engleski

The semantics and grammar of 'motion'. Evidence from Croatian prefixes vs. prepositions

Departing from Talmy’ s (1975, 1985) findings relative to the typological contrast in the lexicalisation of motion events, this paper explores the lexical patterns of a series of Croatian motion verbs and their subcategorisation requirements. While some of Talmy’ s findings are reinforced, others are challenged. In particular, we focus on Talmy’ s satellites and the long standing view that Slavic prefixes express Aspect. We propose a revised reading of these particles, whereby Aktionsart is put forward as the core semantic element lexicalised by Slavic prefixes. In the final part of the paper, we relate the findings stemming from the analysis of the Croatian prefixed motion verbs to a set of (English) dynamic prepositions, and suggest that the English preposition ‘ to’ conflates the Aktionsart element of a second or ‘ target state’ within the TT. This, in turn, yields a more complete understanding of the concept of motion. Since the elements proposed in this paper are viewed as shared between language and other sub-systems of human cognition, all the hypotheses put forward should, if correct, be valid crosslinguistically.

semantics-syntax interface; motion verbs; subcategorization requirements

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