MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES OF MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

The findings pointed out that: i In terms of syntactic features, based on sentence patterns, all motion verbs expressing modes of movement are intransitive, that means, 11 motion verbs

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NGOC HIEN

MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES

OF MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH AND THEIR

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled “Motion verbs expressing emotion in English and their Vietnamese equivalents.” submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the degree of

Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Ha Noi, 2018

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Hiền

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

Date:

My special thanks go to all my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their precious assistance, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in their lectures, from which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor thesis

I also would like to express my indebtedness to my family, my friends and colleagues who have given me constant support and love during the completion of the thesis

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are for the people who will give me the precious comments after reading the graduation thesis

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hien

similarities and differences between them The findings pointed out that: (i )

In terms of syntactic features, based on sentence patterns, all motion verbs expressing modes of movement are intransitive, that means, 11 motion verbs

in the scope of the study have SV sentence patterns Six of them have SVO

sentence pattern, they are run, walk, climb, job, jump and swim Three of them have SVOA, they are run, walk and march In short, there are two verbs having three sentence patterns, they are run and walk (ii) In terms of

semantic features, they express majorly the meaning of bodily functions of movement such as (i) moving using parts of the body); (ii) moving with

speed (jump, run and dance); (iii) In terms of comparison between motion

verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, based on the English – Vietnamese dictionaries, therefore, all the structures of the motion verbs expressing modes of movement in in source language are translated and transferred the same structures in the target language The study hopefully supplies some implications to teachers

of English teaching English as a second language in Vietnam

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 Summary of sentence patterns in terms of verb elements and their

complementations 13

Table 2.2 Fillmore‟s frames for the verbs of motion of this study 14

Table 2.3 Levin's Verbs of Motion arranged in a table 18

Table 2.4 Levin's Verbs of Motion 20

Table 2.5 Application of Faber and Mairal Us n‟s matrix (1999: 9 ) for distinguishing features of verbs of motion 22

Table 4.1 Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes 36

of movement in English 36

Table 4.2 Semantic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English using bodily functions 41

Table 4.3 Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 42

TABLES OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study 1

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Structure of the study 3

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous studies 5

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics 7

2.2.1 Theory of syntax 7

2.2.2 Theory of semantics 7

2.3 Overview of English Verb 10

2.3.1 Definition 10

2.3.2 Classification of verbs according to their complementation 11

2.4 An overview of motion verbs 13

2.4.1 What is motion? 13

2.4.2 What is a motion verb? 14

2.4.2 Classification of motion verbs 25

2.5 Motion verbs expressing modes of movement 25

2.6 Summary 26

Chapter 3 29

METHODOLOGY 29

3.2 Methods of the study 29

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 30

3.4 Summary 32

Chapter 4 MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES OF MOVEMENT IN

ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 33

4.1 Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English 33 4.1.1 SV sentence pattern 33

4.1.2 SVO sentence pattern 35

4.2 Semantic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movements in English 36

4.2.2 Moving with speed 40

4.3 A comparison between motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 42

4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 42

4.3.2 In terms of semantic features 43

4.2.2 Moving with speed 45

4.4 Implications for teaching motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English to Vietnamese learners of English 46

4.5 Summary 47

CHAPTER 5 47

CONCLUSION 47

5.1 Concluding remarks 47

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 48

REFERENCES 49

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is considered as one of the most popular language for everyone all over the world There are many problems in learning English as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, lexicology, etc Grammar plays a very important role in English, it is not easy for English learners to study Moreover, learners are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying that causes much confusion to them However, it is not so difficult that English learners cannot study because English grammar is also systematic

Theoretically, verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs in English are dealt with in every general grammar book such as: Quirk, et al (1985), Biber et al (2000) or Huddleston et al (1985) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer,

F.R (1985), Sinclair, J.ed (1998) or Levin, B (1993) It is also possible to find many

publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs:

Kudrnacova, N (2008), Tenny, C (1995) and also publications dealing only with

certain characteristics of the verbs such as Comrie (2006)

In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every general grammar book such as Nguyễn Lai (197 ), Nguyễn Lai (1984) and Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984) It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific motion verbs

As has already been said above, this construction can be labeled as understudied Therefore, the study will be to shed more light on syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study

This study is aimed at investigating syntactic and semantic features of certain motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents to help teachers of English teach English this kind of verb group to Vietnamese learners of English effectively

In order to achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward:

- Identifying syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs expressing mode

of movement in English

- Finding out similarities and differences between English motion verbs expressing modes of movement and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- Giving some implications for teaching the motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English to Vietnamese learners of English effectively

3 What are implications for teaching the motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English to Vietnamese learners of English effectively?

1.4 Scope of the study

In English, there are seven subtypes of Motion verbs: 1 the RUN subtype refers to a mode of motion; 2 the ARRIVE subtype deals with motion with respect

to a definite Locus; 3 the TAKE subtype refers to causing something to be in motion with respect to a Locus; 4 the FOLLOW subtype refers to motion with respect to something which is moving; 5 the CARRY subtype refers to motion in juxtaposition with some moving subject; 6 the THROW subtype describes causing something to be in motion; 7 the DROP subtype refers to unwanted motion (R.M.W Dixon, 1991), but within the framework of this study, we focus on the motion verbs group expressing modes of movement which Dixon (1991) called

them as the RUN subtype, including such as run, walk, crawl, slide, spin, roll, turn, wriggle, swing, wave, rock, shake, climb, dive, stroll, trot, gallop, jog, dance, march, jump, bounce, swim, fly, but in this study, the motion verbs expressing

modes of moving by using bodily functions with a distance are chosen as the

subjects of the study, they are run, walk, crawl, climb, dive, stroll, jog, dance, march, jump, swim

All the 11 verbs of this group are investigated in English – English dictionaries and English – Vietnamese dictionaries

In terms of syntactic features, all the 11 verbs are identified as sentence patterns in accordance with verb elements and their complementations

In terms of semantic features, the modes of movement in the 11 verbs are determined, that means the meanings of these verbs are meanings of modes of movement with bodily functions, saying the meaning of movements using parts of the body such as legs, arms, hands, knees

In terms of their Vietnamese equivalents, these verbs are examined according

to English – Vietnamese dictionaries in order to make a comparison in terms of their syntactic and semantic feature to find out the similiarities and differences between them

In this study, English is considered as source language, and Vietnamese is target language, so in this study, syntactic and semantics features of the motion verbs expressing mode of movement in English are analyzed and made comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents

1.5 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical basis of the characteristics of the syntax and semantics of the group from the movements in general and motion verbs expressing modes of movement in particular and the similarities and differences with their Vietnamese equivalents

Practically, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning and researching language The result of the study through analysis and comparison between two languages may be of great benefits for teachers and learners of English, as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life Suggestions for teaching and learning from this verb group are given more effectively Beside that, this research is conducted with the hope that in the foreseeable future, teachers of English will get to know more about the motion verbs expressing modes of movement and realize the importance of them in teaching the motion verbs expressing modes of movement so that they can adapt it to their own teaching conditions

1.6 Structure of the study

To gain the above goals, the study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter I, Introduction, deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the

aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance of the thesis

Chapter II, Literature Review, summarizes the results of the previous studies

in Vietnam and overseas in order to build the theoretical background for the study

Chapter III, Methodology, points out the research approach, describes the

methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and analyzing techniques

Chapter IV, Motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, points out syntactic and semantic features of

English motion verbs expressing modes of movement, and comparison between syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs expressing modes of movement and the Vietnamese equivalents are made Implications for teaching English motion verbs expressing modes of movement are given

Chapter V, Conclusion, summaries the whole contents of the study, indicating

concluding remarks, the limitation, thus giving some recommendations and suggestions for a further study

References comes at the end of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter: An overview of the MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese; theory of motion verbs; classification of verbs according to the verb elements and its complementations These theories are the basis of the study in the following chapters

2.1 Previous studies

Verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every general grammar book

such as “A Comprehensible Grammar of the English Language” (Quirk, et al,1985),

“Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English” (Bibber et al,2000) or “The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language” (Huddleston et al, 2006) There

exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics

and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer, F.R,1985) “The English Verb;

Sinclair, J.ed Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs” or (Levin B,1987) “English Verb Classes

and Alternations : a Preliminary Investigation” (1993) It is also possible to find

many publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs (for example: Kudrnacova (2008) “Directed Motion at the Syntax-Semantic Interface

or article How motion verbs are special” (Tenny, 1995) and also publications

dealing only with certain characteristics of the verbs such as aspect (e.g Comrie, 2006) “Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems”

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act verbs in both English and Vietnamese For speech act verbs in English, R.M.W Dixon (1991) studies about the semantic and syntactic features of English verb groups such as the MOTION group, AFFECT group, GIVING group, CORFOREAL group.etc This book has two purposes: one purpose is practical: it is meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and

to people learning or teaching English as a second language The other purpose is scholarly, it is meant to be a study of an important section of the English vocabulary, a study of a kind which has never been undertaken before The present

dictionary can be regarded as a justification of the semantic theory on which it is based This does not mean, however, that the practical lexicographic purpose is subordinated to a theoretical linguistic goal On the contrary, the semantic theory is viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference book According to R.M.W.Dixon (1991), the MOTION verb group includes twelve

English verbs: go, come, arrive, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, escape, reach, approach and visit These verbs are analysed thoroughly in terms of their meanings

and using in daily life Given the necessary limitations of scope, the clues offered

by the syntactic properties of the individual verbs have not been exploited as fully and as systematically as it was hoped

Randolph Quirk (1985) gives a description about the syntactic and semantic functions of words in simple sentence, complex sentence, clause structure and seven clause types (SV, SVO, SVA, SVC, SVOO, SVOA, SVOC) as well Especially, in chapter 10, he researches in the simple sentence that stressed on the syntactic functions and the semantic roles of clause elements such as subject, verb, object, adverbial

In Vietnamese, many authors did long researches and gave out worthy collections such as Nguyen Lai (1976) with “Động từ chỉ hướng trong tiếng Việt” and Nguyen Lai (1996) with “Nh m từ chỉ hướng vận động trong tiếng Việt hiên đại” Although both of the studies focused on researching the different Vietnamese Motion verbs, the authors saw the same characteristics: The popularity of these verbs in daily life They gave remarks: Almost the previous researches only paid attention to the grammatical features of the speech act verbs, the semantic structures were not carefully concerned with So, these studies have the same purpose, that is studying the semantic structures of the Vietnamese motion verbs expressing mode

of movement

Moreover, Nguyễn Lai (1984) with Động từ trong tiếng Việt is the basis of

this thesis in the comparison between the MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese In this thesis, the author developed and improved to the study of semantic structures of Vietnamese motion verbs The author‟s aim is to create new theoretical basis and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically The author found new trend of the tittle in order to improve the good points, as well as

to cut down the limitation of the prior thesis

The books above are the background that the theory part of the study will be carried out

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

In the past, syntactic clues have sometimes been utilized in lexicography as an aid to establishing polysemy In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too, the claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (Dixon, 1985) In the present work, however, a stronger claim has been tried to explore: that a syntactic similarity is likely to reflect a similarity in meaning, so that shared syntactic patterns are likely to reflect shared semantic components To the extent to which this claim is validated, shared syntactic properties can be seen as evidence for postulated semantic structures

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntactic clues have to be treated with care, and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not determined a priori For example, if we ask about the semantic correlate of the

pattern “X Ved Y for Z”, we will probably discover nothing of significance

2.2.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content

of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in language Language is a means of communications, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like

to happen, and a lot more Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state that the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships This is also part of communication There are some linguists that tried to define semantics Morries as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study

of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable And then he revised his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying

Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Carnap (Lyons, 1977:116) says that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning of expressions

in “historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that

he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or context Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that semantics studies how these signs are related to things And pragmatics studied how they are related to people According to Leech (1983:5) in practice, the problem of distinguishing

language and language use has centred on a boundary dispute between semantics

and pragmatics Hurford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in

a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge

But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study of meaning is semantics Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”

David Crystal (1992:347) defines that semantics is the study of meaning in language Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonymy and antonym In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar‟s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

In general, semantics can be defined as the study of meaning It is central to the study of communication In addition, there is no doubt that communication is a crucial factor in our life, which is why the need to understand semantics becomes more and more pressing

Semantic features

Semantic features play a very important part in differentiating the match between word and meaning We need a very large number of features to do this

work But linguists believe that a much smaller number of features would be needed

in writing grammar description

But Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber (1987, 254) say semantic features are “the smallest units of meaning in a word The meaning of a word may

be described as a combination of semantic features”

According to David Crystal (1992, 346), semantic feature is “a minimal contrastive element of a word‟s meaning, in some approaches called a semantic component.” e.g Boy = + young + male + human

Semantic roles

Clauses are divided into types according to the types of the verbs that occupies their semantic and syntactic core Verbs, in turn, are divided into semantic according to the kind of involvement of the participants in the state or event coded

by the clause The array of semantic roles typically associated with each verb defines the propositional frame of the verb and thus the semantic type of the verbal clause In Givon.T (1992, p.91) terms the major semantic roles in the clause are agent, patient, dative, instrument, benefactive and a set of locational and temporal roles like source / location / goal and associative

Here are typical examples of these semantic roles in simple clauses (1992,p.92):

Mary (agent) kicked John (patient)

John (dative) heard Mary

She worked with her father (associative)

She went to the store (locative)

Semantic fields

The semantic structure of vocabulary of a language can be studied in a precise and systematic way by means of componential analysis of which the theory of semantic field greatly leans

The assumption of lexical field analysis or semantic field analysis is that lexemes can be grouped together into semantic fields on the basis of shared meaning and that most, if not all the vocabulary of a language, can be accounted for

in this way The description of meaning, the definition of lexemes, is then undertaken within each semantic field and involves defining each lexeme in relation

to the other lexemes in the field

Different terms such as lexical field, semantic field and word field are usually treated as synonyms, but some authors have proposed distinctions among then For example, John Lyons [43,p.429] distinguishes between “conceptual field” (a structure of concepts on the semantic level, a structured conceptual area)and lexical field (a set of lexemes that covers a specific conceptual field )

Semantic field (lexical field) is defined by Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber (1987, 164) as “the organization of related words and expressions into a system which shows their relationship to one another.”

For example, kinship terms such as father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, ants

belong to a lexical field whose relevant features include generation, sex, membership of the father „s or mother‟s side of the family, etc For example, in

English there is no singular noun that covers both cow and bull as horse covers stallion and mare

According to David Crystal (1982, p.346,347), semantic field is defined as

“the view that vocabulary of a language is a system of interrelated lexical networks, and not an inventory of independent items, also called lexical field theory Examples include the fields of vehicles, fruits, clothing, colour, and part of the body Not all aspects of experience nearly divide into semantic fields, however, and

it is always necessary to consider the context before assigning a lexical item to a field For example, “hospital” relates to both the semantic field of health (as in I was

in hospital last week) and that of buildings (as in The hospital needs a new roof )” The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English

2.3 Overview of English Verb

2.3.1 Definition

A verb is a part of speech that usuallydenotes actions (“go, learn”) occurrence (“to decompose”, “to glitter) or a state of being (“exist”, “live”) Similarly, according to crystal D, verb is a word class, which is traditionally defined as a

“doing” or “action” word Adverb can be formallyidentified in many languages as

an element displaying contrast of tense, aspect, voice, mood, person and number In

“The functional Analysis of English by ThomasBloor and Merited Bloor [14 P.18], verbs are traditionally defined as words which express an action or state (a rather

feeble definition) Verb show the greatest degree of various inform (morphology) of any of the word classes

According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2005), verb is “a group

or a group of words that express an action, an event, or a state” [p.1636]

“Verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence carries markers of grammatical categories such as fence, aspect, person, number and mood, and refers to an action or state” (Cambridge dictionary com)

As for dictionary of Merriam – Webster “Verb is a word that characteristically

is the grammatical categories center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence,

or mode of being, that in various language is inflected or agreement with the subject for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometime nearly devoid of these especially when us e an auxiliary or lining verb”

2.3.2 Classification of verbs according to their complementation

According to R Quirk et al (1985), verbs are classified into two types: intensive verbs and extensive verbs

2.3.2.1 Intensive verbs

Intensive verbs are also called copular verbs and they are usually followed by

a nous or a nous phrase and adjective or prepositional phrase intensive verbs are used to descried the subject it means that the focus is on one thing – the subject only Intensive verbs appear in the structure “SVC” or “SVA” Words or phases, which are followed by an intensive verb work as the subject compliment and they apply to the subject, not be verb let‟s consider the following example:

Your dinner seems ready (SVC)

My office is in the next building (SVA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) Intensive verb does not take any object It presents the relationship between the subject and the subject complementation the verb in sentences with subject complement is a “copular” (or linking verb), which of itself has little meaning but function as a link between the complementsubject

There are two subgroups:

Current intensive: be, appear, look, feel, remain, keep …

Her rug is too small for her living room (SVC)

(E, Warier, J graham, L.S, 1980: 108)

Resulting intensive: be come, come, get, go, grow, turn …

She grew tired of his complaints (SVO)

(E WarierJ & Graham, L.S.1980:108)

2.3.2.2 Extensive verbs

Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing It covers wider area; it takes the information away from the subject Words or phrases, which are followed

by an extensive verb work as the verb‟s object They apply to the verb, not the subject as in:

He borrows a book from me

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 55) Extensive verbs include three small types: monotransitive, complex transitive and intransitive Intransitive verbs are verbs which take a subject and two objects or have the structure SVOO

According to certain linguistic consideration these objectives may be called direct, indirect objectives or primary and secondary objectives as in following examples:

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

Most students have found their reasonably the disk on the table (SVOA)

(R Quirk, 1985: 721) The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence Finite Verbslocator the condition or action of the verbs in a specific time frame: past, present or future and have a specific tense and a subject with which they

grammatically agree A complete sentence must contain a finite verb Verbs create the relationship between the subject and the object of the Verb In a command, there

is still this relationship with the subject and object understood “Go!” (subject – you – understood, verb “go! object away - understood)

The form of the Verb must agree with the number of its subject, which will

be a noun or noun group, for example “He was a singer (as opposed to” He were a singer) confusion can arise when deciding whether the subject is singulars or plural, for example “This group of children is very intelligent” or when there are two subject, for example: The farmer and his buffalo are in the field

The following list present examples of the basic sentence pattern according to classification of verbs and their complementations:

Table 2.1 Summary of sentence patterns in terms of verb elements and their

2.4 An overview of motion verbs

2.4.1 What is motion?

Wildgen (2003:13) describes motion with quite a few words:

If a person performs a locomotion which is composed of a number of separate limb motions, two levels can be distinguished:

a The rhythm of the composed movements, which is a code for the categorical perception of moving agents

b The overall GESTALT of the movement In the case of simple locomotion, there is an initial phase which starts the locomotion It destabilizes the system in its position of rest and creates a steady evolution until the system is at rest again

The coarse topology of locomotion has three phases:

1 loss of position of rest, beginning of motion;

2 steady motion;

3 gain of a new position of rest, end of locomotion

2.4.2 What is a motion verb?

The definitions have been shortened, so that only the first and most essential part of each definition appears below It must be mentioned that what we normally

consider „one verb‟ may be sorted into multiple frames as for example the verb run with eight frames to represent its eight various meanings: run away [Escaping], run [Cause_motion], run [Cause_impact], run [Fluidic_motion], run [Leadership], run.v

[Self_motion], run.v [Impact], run_through.v [Practice] The frame system

emphasizes the fact that some words cover several semantic domains Run belonging to the frame [Self_motion] is the only run of interest to this study

Similarly, all verbs of this study are only presented with their frames of interest to this essay

Table 2.2 Fillmore’s frames for the verbs of motion of this study

[Motion]

“Some entity (Theme) starts out in one place (Source) and ends up in some other place (Goal), having covered some space between the two (Path).”

blow.v, coast.v, drift.v, float.v, fly.v, glide.v, go.v, move.v, roll.v, slide.v and soar.v

[Motion_directional]

“In this frame a Theme moves along a certain Path which is determined by

drop.v, fall.v, plummet.v, plunge.v, topple.v

gravity or other natural, physical forces The theme

is not a self-mover.”

[Self_motion]

“The Self_mover, a living being, moves under its own power in a directed fashion, i.e along what could be described as a Path, with no separate vehicle.”

amble.v, back.v, barge.v, bolt.v, bop.v, bound.v, burrow.v, bustle.v, canter.v, caper.v, clamber.v, climb.v, clomp.v, coast.v, crawl.n, crawl.v, creep.v, cruise.v, dance.v, dart.v, dash.n, dash.v, drive.v, flit.v, flounce.v, fly.v, frolic.v, gallivant.v, gambol.v, goose-step.v, hasten.v, head.v, hike.n, hike.v,

hitchhike.v, hobble.v, hop.v, hurry.v, jaunt.n, jog.v, jump.v, leap.v, limp.v, lope.v, lumber.v, lunge.v, lurch.v, make a

beeline.v, make.v, march.n, march.v, meander.v, mince.v, mosey.v, nance.v, pace.v, pad.v, parade.v, plod.v, pounce.v, prance.v, proceed.v,

promenade.v, prowl.v, repair.v, roam.v, romp.v, run.v, rush.v, sail.v, sashay.v, saunter.v, scamper.v, scoot.v, scramble.n, scramble.v, scurry.v, scuttle.v, shoulder.v, shuffle.n, shuffle.v, sidle.v, skim.v, skip.v, skulk.v, slalom.v, sleepwalk.v, slink.v, slither.v, slog.n, slog.v, slop.v, slosh.v, sneak.v, spring.v, sprint.n, sprint.v, stagger.v,

stalk.v, stamp.v, steal.v, step.n, step.v, stomp.v, storm.v,

straggle.v, stride.v, stroll.n, stroll.v, strut.v, stumble.v, swagger.v, swim.n, swim.v, tack.v, taxi.v, tiptoe.v, toddle.v, totter.v, traipse.v, tramp.v, tread.v, trek.v, trip.v, troop.v, trot.v, trudge.v, trundle.v, vault.v, venture.v, waddle.v, wade.v, walk.n, walk.v, waltz.v, wander.v, wriggle.v

[Path_shape]

“The words in this frame describe either the “fictive”

motion of a stationary Road

or the literal motion of a Theme.”

angle.v, ascend.v, ascent.n, bear.v, bend.v, crest.v, crisscross.v, cross.v, descend.v, descent.n, dip.v, dive.v, drop.v, edge.v, emerge.v, emergence.n, enter.v, exit.v, ford.v, leave.v, meander.v, mount.v, pass.v, plummet.v, reach.v, rise.v, round.v, skirt.v, slant.v, snake.v, swerve.v, swing.v, traverse.v, twisting.a, twisty.a, undulate.v, veer.v, weave.v, wind.v,

winding.a, windy.a and zigzag.v

[Body_movement]

“This frame contains words for motions or actions an Agent performs using some part of his/her body.”

arch.v, bat.v, bend.v, blink.v, bob.v, brandish.v, clap.v, close.v, cock.v, crane.v, crease.v,

crinkle.v, cross.v, crumple.v, curtsy.n, curtsy.v, drop.v, duck.v, fidget.v, flap.v, flex.v, fling.v, flutter.v, gnash.v, grind.v, hang.v,

jerk.v, jiggle.v, kneel.v, lift.v, nod.v, open.v, pout.v, pucker.v, purse.v, roll.v, scrunch.v, shake.v, shiver.v, shrug.v, shudder.v, shuffle.v, shut.v, smack.v, stamp.v, stretch.v, swing.v, throw.v, toss.v, twiddle.v, twitch.v, wag.v, waggle.v, wave.v, wiggle.v, wink.v, wriggle.v, wrinkle.v, writhe.v and yawn.v

[Attack]

“An Assailant physically attacks a Victim (which is usually but not always sentient), causing or intending to cause the Victim physical damage A Weapon used by the

Assailant may also be mentioned,”

ambush.n, ambush.v, assail.v, assault.n, assault.v, attack.n, attack.v, charge.n, charge.v, fall.v, incursion.n, invade.v, invasion.n, jump.v, lay_((into)).v, offensive.n, onset.n, onslaught.n, raid.v, set.v, storm.v, strike.n and strike.v

Having reached an understanding of what motion is and how it is construed in cognitive models, we will proceed to an analysis of verbs of motion Levin (1993) is

a comprehensive investigation of verb classes According to her, verbs of motion can be subdivided into six main groups, two of which are relevant to the present

survey, which includes sixteen verbs: climb, crawl, dive, float, fly, go, hop, jump, leap, plunge, roll, run, stagger, swim, tiptoe, and walk All are labelled „Verbs of Motion‟ by Levin except dive, which is reported as a „Verb of Searching‟ and

excludes the sense represented in Figures 14 and 15 above Levin‟s classification of English verbs is based on their semantic characteristics In Table 2, the first and essential part of her comments on each verb class is quoted as her definition (1993: 263- 267), and all class members are shown for comparison, whereas the verbs studied in this paper are given in bold

Table 2.3 Levin's Verbs of Motion arranged in a table

advance, arrive, ascent,

climb, come, cross, depart,

descend, enter, escape, exit,

fall, flee, go, leave, plunge,

recede, return, rise, tumble

Manner of

Motion

V erbs

These verbs describe motion that typically, though not necessarily, involves displacement, but none of them specifies

an inherent direction as part of its meaning All

of these verbs have

meanings that include a notion of manner or means of motion They differ from

Roll Verbs: These verbs

relate to manners of motion that are characteristic of inanimate entities (i.e., where there is not necessarily protagonist control on the part of the moving entity) In the absence of a prepositional phrase specifying direction, none of these verbs indicates the direction

of motion

bounce, drift, drop, float, glide, move, roll, slide,

swing MOTION AROUND AN AXIS; coil, revolve, rotate, spin, turn, twirl, twist, whirl, wind

Run Verbs: Most of

these verbs describe the manners in which animate entities can move, although some of them may be used to describe the movement

of inanimate entities

amble, backpack, bolt, bounce, bound, bowl, canter, carom, cavort, charge,

clamber, climb, clump, coast, crawl, creep, dart, dash, dodder, drift, file, flit, float, fly, frolic, gallop, gambol,

glide, goosestep, hasten,

each other in terms of the specific manner or means

Although these verbs describe the

displacement of an object in a particular manner or by a particular means, no specific direction of motion is implied unless they occur with

an explicit directional

phrase The run verbs

probably need to be further subdivided

hike, hobble, hop, hurry,

hurtle, inch, jog, journey,

jump, leap, limp, lollop,

lope, lumber, lurch, march, meander, mince, mosey, nip, pad, parade, perambulate, plod, prance, promenade, prowl, race, ramble, roam,

roll, romp, rove, run, rush,

sashay, saunter, scamper, scoot, scram, scramble, scud, scurry, scutter, scuttle,

shamble, shuffle, sidle, skedaddle, skip, skitter, skulk, sleepwalk, slide, slink, slither, slog, slouch, sneak,

somersault, speed, stagger,

stomp, stray, streak, stride,

stroll, strut, stumble, stump, swagger, sweep, swim, tack, tear, tiptoe, toddle, totter,

traipse, tramp, travel, trek, troop, trot, trudge, trundle,

vault, waddle, wade, walk,

wander, whiz, zigzag, zoom

Levin‟s remaining four groups of „Verbs of Motion‟ are „Leave Verbs‟, „Verbs

of Motion Using a Vehicle‟, „Waltz Verbs‟ and „Chase Verbs‟ (1993: 2 3-270) She

does not count her classes „Verbs of Body-Internal Motion‟ and „Verbs of Assuming a Position‟ among the group of „Verbs of Motion‟

Having reached an understanding of what motion is and how it is construed in cognitive models, we will proceed to an analysis of verbs of motion Levin (1993) is

a comprehensive investigation of verb classes According to her, verbs of motion can be subdivided into six main groups, two of which are relevant to the present

survey, which includes sixteen verbs: climb, crawl, dive, float, fly, go, hop, jump, leap, plunge, roll, run, stagger, swim, tiptoe, and walk All are labelled „Verbs of Motion‟ by Levin except dive, which is reported as a „Verb of Searching‟ Levin‟s

classification of English verbs is based on their semantic characteristics In Table 2.4, the first and essential part of her comments on each verb class is quoted as her definition (1993: 263- 267), and all class members are shown for comparison, whereas the verbs studied in this paper are given in bold

Table 2.4 Levin's Verbs of Motion Verb

Inherently

Directed

Motion

The meaning of these verbs includes a

specification of the direction of motion, even in

the absence of an overt directional complement

For some verbs this specification is in deictic

terms; for others it is in nondeictic terms None

of these verbs specify the manner of motion

advance, arrive, ascent,

climb, come, cross, depart, descend, enter,

escape, exit, fall, flee, go, leave, plunge, recede,

return, rise, tumble

Manner of

Motion

Verbs

These verbs describe

motion that typically,

though not necessarily,

involves displacement,

specifies an inherent

direction as part of its

meaning All of these

verbs have meanings

that include a notion of

manner or means of

from each other in

terms of the specific

float, glide, move, roll,

Run Verbs: Most of

these verbs describe the

amble, backpack, bolt, bounce, bound, bowl,

manners in which animate entities can move, although some

of them may be used to describe the movement

canter, carom, cavort,

climb, clump, coast, crawl, creep, dart, dash, dodder, drift, file,

flit, float, fly, frolic,

gallop, gambol, glide, goosestep, hasten, hike,

hobble, hop, hurry,

journey, jump, leap,

lumber, lurch, march,

race, ramble, roam,

roll, romp, rove, run, rush, sashay, saunter,

scamper, scoot, scram, scramble, scud, scurry,

shamble, shuffle, sidle, skedaddle, skip, skitter, skulk, sleepwalk, slide,