers to the dynamic phase property of the Figure's

movement with reference to the Ground on the route of the motion Talmy recognizes three

basic universal Vector components: Arrival (initial stage), Departure (ending stage) and

Transversal (between initial and ending stage) of a Figure in relation to the Ground (Talmy,

2000b: 53) Talmy also provides the prepositions that he used to show ‘Vectors’ in the Figure- Ground Schema which can be summarized as follows:

(8) Arrival: The napkin blew onto the bed

(9) Departure: The napkin blew outof the box

(10) Transversal: The ball tolled across the ñeld

In conceptualization, languages vary in the degree of specification of each of the three

components As in the given examples (8-10), English language is typical of using

preposition/particle to encode the Vector components In this respect, Vietnamese also patterns with English in that it has a number of manner-conflating verbs which use directional

40

complement verbs to exprass the path of motion Inherently directed Motion verbs and Chase verbs are (ypical of this conflation type For example:

(1) Anhta—chay vao nih (He ran info the house)

FIGURE MOVE | MANNER PATIT GROUND

Different fom Engtish and Victamese (in the mentioned casas), Spanish verbs conflate both the Motion and the Veclor The proposition that eau occur int with a Ground nominal represents the Vector alone

(12) ArrivaL Xe tới trương lúc 6 mỡ (The car arrived at the school at 6)

(13) Departure, Xe rời nhà lúc 4giờ (The ca left home at 4)

(14)TransversaL Xe qua ciu hic 5 gid, (The car crossed the bridge at 5)

The texm ‘Conformation’ is linked to the gcometiic relationship between the Figure and the Ground on the route of motion According to Talmy (2000b: 34), each language lexicalizes its own set of such geometric complexes, Based on Yalmy’s notions and with relation to Vector, some Conformation categories can be construed with English examples as follows

- Inside/Outside Conformatiom: (1°) is at the INSL UT SLD of (G): enter, penetrate, exat

(15) The ball rolled into the box, (Arrival - Tside)

+ Surface Conformatian: (F) is on the SURFACE of (G)

(16) The bat blow onto tha bed for thras hours (Arrivat - Surface)

- Beside Conformation: (F) is TO ONE SIDE (BESIDE) (G): approach

(17) The ball rolled past the lamp (Traversal - Beside)

- Above/Beneath Conformation: (F) is ABOVE/BENEATH (G)

{18) The ball rolled over the table, (Traversal - Above)

In Spanish, the verb roots conflate together Fact-of Motion and the Vector and

Conformation components of the Path constituent For the examples listed in (10), the verb

At the same time, Vietnamese has path complement verbs (a, vào .) instantiating fundamental Conformation categories regularly construed in language For exanple

(19) Inside/ Outside Conformation: ra, vào, xâm nhập

Nhung hinkhéng vo tap Lax Tip satp

FIGURE MOFION+PATH GROUND

MOTION! PATI GROUND

Or Nhung hắn không đã vào túp lên lúp xig ra di thang ra bở sông,

{ Ba hé tloesnFt go iro the low-rooftd coltoge bui goes dircctly to the riverside.) (0) Suface Confoeraedion: lên

Anh ấy lên lrên Ihuyển (He gocs on board) Con thuyền trồi giạt ớn trên những tảng dã (The boat was driven onto the rocks)

(21) Beside Conformation: dén, téi, lại (bên)

Anh ấy chạy đến bên tôi (He ran aeross †o me)

Anh dy dén bén téi (He came across to me) (22) Above/Beneath Conformation: qua, vượt

Khi bạn bay qua Thái Binh Dương, bạn sẽ đến Trmg Quốc

(When you fly over the Pacific Ocean, you will arrive in China)

Khi qua edn, bạn sẽ đến nhà văn hoá (When you cross the bridge, you will come Lo the Communal House) The ‘Deictic’ component of Path typically has two member notions ‘toward the speeker’ and ‘in a direction other than toward the speaker’ Spanish largcly classes its Deictic verbs; eg,, ir ‘to go’, vewir ‘to come’, In a language like Spanish, the speaker is the only

entity that can act as the deictic centre Come indicates a motion toward the current position of

the speaker, and go expresses a motion away fiom the speaker

‘The Deictic component of Path expresses Direction of the Figure in space Direction

variants can be: up and dowa, forward or backward, front or back, afterwards ln English,

these variants are mapped onto the prepositions or particles For example

(23) The balloon floated yp to the sky

Im Vienamsse, fike Fnglish, Direction can be mapped either onto directional

complemen verbs as in (24) or like Spanish, dircetional verbs as in (25)

(The balloon flew up to the sky) (25) Mat tréi xudng ni (The sun ascended the mountain) (Down)

Mẹ đã về nhà (Mua has returned home) (Backward)

‘These path verbs, like directional complement verbs, syntactically require an Olocatire and semantically encode spatial orientation, For example, in 25, the speaker might have been out in the market or street (a wide place) and goes to her house (a narrow place)

Allhough il is prominent that Palh in Vielnamese is realized through main verbs or path

there also exis

4

(on/up), đưởi (down) The dynamic prepositions are offen combined with Mamer verbs while

the stalive ones with Path verbs; and they basically convey Veclor properties Từ đ#/Xới

(from .t0) indicate the Departare-Arrival Vector, rong (in), ngodi (oul) convey Ground information of Tnside and Outside, tre (owup), dirdi (down), theo/doc thea (along), khối (out of) relatc to the Ground information of Neictic components

More interestingly, Vietnamese has a set of positional nouns which categorizes spatial orientation in systemic ways They are assigned to four directions: Déng (East), Tay

(West), Nam (South), Bac (North), o: regions: ding trong miần Nam (the South), dang ngoài = miễn Bắc (the North), mién Trung (the Centre), thén Dodi (Doai hamlet), ‘This derives from the Vietnamese cognitive perspective that takes the speaker as the deictic centre

Nguyễn Lai (1990-94) extracts an interesting folk posm to illustrate the cognitive orientation

of the Vietnamese people:

*Can cd bay 14 bay Ta

Ray ta phương Bắc bay vào phương Nam

In summary, Path conceptualizations and their representations in English, Spanish and Victnamese manifest certain similar and different typological characteristics On the onc hand, Vietnamese runs parallel with English in that path properties are realized in the satellites However, the satellites are different They are prepositions and particles in English, Directional complement verbs, prepositions and positional nouns in Vietnamese For this reason,

‘Vietnamese can be catzgorized as a satellite-framed construction

On the other hand, Viemamese patterns with Spanish, that is, path properties may be realized in verbs In contrasl, English verh roots readily conflate the Co-even, but not Path, This

1cxienlisntiơn paltern is nol characleri

ic, though Fnglish also has verbs thal imcorporale Palh, such as arrive, approach, cirele, cross, descend, enter, exit, follow, join, pass, rise, return, separate, cle., bul most of than are historie borrowings from Rormumoc languages Sincz

Vietnamese maps Path onto the main verb and also condlates Path with Move, it can be categorized as a path-contlating or V-language

3.2.3 Lexicalization pattern 3: Motion + Figure

In this third type of lexicalization, the verb expresses Motion together with Figure

‘This pattern is present in Navajo and in most northem Tlokan languages Atsugewi, a Tokan polysynthstic language of northern California, is the prototypical example of this type presented in Talmy (2000), Thhtas a whole series of verbs thal express various kinds of objecls ormalcrials moving Ils struclure is as follows

Motion + Figure + (Satellite + Grouni)

‘Talmy draws an analogy using Linglish examples St would be as if verbs like rain and

senlive rain would refer (o rain

moving, and the agentive spit la causing spit to move, as in the following sentences:

Non-agentive: IL rained in through the bedroom window

Agentive: L spat into the euspidor (Tahny, 2000b:57)

In Atsugewi, this type of verb is the normto express movement of objects The

following are but a few of the verb roots used in this language Here are Atwugewi verb roots

of Motion with conflaisd Figure taken Gorn Tatmy (2000: 58)

-tup- “for a small stnny spherical object @.g., » tound candy, ant cychall) to moverbc bocaled -caq- ‘fora slimy lumpish object (e.g, a toad, a cow dropping) to movelbe located?

-stag “for arunny icky material (e.g., mud, guts, chewed gum) to moverbe-located

It is noted by Talmy (2000b:59) that Atsugewi’s pattern of conflating the Figure with

Motion extends to such Figural objects as body parts and garments Some English motion verbs

are of this type: head (He headed the balt into the goal), or Aand (They land the plale round), However, it is observed that the usual English construction for referring to body-part control involves expressing the body part as the direct-object nominal of a verb of maneuvering, as in 7 laid my head on the pillow (Talruy, 2000b:59) Vietnamese, a non-inflectionat language with ne affix, patterns with English in both cases For example:

(26) Hẳn bước vào nhà (Eigure-confiating varb) - He stepped into/entered the house

en

ắc đầu liên tue (Manmer-conflating verb) - Te shook his head continually

3.2.4 Other minor patterns

White these three conflation systems for Motion verbs (Motion + 1 semantic component) are apparently the main ones found across languages, Talmy (2000b:62) notes other lexicalisation patterns which occur as well, in addition to some which do not As he points out, one element, the ground (Motion + Ground), does not form the basis of amy lexicalization paliom Other possibilities include the conflation of more than oma component

In terms of the mumber of semantic components, there are some other lexicalization patterns:

Motion + @ (the verb root expresses the Motion alone), Motion + 2 semantic components,

and Mation + 3 semantic camponents

Based on the seven groups of motion verbs in English in Appendix 1 and the semantic categories of Manner, Path and Ground in the mentioned parts, we can find out more lexicalization paticrns in both English and Vietnamese as follows:

+ Motion + @: Move, vér déng