Verbs of motion and their lexicalization patterns an English-Vietnamese comparative study from cognitive approach

Scope of the study CHAPTER 1: VERBS OF MOTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 1.1 Verbs of motion and their classification 1.2 The syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs 1.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

MAI THỊ THU HÂN

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)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 602215

Hanoi - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

MAI THỊ THU HÂN

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)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Trần Hữu Mạnh

Hanoi - 2010

DECLARATION

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

CHAPTER 1: VERBS OF MOTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

1.1 Verbs of motion and their classification

1.2 The syntactic and semantic features of 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

2.1 An overview of Cognitive Linguistics and 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 of lexicalization patterns

2.2.2 The motion event

CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS OF

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE MOTION VERBS

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion verbs

3.2.1 Lexicalization pattern 1: Motion + Co-event

3.2.2 Lexicalization pattern 2: Motion + Path

3.2.3 Lexicalization pattern 3: Motion + Figure

3.2.4 Other minor patterns

3.3 Split and parallel system of conflation

3.4 The parallel pattern of conflation in Vietnamese?

CHAPTER 4: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF MOTION VERBS AND

THEIR LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS IN A SPECIFIC NOVEL TEXT–

APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATORS AND LANGUAGE TEACHERS

4.1 Introduction

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

motion verbs in the chapter ‘The Battle of Hogwarts’ and its Vietnamese version

4.3 Applications for translators and language teachers

Appendix 1: Beth Levin (1993)‘s classification of motion verbs in English and

the Vietnamese equivalents

45

Appendix 2: Motion verbs in English (Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts) [iii] Appendix 3: Motion verbs in Vietnamese (Chương 31: Chiến trường

Hogwarts)

Appendix 4: Analysis of sample motion verbs in chapter 31: The Battle of

Hogwarts and the Vietnamese version

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

verbs

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

Appendix 7: Chương 31: Chiến trường Hogwarts

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

A: Adjuncts C: Complement

CLs: Cognitive Linguistics Loc: Locative

O: Object

Od: Direct Object

Oi: Indirect Object O-loc: Locative Object Part: Particle(s)

Po: Object Predicative S: Subject

S-language: Satellite-framed languages SVCs: Serial verb constructions V: Verb

V-language: Verb-framed languages

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

Diagram 3.1: Co-event 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 verbs - ‗the verbs that describe movement are first learned, most frequently

used and conceptually dominant‘ (Miller & Johnson-Laird (1977:527) Cognitive semantics

classifies motion verbs based on the sort of semantic information which their verb roots characteristically encode In general, motion verbs, both transitive and intransitive, typically 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, i.e., satellite-framed and verb-framed languages, according to the way the different elements of a motion scene are mapped onto linguistic elements English, as a satellite-framed language, expresses the core

component of motion, i.e., Path or the trajectory of motion, in satellites (e.g., up, down) or

in prepositional phrases (e.g., into/out of the house), leaving the verb slot free to encode

Manner-of-motion

Relying on the basic assumption that languages vary typologically in terms of how they map lexical syntactic elements onto semantic domains, Talmy (2000) deeply investigated the regular associations (lexicalization patterns) among meaning components and the verb, providing a cross-linguistic study of lexicalization patterns connected with the expression of

motion He was mainly interested in evidencing typologies, i.e small number of patterns exhibited by groups of languages, and universals, i.e single patterns shared cross-

linguistically According to Talmy, some languages lexicalize in the verb the manner or the cause of motion, other languages lexicalize the path, and finally in a few languages the figure

or object that moves is worth mentioning

This theoretical framework arises in me as to whether there are any similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese motion verbs, how lexicalization patterns are cross-linguistically applied to analyzing English and Vietnamese motion verbs, and what might be the lexicalization patterns 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 lexicalization patterns in both English and Vietnamese

2 Aims of the study: The paper aims to

(i) Examine, in some depths, the main concepts of cognitive semantics, its main concepts and tenets, the theory of lexicalization patterns with its typological and universal principles across languages

(ii) Provide an insight into the analysis of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese and set this as the basis for the English and Vietnamese comparison of lexicalization patterns of motion verbs

(iii) Find out and compare the lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese; based on which to discover some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese lexicalization patterns of motion verbs

(iv) Apply the theory of lexicalization patterns 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 of the study

This study essentially 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 meaning-surface relations between the semantic elements like Motion, Manner, Cause, Path, Figure… and the verbs of motion as the surface 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 it

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

5 Contribution of the study

The study hopes to explore the main concepts of cognitive semantics 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 patterns of verbs of motions in

particular In addition, all the cognitive underpinnings of these patterns are expected to be uncovered, and the similarities and differences are hoped to 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:

The strategic method chosen is the descriptive and analytical which seeks to describe and explain the phenomenon Contrastive Analysis is also used in this research For comparison, we will describe motion verbs and their lexicalization patterns in the two languages under the same theoretical framework and then find out the similarities and differences The data used for the study e.g examples or illustrations, are cited from the reliable resources provided by famous scholars or from real life situations It is hoped that valuable conclusions will be reached by deductive reasoning

Together with these methods, we also use the quantitative procedures that are based on data, facts and features to examine motion verbs and their lexicalization patterns used in a novel and its translated version in the mother tongue Given this method of inductive reasoning, we expect to reach a confirmation for the conclusions drawn out Supporting techniques such as reference to the publication, consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colleagues, and personal observations are also of great significance

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

Part 1: Introduction, which states the reasons, reveals the aims, narrows the scope, identifies the research questions and presents the significance, methodology as well as the organization of the study

Part 2, including four chapters, reports on the main contents of the study Chapter 1 is concerned 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 Talmy‘s lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion verbs The last chapter is toward applying the typology of English and Vietnamese motion verbs in a specific novel text

to confirm the conclusions revealed Given the conclusions, this part indicates possible implications for language teaching and translation, hopefully providing an alternative method

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 not been covered, accompanied by suggestions for further study There are also appendixes where supplemental materials and list of reference books are provided

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: VERBS OF MOTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

1.1 What is a verb of motion?

Verbs are semantically defined, i.e., as ‗words that designate actions (kiss, run), processes (grow, change), experiences (know), or states of being (be, have)‘ (Delahunty, 1994: 117) The semantic function of a verb is to describe a motion, an act, occurrence, 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, run …) Van Valin (1997: 109) argues that

‗for motion verbs, we need to present the motion plus the change of location over time‘

The English verbs of motion tend to incorporate certain specific kinds of semantic features or components such as Manner (run, slide, fly), Cause (blow, pull, kick), or Path (enter, rise, follow)

1.2 Classification of English and Vietnamese motion verbs

English language enhances the different classifications of motion verbs from 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

motion; they just indicate that motion away from a location has taken place E.g We abandoned the area

c Manner of motion: including Roll verbs (bounce, float, move, .) and Run verbs

(bounce, float, jump, .) Roll verbs specify manners of motion characteristic of inanimate entities, and Run verbs describe 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 (fly, row …) Verbs that are vehicle names mean

roughly ‗go using the vehicle named by the noun‘ E.g They skated along the canal/across the

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

does not coincide with the verb For instance, fly implies an aircraft

e Waltz verbs: dance, foxtrot, tango, tapdance, waltz, etc These verbs mean roughly

‗perform the dance‘ E.g They waltzed across/into/through the room

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

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

g Chase verbs: chase, follow, pursue, shadow, tail, track, trail, etc These verbs are

typically transitive, with the chaser as subject and the person being chased as object E.g Jackie chased the thief

Some famous Vietnamese linguists such as Diệp Quang Ban (2003, 2004), Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (2004), Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Nguyễn Lai (1990), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977) who have done research into verbs and motion verbs all divide motion

verbs into two main types: verbs of movement such as chạy, bay, bò, leo, trượt, lướt … and directional verbs such as ra, vào, lên, xuống … 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 English and Vietnamese motion verbs based on the seven motion-verb groups taken from Beth Levin‘s classification and their Vietnamese equivalents

1.3 The syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of motion

Late traditional grammar classifies verbs into seven major semantic domains: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, occurrence verbs, existence verbs and aspectual verbs (Biber, 1999: 360) Verbs of motion, which primarily denote actions, fall into the

group of activity verbs Examples are come, go, leave, move, run, etc…

(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 verb can occur with specific patterns of clause elements which contain a subject and can also include

additional adverbials In the book ‗Longman grammar of spoken and written English‘, he

proposes five valency patterns for single-word lexical verbs: Intransitive, Monotransitive, Ditransitive, Complex transitive and Copular Generally speaking, motion verbs should be grouped into the following types:

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

complement For example:

(2) Most people (S) came (V)

However, this type can occur with optional adverbials (in the form of a prepositional phrase) as in:

(3) They (S) went (V) to Holyhead and onto Dublin (A)

 Transitive: In terms of transitive verbs, motion verbs fall into the following types:

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

pattern SVOd (4) Then you (S) 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 SVOdA (as in 5) or by an object predicative SVOPo (in most cases adjective as in 6)

(5) He (S) led (V) me (O) to the storehouse (A-obligatory)

(6) He (S) hit (V) the cat (O) dead (Po)

Semantically, 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 regard, manner-of-motion verbs refer to the way in which a figure carries out a motion; whereas path-of-motion verbs refer to the trajectory over which a figure moves, typically, with respect to another reference object English intransitive manner verbs in general do not encode information about any specific direction of motion unless

they combine with an explicit directional phrase In the sentence ‗He walks across the road’, walk

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 particles incorporate the path or direction of the verbs

However, English also has a handful of Path verbs, which denote the path of motion

such as descend, ascend, exit, leave … These verbs exist to a very limited extent as Latinate

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, even in the absence of an

overt directional complement, i.e He entered

Traditionally, both English transitive and intransitive motion verbs need a

locative-Object as in He entered the house or He ran into the garden In addition, Tyler, A & Evans,

V (2003) state that English particles are spatial oriented; and these spatial particles have numerous meanings associated with them People often assign spatial particles based on the geometry of a visual scene In English, spatial orientation means the location of an object in relation to another object from the point of view of the speaker, with respect to the orientation

of the object itself or with respect to the actual direction of the motion of the object The English particles which complement Path to the main motion verb are likely to encode some

semantic information like goal in (7), source in (8), via in (9) and direction in (10):

(7) He ran to the store

(8) I ran from the store

(9) I slid the sleeve over the valve

(10) I slid the coupling nut forward

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

1.4 The syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese motion verbs

Our notion of motion verbs focuses mainly on the viewpoints proposed by Nguyễn Lai (1990), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (2004), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977) and some other studies on Vietnamese verbs by Nguyễn Đình Hoà (1979), Sophana Srichampa (1997) and Henry Beecher (2004) According to these grammarians, Vietnamese verbs directly express motions of the entities, including actions and states Motion verbs (including directional verbs) take an object or predicative complement In these cases, they are often transitive verbs with the subject 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:

(11) Mono-transitive: Anh ấy (S) kéo (V) tôi (O) (He pulled me)

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

He led me to the garden

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

complement like in Tôi chạy or take an optional adverbial like ‗vào nhà‘ in Tôi chạy vào nhà

(I ran into the house)

Vietnamese motion verbs are mainly manner-of-motion verbs which go together with

another word which expresses ‗path‘ or the trajectory of Motion such as chạy, bay, bò, trèo,

lướt, thổi … The verbs are used to express the Manner i.e Hắn chạy rất nhanh and Cause of

the Motion i.e Gió thổi đổ cây All these associative elements associate with each other to

constitute 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’, Srichampa,

S (1997) defines serial verb constructions (SVCs) as a sequence of verbs occurring together with non-overt object and/or non-overt subject; the sentence with non-overt subject is claimed

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

(13) Bà ngã lăn ra đất (Grandma fell roll on the ground)

In (13), there are two verbs in the sentence: ‗ngã’ and ‗lăn’ The non-overt subject of the

infinitival clause (lăn ra đất) is controlled by the subject of the main clause, that is ‗Bà‘

Another linguist on Asian languages, Beecher, H (2004: 1) identifies three prominent variety of SVCs:

(i) Activity-Goal: Tôi đi ăn cơm (I went to eat rice)

Tôi đến tìm em (I came to look for you)

(ii) Resultative: Gió thổi đổ cây (The wind blew down the trees)

Quân đội ta đánh thắng giặc Mỹ xâm lược

(Our army has defeated the American invaders)

(iii) Motion-Path: Tôi rơi vào một cái lỗ (I fall into a hole)

As summarized by Trần Hữu Mạnh (2007:116), Vietnamese grammarians consider the first verb in a series the main verb, and other elements following the main verbs are post-modifiers In (i), (ii) and (iii), the second verb conveys the Purpose or goal, the Result and the Path of the main verb respectively

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, về, lại, đi, đến as in chạy ra (run out), đi vào (come in/into), trèo lên (climb up), nhảy xuống (jump down)… At this point, Nguyễn Kim Thản (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 directional meanings He states that this word group only acts as ‗grammatical tool‘ that adds directional meaning to the main verbs and calls them ‗phó động từ phương hướng‘ Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Diệp Quang Ban (2004) agrees that these verbs are not full directional verbs any more, but become ‗từ phụ‘ (complement word) encoding Path of the preceding motion verb Nguyễn Lai (1990) considers these words ‗trạng-giới từ‘ (prepositional adverbs) which connect the main verb and its complement and confine in themselves two semantic meanings

of motion verbs: Motion and Direction

In our sense, these directional verbs take the role of a complement to the main verb and act 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:

Motion + Manner 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 đã chạy cầu’ These directional complement verbs, therefore, are dependent

to the main verbs

Interestingly, in Vietnamese, these directional complement verbs can function as the main verbs which encode path-of-motion verbs in themselves These path verbs carry two semantic meanings and often require an Olocative: Motion and Direction of Motion:

(15) Xe đã qua cầu (The car ran across the bridge)

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

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

Path verbs/ Directional complement verbs Full verbs (in English)

Preposition meaning

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

Table 1.1: Path verbs and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, both path verbs and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese are categorized according to spatial orientation The path-of-motion verbs and the motion verbs

which take path complement verbs may be followed by either the source (Lan bước ra khỏi nhà/ Lan ra khỏi nhà), or the direction (Thằng cu Bé chạy về nhà/Thằng cu Bé về nhà) or the destination of the action (Hắn đi tới nhà cụ Bá/ Hắn tới nhà cụ Bá) In addition, these verbs denote more semantic meanings in Vietnamese For 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 diagrammed as follows:

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

of geographic direction of movement Vietnam is divided into three regions: the North, the Centre and the South So, the direction from a ‗northern province‘ to a ‗southern province‘ is

vào (come/go in), movement in the opposite direction with the verb ra (come/go out) For

example, a person in Hanoi (in the North) will say:

(16) Mai tớ sẽ đi vào Huế - I will go to Huế tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi lên Sa Pa/ Lạng Sơn - I will go to Lạng Sơn tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi sang Lào - I will go to Laos tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi xuống Ninh Bình - I will go to Ninh Bình tomorrow

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 ‗vào, lên, sang, đến, xuống‘ The diversity in geographic direction of movement

in (16) can be represented in the following schema:

Sapa

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 đi nước kiệu, đi lang thang, đi lần lần, đi khập khiễng, đi õng ẹo, … (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

4 English and Vietnamese verbs of motion both have a group of verbs that incorporate the path or

direction of the verbs They are: cross, arrive, come, go, ascend, descend, enter, exit … in English and vào, ra, lên, xuống, đến, đi, về, qua, lại … in Vietnamese

5 English particles and Vietnamese counterparts are spatially oriented

 Differences

1 Besides the common SV pattern, Vietnamese motion verbs tend to encode a complex motion event forming serial verb constructions There are three formations of SVCs: Activity-Goal, Resultative and Motion-Path SVCs These formations are hardly seen in English The typical formation of motion verbs in English is Verb-particle constructions

2 Vietnamese uses path complement verbs to encode the Path of Motion (Vmanner/cause + Directional Complement verbs) whereas in English, the path of motion is incorporated in the particles (Vmanner/cause + particles)

3 In English, the Latin-derived path-incorporating verbs such as ascend, descend, enter, exit …

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 (vào- enter- goes from a wide point to a narrow point) In English,

the spatial meaning is often encoded in the spatial particles

5 Manner information is more often encoded in English motion verbs themselves and in adjuncts in Vietnamese

1.6 Summary

This chapter provides an interesting insight into English verbs of motion and a precise comparison to Vietnamese equivalents In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs are also explored and some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese verbs of motion have been drawn out as the basis for further comparison

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 eighties, 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

to language, such as Noam Chomsky‘s Generative Grammar (e.g., 1957, 1965) The birth of Cognitive Linguistics is also rooted in the emergence of the second generation of Cognitive Science in the 1970s, which studies the human mind

Cognitive linguistics […] is an approach to language

that is based on our experience of the world and 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 concepts in CLs:

 Conceptualization: Conceptualization refers to the ways people perceive things or

situations One thing or situation can be conceptualized in different ways, resulting in different linguistic expressions Langacker (1991:2) claims that ‗meaning is equated with conceptualization‘

 Embodiment: The meaning of language is embodied, that is, the speaker/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 different, resulting in different linguistic expressions, depending on the different interpretation

of the event or situation

 Construal: This term refers to the ways people perceive an event or situation in the reality,

which then become knowledge Cognitive Linguistics claims that one given situation or event in the external world can be ‗construed‘ in many ways and those different ways of encoding a situation constitute different conceptualizations

 Frame: Charles J Fillmore (1982) develops a theory of frame semantics which argues that

speakers/readers would not understand words without accessing the entire knowledge relating

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

 Perspectives: Perspectives include ‗orientation‘, ‗vantage point‘, ‗directionality‘,

subjectivity‘, etc The external world (reality) is perceived differently by different people from different standpoints due to their differences in their perspective viewpoint Then, different concepts are produced in the perceivers, leading to different construals which result

in different linguistic expressions

2.1.2 Cognitive semantics and its main tenets

Cognitive Semantics consider linguistic meaning as a manifestation of conceptual structure, which emerges from bodily experience According to Gardenfors (1995), meanings can not stand apart from the people who use and create them because all linguistic expressions must come from and be activated by our mind and brains Cognitive semanticists are guided by four central assumptions or tenets as summarised by Evans & Green (2006: 157):

a Conceptual structure is embodied Our conceptual system arises from our bodily

experiences and is meaningful by virtue of its grounding in these experiences From this assumption it follows that any theory of conceptual structure 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, etc) can be equated with concepts This is not to say that semantic structure and conceptual structure are ident ical: linguistic concepts are only a subset of the possible concepts in the mind of the speaker

c Meaning representation is encyclopaedic; words do not represent ‗neatly packaged

bundles of meaning […] but serve as points of access to vast repositories of knowledge‘ (Evans & 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

d 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 from this view that meaning is a process rather than a discrete ‗thing‘ that

can be ‗packaged‘ by language.‘ (Evans & Green, 2006: 162)

2.1.3 Figure and Ground

The terms ‗Figure‘ and ‗Ground‘ stemmed from Gestalt psychology, but it was Talmy who gave an easy-to-understand conceptualization of them in language In volume I of

Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Talmy proposes that in language, there exist two

fundamental cognitive functions: Figure and Ground (2000: 311) This pair of concepts can

be of two objects relating to each other in space in an event of motion or location, and represented by nominals in a single clause; or of the two events relating to each other in a temporal, causal, or other type of situation, and represented by the main and subordinate clauses of a complex sentence Talmy (2000: 312) draws some specific characterizations of Figure and Ground in linguistic usage:

The Figure is a moving or conceptually movable entity whose

path, site or orientation is conceived as a variable, the

particular value of which is the relevant issue

The Ground is a reference entity, one that has a

stationary setting relative to a reference frame, with

respect to which the Figure’s path, site or orientation is

characterized

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:

‘In their basic form, the Figure has syntactic precedence

over the Ground’

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

For nominals in a single clause, this precedence consists

of expression along a case hierarchy In a non-agentive

clause, the Figure is subject and the Ground is (oblique)

object In an agentive clause, where the Agent is

subject, the Figure is direct object and the Ground is

oblique object

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

‗definitional and associated characteristics‘ as under:

Acts as a reference entity, having known properties that can characterize the Figure’s unknowns

 larger

 geometrically simpler in its treatment

 geometrically more complex in its treatment

 more recently on the scene/ in awareness

 more familiar/ expected

 of greater concern/relevance

 of lesser concern/relevance

 less immediately perceivable

 more immediately perceivable

 more salient, once perceived

 more back grounded, once Figure is perceived

 more dependent  more independent

(Talmy, 2000:315) The Figure and Ground relation is most obviously seen in sentences with prepositional

phrases In the sentence ‗The pen rolled off the table’, the Figure is ‗the pen’, a movable object, the primary one and whose path and site set on the stationary ‗table’ - the Ground, a reference entity, the second object for ‗the pen’ to move It can be seen that the relevance of cognitive-

semantic categories 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?

Lexicalization is one of those terms which linguists do not use in the same way and Lipka (1990: 95) argues that there is no single, correct definition of the term Lipka puts lexicalization more succinctly:

…I would like to define lexicalization as the phenomenon

that a complex lexeme once coined tends to become a single complete lexical unit, a simple lexeme Through this process

it loses the character of a syntagma to a greater or lesser degree (c.f Lipka 1981b: 120)

(cited in Ogechi, 2006)

Leech (1974:226), Lipka (1977) and Lyons (1977:535) regard lexicalization as the result of the addition of semantic information and the result of the loss of semantic

information (cited in Bauer, 1983:56) For example, understand provides an instance of

lexicalization due to the loss of semantic information since in current English, it contains

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

In my understanding, new concepts that are given lexical form become part of the lexicon of a language and the process of establishing a new unit in any specific lexicon is

commonly referred to as lexicalization In other words, lexicalization is the process by which

concepts are encoded in words

In volume II of Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Leonard Talmy delves into

the exploration of the systematic relations in language between meaning and overt linguistic

forms, in other words, into the process of lexicalization (Talmy, 2000b: 24):

Lexicalization is involved where a particular meaning

component is found to be in regular association with a

Talmy‘s basic assumption is that we can isolate elements or components separately within the domain of meaning and within the domain of linguistic expression As illustrated,

an English motion verb (surface element) can encode distinct types of semantic information:

Manner (e.g., hop), Cause (e.g., kick) and Path (e.g., exit, enter) On the other hand, the Path element may be encoded in English by verbs and by prepositions (e.g., out, into), that is, by

two different linguistic elements Talmy (2000b) claims that some characteristics of lexicalization is to associate a particular meaning component with a particular morpheme Generally, there are three processes in a word‘s lexicalization: lexicalization, deletion (or zero), and interpretation

2.2.2 The Motion Event

So far, there have been some interesting cognitive approaches to motion conceptualization Fillmore (1985) developed a theory of Frame Semantics in which he specifies the four basic components of the motion frame: 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) For example:

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

Theme Motion Path Source Path Goal

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 l1 at the time moment t1, occupying location l2 at the moment t2, location l3 at moment t3, and location ln at moment tn Langacker's framework relies on the

general concepts of mover (trajector), time (moment and sequence), and

location, together with the conceptualizer (cf Langacker 1987: 145, 166-8)

According to Jackendoff (1990), the general conceptual structure of motion 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 NY to LA can be analyzed as follows (Jackendoff, 1996: 108):

[FROM ([NY])]

[Event GO ([Thing TRAIN], Path TO ( [LA] ) )]

The most fully specified treatment of motion, however, can be seen in ‗Motion Event‘

proposed by Talmy (2000) In volume II, 2000, Toward a cognitive semantics, Talmy

classifies motion into two types, based on the types of motion found in motion events:

translational motion and self-contained motion In Talmy‘s (2000b:35) words, ‗[i]n

translational motion, an object‘s basic location shifts from one point to another in space In

self-contained Motion, an object keeps its same, or ―average,‖ location Self-contained Motion generally consists of oscillation, rotation, dilation (expansion and contraction), wiggle, local wander, or rest‘ Let us consider examples:

(15) Ray entered the room = translational motion (16) The butterfly hovered over the flower = 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 four basic semantic components: (i) Figure: the entity that is moving or located; (ii) Ground: the entity which acts as a spatial reference point for the motion/location of the figure; (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)

In addition, Talmy proposes that he component of Motion (with capital M) refers to the

presence per se of motion or locatedness in the event […] In addition to these internal

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

the relation of Manner or of Cause to it Let us illustrate 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 The 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 into more fine-grained categories:

• Figure (the moving object): - Individual or group

- Type: human, animal, bird, etc

- Posture: change of posture at beginning or end of path

• Ground (entity or entities that the Figure is moving in relation

to)

- Source: initial location

- Goal: final location

- Milestone: location passed along path

- Linear substrate: bridge, etc

- Medium, terrain: field, river, etc

- Non-solid environment: air, fog, storm, darkness, etc

• Path (the trajectory of the Figure): - Direction of movement: forward, up, north, etc

- Deixis: direction with regard to viewpoint

of narrator

- Contour: curved path, zigzag, etc

• Manner (the way in which motion is performed)

- Motor pattern required to execute movement

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

manner-incorporating language, according to Talmy‘s typological classification, is English, i.e He

went into the house, The bottle floated into the cave Vietnamese also appears to be grouped into

this type, i.e Nó chạy vào nhà In these examples, the manner is 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-incorporating type expresses path instead of manner in the main verb Many Vietnamese motion verbs are of this type, like in Anh Êy và o nhà (He enters the house), or

Cô ấy đến hôm qua (She came yesterday) in which the path is expressed by the verbs (in

boldface)

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

‗Runny icky material [e.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 Talmy (2000b):

… the satellite to the verb or simply, the satellite,

is the grammatical category of any constituent other than a noun phrase or prepositional-phrase complement that is in a sister relation to the verb root It relates to the verb root

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

a bound affix or a free word, is thus intended to encompass all of the following grammatical forms, which traditionally have been largely treated independently of each other: English verb particles, German separable and inseparable verb prefixes, Latin or Russian verb prefixes, Chinese verb complements, Caddo incorporated nouns and Atsugewi polysynthetic affixes around the verb root

(2000b: 102)

Talmy (2000b: 104) gives some English satellites such as in, up, along, out, down, around, on, off,

over, above, below, through, across … Talmy lists other path satellites that are not usually

recognized as such: loose, as in the bone pulled loose (from its socket); un-, as in the bolt must

have unscrewed (from the plate); over- as in the eaves of the roof overhung the garden

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 morphosyntactic constituents encoding the Path component of a motion event In this regard, Talmy‘s (2000) work distinguishes two different types of languages, i.e., satellite-framed 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 (I blew out the candle - change of state), whereas

lexicalization is expressed by particles or satellites in the satellite languages (S-

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

Satellite-framed lexicalization:

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

Verb-framed lexicalization:

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

As regards Talmy‘s typology, English is characteristic of an S-language while Vietnamese is likely to bear the characteristics of both an S-language and a V-language

2.3 Summary

This chapter has dealt with the birth and main tenets of CLs and the theory of lexicalization patterns with its typological and universal principles across languages It can be

seen that Talmy‘s work is the exploration of the systematic relations between meaning and linguistic forms in order to find out whether languages exhibit a small number of patterns (i.e., a typology) or a single pattern (i.e., a universal) In his exploration of the domain of motion, he proposes the typology of path conflating, manner-conflating and figure-conflating languages; by looking at which linguistic forms typically encode the Path of motion, the typology of verb-framed and satellite-framed languages is put forward.

CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS

OF MOTION VERBS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

3.1 Introduction

In the theory of lexicalization patterns, Talmy (2000b) proposes a three-way typology

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

by virtue of the verb root expressing either the Co-event (Manner or Cause), the Path, or the Figure in addition to the fact of Motion Other conflations or minor patterns may exist within

a language, though languages are categorised 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 According to Talmy (2000b: 27),

‗characteristic means that (1) it is colloquial in style, rather than literary, stilted, and so on; (2)

it is frequent in occurrence in speech, rather than only occasional; (3) it is pervasive, rather

than limited‘

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

1 and their translations from The English-Vietnamese dictionary of Institute of Linguistics (2006) and real-life spoken language realized by the author

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

3.2 Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs

3.2.1 Lexicalization pattern 1: Motion + Co-event (Manner/Cause)

In one group of languages, the verb expresses both the fact of motion and its manner or its cause In these languages there are typically a set of frequently-used verbs that express motion "occurring in various manners or by various causes" (Talmy, 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 the prototypical example of this group Its semantic-to-surface relationship here can be represented as follows:

Motion + Co-event ( Manner/Cause) + (Path- Satellites + Ground)

Or in the accompanying diagram as under:

[Figure Motion Path Ground] Motion event  Relation [Event] Co-event

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

b The gate swung/creaked shut on its rusty hinges

c The smoke swirled/squeezed through the opening

Agentive d I slid/rolled/bounced the keg into the storeroom

e I twisted/popped the cork out of the bottle

Self-agentive f I ran/limped/jumped/stumbled/rushed/groped my way down the stairs

g She wore a green dress to the party

Move + Cause

Non-agentive h The napkin blew off the table

i The bone pulled loose from its socket

j The water boiled down to the midline of the pot

Agentive k I pushed/threw/kicked the keg into the storeroom

l I blew/flicked the ant off my plate

m I chopped/sawed the tree down to the ground at the base

n I knocked/pounded/ hammered the nail into the board with a mallet

Let us illustrate the Motion + Co-event conflation in two of Talmy‘s examples above:

In both cases, the subjects of the sentences ‗the rock’ and ‗the napkin’ plays the role of the Figure and the objects ‗the hill’ and ‗the table’ play that of the 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 Figure is moving in relation to The rock and the

napkin in these examples are the moveable objects while the 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, roll in (a) offers information about the Manner

of motion, that is the way in which Motion is performed; and blew 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 components of a Motion event As discussed by Talmy (2000b:152), Manner refers to a subsidiary action or state that a Patient manifests concurrently with its main action or state It

is regularly incorporated in English verbs of motion as float in The balloon float into the

church, which means ‗move, floating in the process’ In order to cast more light on the

specific details encoded in verbs, some linguists such as Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006a), Özçalişkan (2004), Slobin (2000, 2005) have subdivided Manner into different semantic categories Our study adopts Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2006b)‘s summary list of fine-grained manner categories as the basis for the analysis of motion verbs:

1 Motor pattern: basic locomotive abilities: Ways of walking,

running, jumping, swimming and flying

2 Energy: stamina required for performing motion; e.g throw,

fling, churn

3 Forced motion: motion requires an effort to be performed;

e.g drag, trudge

4 Furtive motion: hidden purpose or secretive motion; e.g

crawl, creep, sneak

5 Obstructed motion: there is some impediment or obstacle for

motion; e.g stumble, trip

6 Smooth motion: motion flows, there is no obstacle; e.g.,

glide, slide

7 Leisurely motion: motion for pleasure; e.g., hike, trek

8 No aim in motion: no special purpose; e.g., roam, saunter

9 Violent motion: e.g., charge, dash

10 Unsteady motion: unbalanced motion; e.g., totter, stagger

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

decreasing ); e.g., hurry, dash

12 State of Figure: physical or psychological state; e.g.,

limp, traipse, stroll, swagger

(Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2006b: 6) Cause refers to the qualitatively different kinds of causing event such as can be expressed by an English subordinate from- or by-clause Cause is regularly incorporated in the verb roots of English languages expressing either motion or other actions For example,

the verb blow in (j) means ‗move from (due 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 In this regard, we propose a list of Vietnamese equivalents of this conflation type

(2) Move + Manner:

Non-agentive a‘ Quả bóng lăn xuống đường

b‘ Cái cửa bị thổi đóng lại

c‘ Khói cuộn lên mái

Agentive d‘ Tôi lăn cái thùng vào kho

e‘ Tôi nhấc cái bát trong nồi ra

Self-agentive f‘ Con mèo nhảy lên mái nhà

g‘ Cô ấy mặc một chiếc váy xanh tới bữa tiệc

Move + Cause

Non-agentive h‘ Tờ giấy bị thổi bay ra khỏi bàn

i‘ Khoá bị kéo long ra khỏi ổ j‘ Nước sôi xuống tận đáy xoong

Agentive k‘ Tôi đẩy cái thùng vào kho

l‘ Tôi thổi con kiến khỏi cái đĩa

m‘ Tôi chặt cái cây xuống tận gốc

n‘ Tôi treo bức tranh lên tường bằng một cái móc

Take a’ and h’ into consideration, the conflation of Manner and Cause are seen in the

Motion Event of Vietnamese motion verbs

Figure Motion (Cause) Path Ground

In (a‘), the semantic components of the Vietnamese sentence is similar to the English counterparts However in (h‘), the motion verb blew is transferred into the Vietnamese passive SVC form bị thổi bay which mapped in itself Cause in thổi (the most salient form) and Manner + Ground in bay This example illustrates the difference in the constructions of English and

Vietnamese motion verbs, that is, Verb-particle constructions and SVCs It is observed that in not a few cases, the English particles are transferred into the second verbs in SVCs in Vietnamese, i.e blow down - thổi ngã, thổi đổ, thổi gẫy, blow off - thổi bay, blow out - thổi tắt

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

encode more semantic components than the original ones

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

found that in Vietnamese, there exist 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 đi, chạy, nhảy plus names

of vehicles or dances; for example: đi (bằng) ô tô, nhảy điệu samba… Therefore, it can be

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

As stated earlier, in English manner verbs, manner information is encoded 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: vội

vàng chạy, chạy nước kiệu, … with chạy as the neutral main verb plus vội vàng, nước kiệu as

adjuncts to provide more manner information to chạy In English, manner verbs appear to be more dynamic and people just say: hurry and canter These show that Vietnamese is likely to

omit the manner information in the main verbs, or in other words, seem to favour less dynamic descriptions of manner In order to supply the same quantity and specificity of information that is contained English motion + manner verbs, Vietnamese is prone to an elaborate phrase Accordingly, Vietnamese seems to need more linguistic material to express the Manner of a Motion event than English

In this lexicalization pattern, Path component is conflated in the satellites in both two

languages In English, it is the particles (in, out, along, away from, out of, down to) that provide path information to the verbs and in Vietnamese it is the directional complement verbs (ra, vào,

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

verbs, Vietnamese tends to choose and emphasize the whole trajectory of Motion, i.e from

outside to inside or from inside to outside … (Cô ấy chạy ra sân); whereas it is likely that in

English, the trajectory of Motion incorporate different ‗directions‘; i.e both outside and into

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

k‘, m and m‘, and n and n‘

Moreover, directional complement verbs in Vietnamese and particles in English are both spatially oriented Lý Toàn Thắng (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 ‗out‘ in English and its equivalent: the directional complement verb ‗ra‘ 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 Inside to Outside, from a narrow, dark point to a larger and brighter point In view of

(c‘) Khói cuộn lên mái, the Vietnamese people often think of the smoke rolling from 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 seen so far for Co-event conflation normally applies far beyond the expressions of simple Motion Rather, it can bear a wide range of relations (Talmy, 2000b: 42-47):

∙ Precursion relation: the Co-event precedes the main motion event but does not cause or

assist its occurrence

(3) The glass splintered onto the floor

(3‘) Cái ly rơi vỡ trên sàn nhà (The glass fell splintered on the floor)

∙ Enablement relation: the Co-event directly precedes the main motion event and enables the

occurrence of an event that causes the Motion but does not itself cause this Motion All (d), (e), (k), (l), (m), (n) are examples of this relation Let‘s take (e) and (e‘) as examples:

(e) I twisted the cork out of the bottle

(e‘) Tôi nhấc cái bát trong nồi ra‘ (I took the bowl out of the saucepan)

In these examples, the cork and the bowl themselves can not move out of the bottle/saucepan Rather, that is the movement of our hand 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) It is construed as bringing about the occurrence of this motion and the

motion event would not take place if the Co-event did not occur Analyzing the English examples, we can see that (k), (l), (m), (n) belong to the Onset causation, and (h), (i), (j) conflate extended causation:

(k) I pushed the keg into the storeroom

(j) The water boiled down to the midline of the pot

(4) Gió thổi chiếc mũ rơi xuống đất

(The wind blew the hat fall down to the ground.)

(5) Nước cuộn lên bờ đê (Water rolled onto the dyke‘s base)

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

activity that the Figure of the motion event additionally exhibits The woman in She wore a

green dress to the party could wear a green dress whether she went to the party or not; and

without any effect on her path to the party Similarly, Vietnamese also has the same examples expressing concomitance relations like this:

(6) Hắn xách chai đến nhà Bá Kiến (Nam Cao: 17)

(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 sounds 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, whistle, cry

… In I whistled past the graveyard, Talmy (2000b:46) argues that the Figure (I) Move while

emitting a whistle Contrastingly, Vietnamese is likely to use a separate adverbial clause/phrase

or a coordination with co-ordinators ‗vừa …vừa’; i.e Tôi vừa đi vào phòng vừa huýt sáo; Vừa đi

vào phòng tôi vừa huýt sáo; or Tôi huýt sáo khi đi vào phòng

∙ Concurrent result: the Co-event results from or is caused by the main motion event, and would

not otherwise occur (b) 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

(b) The gate swung shut on its rusty hinges

(b‘) Cái cửa bị (gió) thổi đóng lại (The window is blown shut)

∙ Subsequence relation: the Co-event takes place directly after the main motion event, 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) I kicked the keg into the storeroom

(k‘) Tôi đá cái thùng rỗng vào kho

In all examples depicting varying relations of Motion with the Co-event, the general contrast between English and Vietnamese is that Vietnamese encodes a complex motion event

in the form of a SVC which has two verbs (thổi rơi, thổi đóng, cuộn lên, rơi vỡ …) in a SVC

to express the MOVE In the English version, we only use 1 verb to encode the MOVE and the satellite to express the path of Motion Vietnamese language uses directional complement

verbs: lên and xuống as satellites to denote the Path of Motion, whereas in English, the Path

of Motion is encoded in the prepositions

Beyond that, the expression of Path in English seems to be more complex than in

Vietnamese With the use of the prepositions like onto in 2, out of in e, down to in 3 or into in k, English appears to focus on more than one path information, i.e into expresses both location

‗on‘ and direction/destination ‗to‘ of the Motion Vietnamese can not encode 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 verbs (i.e rơi)

Now that we have examined the semantic 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 similarities: (i) Lexicalization pattern 1 (Motion + Co-event) is

typical in English and it does exist in Vietnamese Vietnamese exhibits characteristics that have been associated with satellite-framed language as English Vietnamese patterns with English in that it uses a rich range of manner-of-motion verbs coupled with another word

which expresses ‗path‘ (ii) Vietnamese and English language both bear the varying relations

beyond the simple motion encoded with Manner and Cause They are Precursion, Enablement, Concomitance, Causal, Subsequence and Concurrent For these reasons, it can first be concluded that Vietnamese is a manner-conflating or an S-language

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

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

complement verbs including ra, vào, lên, xuống, sang, qua, lại, về, đi, đến, tới which convey

the same prepositional meanings (ii) One-verb construction is widely used in English

whereas Vietnamese tends to encode a complex motion event into multiple verbal components forming serial verb constructions, which denote more semantic components in

one Event (iii) Manner information is often encoded in the motion verbs in English whereas

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

in this lexicalization pattern tends to be more complex than that in Vietnamese Different English prepositions and particles can be combined together after the main verbs to encode

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 not have verbs using vehicle or dance names

3.2.2 Lexicalization pattern 2: Motion + Path

In the second typological pattern for 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 surface verbs which express motion along various paths The conflation pattern can

be represented schematically as follows:

Motion + Path + (Adjunct Manner/Cause expression + Ground)

According to Talmy (2000b), Spanish motion verbs are perfect examples of this type: Spanish expressions of Motion with conflation of Path taken from Talmy (2000: 49-51) and Vietnamese addition by translation

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

Non-agentive

a La botella entró a la cueva (flotando)

The bottle MOVED -in to the cave (floating)

‗The bottle floated into the cave‘

Cái chai trôi vào trong hang

b La botella salió de la cueva (flotando)

The bottle MOVED -out from the cave (floating) ‗The bottle floated out of the cave‘

Cái chai trôi ra ngoài động

c La botella pasó por la piedra (flotando) the bottle moved-by past the rock (floating) ‗The bottle floated past the rock‘

Cái chai trôi qua tảng đá

d La botella pasó por el tubo (flotando)

the bottle moved-through through the pipe (fIoating) ‗The bottle floated through the pipe‘

Cái chai trôi qua ống thoát nước

Agentive

e Metí el barril a la bodega rodándolo I- A MOVED -in the keg to the storeroom rolling-it ‗I rolled the keg into the storeroom‘

Tôi kéo cái thùng vào kho

f Saqué el corcho de la botella retorciéndolo

I- A MOVED -out the cork from the bottle twisting-it ‗I twisted the cork out of the bottle‘

Tôi vặn cái nút chai ra (khỏi cái chai)

It can be seen from the examples in (7) that the Spanish verbs entró, 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 (c), (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 vào, ra, lên, xuống, đến, đi, về,

sang, qua, lại, tới …, i.e : 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

FIGURE MOVE PATH GROUND

(9) Departure: The napkin blew out of the box

FIGURE MOVE PATH GROUND

(10) Transversal: The ball rolled across the field

FIGURE MOVE PATH GROUND

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

complement verbs to express the path of motion Inherently directed Motion verbs and Chase verbs are typical of this conflation type For example:

(11) Anh ta chạy vào nhà (He ran into the house)

FIGURE MOVE + MANNER PATH GROUND

Different from English and Vietnamese (in the mentioned cases), Spanish verbs conflate both the Motion and the Vector The preposition that can occur in with a Ground nominal represents the Vector alone

(12) Arrival: Xe tới trường lúc 6 giờ (The car arrived at the school at 6) (13) Departure: Xe rời nhà lúc 4 giờ (The car left home at 4)

(14) Transversal: Xe qua cầu lúc 5 giờ (The car crossed the bridge at 5)

The term ‘Conformation’ is linked to the geometric relationship between the Figure

and the Ground on the route of motion According to Talmy (2000b: 54), each language lexicalizes its own set of such geometric complexes Based on Talmy‘s notions and with relation to Vector, some Conformation categories can be construed with English examples as follows:

∙ Inside/Outside Conformation: (F) is at the INSIDE/OUTSIDE of (G): enter, penetrate, exit

(15) The ball rolled into the box (Arrival - Inside)

∙ Surface Conformation: (F) is on the SURFACE of (G)

(16) The ball blew onto the bed for three hours (Arrival - 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

roots in a, b, e and f represent the Inside/outside conformation whereas the ones in c and d

incorporate the Beside Conformation

In terms of ‗Conformation‘, Vietnamese appears to pattern with both English and Spanish A great number of Vietnamese verbs conflate the Path of motion in the path complement verbs and have another preposition (trên, dưới, bên …) representing the Vectors

At the same time, Vietnamese has path complement verbs (ra, vào …) instantiating fundamental Conformation categories regularly construed in language For example:

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

…Nhưng hắn không vào túp lều lúp xúp

FIGURE MOTION+PATH GROUND

mà ra thẳng bờ sông (Nam Cao; 2002:31)

MOTION+PATH GROUND

Or … Nhưng hắn không đi vào túp lều lúp xúp mà đi thẳng ra bờ sông

(… But he doesn‘t go into the low-roofed cottage but goes directly to the riverside.)

(20) Surface Conformation: lên

Anh ấy lên trên thuyền (He goes on board) Con thuyền trôi giạt lên trên những tảng đá (The boat was driven onto the rocks)

(21) Beside Conformation: đến, tới, lại (bên)

Anh ấy chạy đến bên tôi (He ran across to me)

Anh ấy đến bên tôi (He came across to me) (22) Above/Beneath Conformation: qua, vượt

Khi bạn bay qua Thái Bình Dương, bạn sẽ đến Trung Quốc

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

Khi qua cầu, bạn sẽ đến nhà văn hoá

(When you cross the bridge, you will come to the Communal House)

The ‘Deictic’ component of Path typically has two member notions ‗toward the

speaker‘ and ‗in a direction other than toward the speaker‘ Spanish largely classes its Deictic

verbs; e.g., ir ‗to go‘, venir ‗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 from the speaker

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

variants can be: up and down, forward or backward, front or back, afterwards … In English,

these variants are mapped onto the prepositions or particles For example:

(23) The balloon floated up to the sky

In Vietnamese, like English, Direction can be mapped either onto directional complement verbs as in (24) or like Spanish, directional verbs as in (25):

(The balloon flew up to the sky)

(25) Mặt trời xuống núi (The sun ascended the mountain) (Down)

Mẹ đã về nhà (Mum has returned home) (Backward) These path verbs, like directional complement verbs, syntactically require an Olocative

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)

Although it is prominent that Path in Vietnamese is realized through main verbs or path complement verbs, it can not be denied that in Vietnamese, there also exist some prepositions

used to express Path components They are dynamic prepositions: từ … đến/tới (from …to),

theo/dọc theo (along), khỏi (out of), and stative prepositions: trong (in), ngoài (out), trên

(on/up), dưới (down) The dynamic prepositions are often combined with Manner verbs while the stative ones with Path verbs; and they basically convey Vector properties Từ … đến/tới (from …to) indicate the Departure-Arrival Vector; trong (in), ngoài (out) convey Ground information of Inside and Outside; trên (on/up), dưới (down), theo/dọc theo (along), khỏi (out

of) relate to the Ground information of Deictic components

More interestingly, Vietnamese has a set of positional nouns which categorizes

spatial orientation in systemic ways They are assigned to four directions: Đông (East), Tây (West), Nam (South), Bắc (North), or regions: đàng trong = miền Nam (the South), đàng ngoài = miền Bắc (the North), miền Trung (the Centre), thôn Đoài (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 poem to illustrate the cognitive orientation

of the Vietnamese people:

‗Con cò bay lả bay la Bay ra phương Bắc bay vào phương Nam‘

In summary, Path conceptualizations and their representations in English, Spanish and Vietnamese manifest certain similar and different typological characteristics On the one 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 categorized as a satellite-framed construction

On the other hand, Vietnamese patterns with Spanish, that is, path properties may be realized in verbs In contrast, English verb roots readily conflate the Co-event but not Path This lexicalisation pattern is not characteristic, though English also has verbs that incorporate Path,

such as arrive, approach, circle, cross, descend, enter, exit, follow, join, pass, rise, return,

separate, etc., but most of them are historic borrowings from Romance languages Since

Vietnamese maps Path onto the main verb and also conflates Path with Move, it can be categorized as a path-conflating 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 northern Hokan languages Atsugewi, a Hokan polysynthetic language of northern California, is the prototypical example of this type presented in Talmy (2000) It has a whole series of verbs that express various kinds of objects

or materials moving Its structure is as follows:

Motion + Figure + (Satellite + Ground)

Talmy draws an analogy using English examples It would be as if verbs like rain and

spit were the common way of expressing movement The non-agentive rain would refer to rain

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

Non-agentive: It rained in through the bedroom window

Agentive: I spat into the cuspidor (Talmy, 2000b:57)

In Atsugewi, this type of verb is the norm to 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 conflated Figure taken from Talmy (2000b: 58)

-lup- ‗for a small shiny spherical object (e.g., a round candy, an eyeball) to move/be located -caq- ‗for a slimy lumpish object (e.g., a toad, a cow dropping) to move/be located‘

-staq- ‗for a runny icky material (e.g., mud, guts, chewed gum) to move/be-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 ball into the goal), or hand (They hand the plate 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 I

laid my head on the pillow (Talmy, 2000b:59) Vietnamese, a non-inflectional language with no

affix, patterns with English in both cases For example:

(26) Hắn bước vào nhà (Figure-conflating verb) - He stepped into/entered the house

(27) Nó lắc đầu liên tục (Manner-conflating verb) - He shook his head continually

3.2.4 Other minor patterns

While 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 any

lexicalization pattern Other possibilities include the conflation of more than one component

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

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

and Motion + 3 semantic components

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 patterns in both English and Vietnamese as follows:

 Motion + Ø: Move, vận động