A THEMATIC ROLE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS
A THESIS
Presented to the Graduate Program in English Language Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree Requirement
for the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) in
English Language Studies
by
Muhammad 026332001
ORIGINALITY STATEMENT
ABSTRACT
MUHAMMAD. (2008) A THEMATIC ROLE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS
Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Yogyakarta
This thesis investigates the thematic roles of English motion verbs. It is an interface between syntax and semantics in which syntactical functions and thematic roles are interwoven. There are two problems to answer in this thesis. Firstly, what are the sentence patterns in which the motion verbs occur? Secondly, what are the thematic roles assigned by the motion verbs in each sentence pattern? Accordingly, the objective of this research is to describe the sentence patterns of the English motion verbs and possible thematic roles assigned by the motion verbs in each sentence.
Both objectives are achieved through analyzing simple motional clauses or sentences collected from two monolingual dictionaries, namely Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 2005 and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (the third), 2001. Five consistent diagnostic tests are applied to determine the motion verbs. The data are analyzed in terms of syntactic behavior in order to answer the first question. Thematic roles of the same data are then analyzed to answer the second question.
The analysis of the data collected is divided into two sections. In the first section the analysis is concerned with the sentence patterns of the motion verbs. In the second part, the analysis deals with the thematic roles assigned by the motion verbs.
Based on the sentence pattern analysis, it is found that the motion verbs occur in seven simple sentence patterns, namely subject verb motion sentences, subject verb complement motion sentences, subject verb object motion sentences, subject verbs double object motion sentences, subject verb object complement motion sentences, subject verb adverbial motion sentence, and subject verb object adverbial motion sentences.
The motion verbs in each sentence pattern assigned the thematic roles to the grammatical functions such as subjects, direct objects, oblique objects, and adverbials. The selection of thematic roles by the motion verbs depends upon the verb meaning and type such as transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive.
In the SV and SVO sentence pattern, the subjects tend to be Agents rather than Themes. The subjects in SVC sentence patterns are mostly Themes and Agents. In SVO sentence patterns, subject agents tend to occur with object themes, object goals, object locatives and object paths. In the same clause type, subject Themes occur with object Themes, Goals, Locatives and Sources.
and to In the SVOC sentence patterns the motion verbs assign Agents to subjects, Theme to objects, and Goal to complements.
In SVA sentence patterns subjects mostly become Agents and Theme while the adverbials are Sources, Goals, Locations, Manners, Paths, and Times. Accordingly, this sentence pattern has two main combinations of the thematic roles assigned by the motion verbs. Firstly, it is a combination of Agent and Theme with one adverbial’s thematic roles. Secondly, it is a combination of Agent and Theme with two adverbials’ thematic roles.
Finally, in the SVOA sentence pattern, the subjects are mostly Agent, Theme and Instrument. In addition the Agents occur with Theme-Location, Goal-Location, Theme-Goal, Theme-Source, Theme-Instrument, Instrument-Purpose, Theme-Time, Time-Location, and Goal-Time.
Motion verbs do not have phrasal verb forms when they are present in SVC, SVOO sentence patterns. It means that they only have simple verb forms. In other sentence patterns they can be present in both simple verb form and phrasal motion verb forms. In phrasal verb form they have particles that come after or before the objects.
Besides showing concrete motion event, motion verbs indicate abstract motion events which refer to stationary scenes. Thematic roles of instruments,
themes, source and goals into the motion verbs. In certain sentence patterns the motion verbs can have phrasal verb forms with particles from, across, by, in, out,
ABSTRAK
MUHAMMAD. (2006) THE THEMATIC ROLE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS
Yogyakarta: Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Yogyakarta
Tesis ini meneliti peran tematik verba gerak bahasa Inggris. Studi ini merupakan perpaduan antara sintaksis dan semantik yang peran gramatikal dan sematiknya saling berjalin. Tesis ini akan mejawab dua masalah. Pertama, apa pola kalimat yang mempunyai kata kerja gerak bahasa Inggris? Kedua, peran tematik apa yang diperankan oleh fungsi-fungsi gramatikal dalam setiap pola tersebut? Dengan demikian tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk memerikan pola-pola kalimat yang mempunyai kata kerja gerak dalam bahasa Inggris dan peran tematik apa yang diperankan oleh fungsi-fungsi fungsi gramatikalnya.
Kedua tujuan tersebut dapat dicapai dengan menganalisis klausa atau kalimat yang mengandung verba gerak yang datanya bersumber dari kamus ekabahasa, yaitu Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (the third), 2001. Dan Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (the seventh edition), 2005. Kata kerja gerak dari kedua kamus tersebut didentifikasi dengan menggunakan consistent diagnostic tests. Untuk menjawab masalah pertama, peneliti menganalisis data yang sudah dikumpulkan berdasarkan perilaku sintaktiknya. Setelah menentukan fungsi-fungsi gramatikalnya, data yang sama dianalisis lagi berdasarkan peran tematiknya.Hasilnya analisis ini digunakan untuk menentukan jenis verba gerak bahasa Inggris.
Ada dua analisis dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama adalah analisa pola-pola kalimat kata kerja gerak bahasa Inggris. Yang kedua adalah análisis peran tematik yang diperankan oleh oleh fungsi gramatikal. Pada análisis kedua ini, teori Frawley banyak diterapkan dan dilengkapi oleh teori Fillmore.
Verba gerak juga diikuti oleh partikel seperti down, up, around, out, off,
up, away, by, past, dsb. Partikel ini ada sesudah atau sebelum objek. Fungsi gramatikal seperti subjek, objek, pelengkap, adverbia memiliki peran-peran tematik yang beragam yang tergantung pada makna dan jenis verba seperti verba transitif, intransitive dan ditransitif.
Pada klausa berpola SV dan SVO subjek cenderung menjadi agents
daripada themes tetapi sangat jarang subjek menjadi time dan locative. Pada klausa berpola SVO subject agents cenderung muncul dengan object themes,
object goals, object locatives dan object paths. Selain itu subject themes
berpasangan dengan object themes, goal, locative and source.
Pada SVOO subject mempunyai peran tematik yang beragam. Pertama
subject sebagai agent dan jarang sekali sebagai goal. Paling sering, subject
berperan sebagai agent yang bergandengan dengan theme dan benefactive,
instrument. Peran goal hanya bergandengan dengan theme dan locative. Pada klausa berpola SVOC subject menjadi agent, object menjadi theme.
Pada SVA subject sering sekali menjadi agents dan theme sedangkan
adverbials berperan sebagai source, goal, locative, manner, path, and time. Terdapat tiga kombinasi peran tematik dalam pola klausa ini. Yang pertama, kombinasi agent dan theme yang bergandengan dengan peran tematik adverbial. Kedua, subject berkombinasi dengan theme dan dua adverbial. Terakhir, agent
berkombinasi dengan theme berkombinasi dengan tiga peran tematik adverbial. Yang terakhir, klausa berpola SVOA memiliki subject sering sekali menjadi agent, theme and instrument. Berdasarkan kombinasinya, agent itu bergandengan dengan theme-locative, goal-locative, theme-goal, theme-source, theme-instrument, instrument purpose, theme-time, time-locative, dan goal time.
Kata kerja gerak tidak memiliki bentuk frasa verba dalam pola kalimat SVC, dan SVOO. Artinya kata kerjanya berbentuk sederhana. Pada pola kalimat yang lain, seperti SV, SVOC, SVA dan SVOA kata kerja gerak dapat mempunyai bentuk yang sederhana, dan berbentuk frasa. Dalam bentuk verba frasa partikel yang melekat pada kata kerja gerak sering muncul sebelum ataupun sesudah objek.
Selain menunjukkan peristiwa gerak yang konkrit, kata kerja gerak mengindikasikan gerak abstrak. Kata kerja gerak abstrak menunjukkan keadaan diam, tidak bergerak atau a static stationary. Peran tematik seperti instruments,
themes, source dan goal luluh ke dalam kata kerja gerak. Pada pola-pola kalimat tertentu kata kerja gerak mempunyai bentuk frasa verba dengan partikel seperti
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This graduate thesis is concerned with the thematic role analysis of English motion verbs. It is an interface between syntax and semantics through which syntactic functions and thematic roles are interwoven. This thesis is written in partial fulfillment of the degree requirement for the Magister Humaniora in English from the Graduate Program at Sanata Dharma University. To finish this thesis, various parties have already contributed their support in terms of ideas, book loans, etc. Therefore, let me express my gratitude to the following:
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. B.B.Dwidjatmoko, M.A, my advisor who sincerely helped me finish this thesis. Second, my gratitude goes to Dr.Fr.B.Alip, M.Pd, M.A. and Dr. F.X. Mukarto, M.S. who suggested that I revise the first problem and include motion verb meaning.
In addition, let me express my thanks to the following people who motivated me to finish this thesis. First, thanks go to the Head of the Graduate Program in English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University and the other lecturers who introduced me to aspects of English Language Studies. Second, my thank goes to the Rector, Dean and Vice Dean of Student Affair at UAD who motivated me to finish quickly. Third, I would like to express gratitude to my beloved parents who asked me to study hard and patiently. Fourth, my greatest debt is to Michel Esser, Klaus, Vali and Nico who have supported my study financially. Fifth, thank you to my colleagues at USD, Airlangga, UGM, UI, UNY, and UNM for their support in completing this study. Lastly, thanks to my language adviser, Allison Zelkowitz, M.P.I.A. of USA.
I realize that this thesis is still far from perfect. Therefore any constructive suggestions or ideas for this thesis improvement are happily welcome.
Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, 23 May 2008 Student
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE TITLE ... i
PAGE OF APPROVAL ... ii
PAGE OF DEFENCE APPROVAL ... iii
ORIGINALITY STATEMENT...……… iv
ABSTRACT ... v
ABSTRAK ... vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ... ix
TABLE OF CONTENT ... x
LIST OF FIGURE ... xiii
LIST OF TABLE ... xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION ... xv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background ... 1
1.2 Problem Limitation ... 8
1.3 Problem Formulation ... 9
1.4 Research Objectives ... 9
1.5 Benefits of the Study... 10
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW 2.1 Verbs as Events Representation ... 11
2.2 Grammatical Functions of a Sentence... 32
2.3 Thematic Role Theory ... 56
2.3.1 Fillmore’s Thematic Role ... 57
2.3.2 Frawley’s Thematic Role ... 69
3.2...Data
Collection ... 87
3.3 Data Analysis ... 90
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION 4. Motion Verb Types ... 93
4.1 SV Motion Verbs ... 94
4.2 SVC Motion Verbs …... 10
4.3 SVO Motion Verbs ... 104
4.4 SVOO Motion Verbs ... 118
4.5 SVOC Motion Verbs... 123
4.6 SVA Motion Verbs ... 127
4.6.1 Two Thematic Role Combination... 128
4.6.2 Three Thematic Role Combination ……..……….. 147
4.7 SVOA Motion Verb Types ... 151
4.7.1 Three Thematic Role Combination ... 152
4.7.2 Four Thematic Role Combination …...………... 164
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion ... 171
5.2 Suggestion ... 174
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 176
APPENDICES Appendix 1 A List of Alphabetic Motion Verbs...………... 179
Appendix 2 A List of Active Based on Diagnostic Tests..………... 204
Appendix 3 Motion Verb Sentence Patterns Appendix 3.a SV Motion Verb Sentence Pattern ...………... 218
Appendix 3.b SVC Motion Verb Sentence Pattern ………... 218
Appendix 3.c SVO Motion Verb Sentence Pattern ..………... 219
Appendix 3.d SVOO Motion Verb Sentence Pattern…..………... 220
Appendix 3.f SVA Motion Verb Sentence Pattern ...………... 220
Appendix 3.g SVOA Motion Verb Sentence Pattern ..………... 223
Appendix 4 Thematic Roles of Motion Verbs Sentence Patterns Appendix 4.a Thematic Roles in SV Sentence Pattern..…..…………... 228
Appendix 4.b Thematic Roles in SVC Sentence Pattern..………... 230
Appendix 4.c Thematic Roles in SVO Sentence Pattern..………... 231
Appendix 4.d Thematic Roles in SVOO Sentence Pattern..………... 233
Appendix 4.e Thematic Roles in SVOC Sentence Pattern..………... 234
Appendix 4.f Thematic Roles in SVA Sentence Pattern..………... 135
Appendix 4.g Thematic Roles in SVOA Sentence Pattern..………... 240
LIST OF FIGURE
LIST OF TABLE
A LIST OF ABBREVIATION
PCt. : Pseudo Cleft Construction Test WHt : What Happened Test
It : Imperative Test
CDAt : Carefully and deliberately adverb
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
A verb encodes event as a noun represents entities, a cover term for all relatively
atemporal regions or individuals including persons, places, and things. The verb encodes
events like state,or condition of existence, process or unfolding, and actions or executed
action. In English the state can be represented by use of the verb be like in sheis happy. In
this sentence, the verb is shows a condition of the pronoun he; he does not execute
anything.
English verbs do not only show a state but also denote a process like in they
become friends, he got angry, Mary became an English teacher ¸ she will be a nurse, and
he will be an English teacher. In the clause they become friends, the verb become is a
process verb where they and friends are the entities that undergo a change from not being
friends to being friends. In the sentence he got angry, the verb got is a process verb in
which he and angry are entities that play roles in becoming angry. In the clause it falls dry,
the entities it and dry play a role in changing from one condition to another condition. In
the construction she will be a nurse, the entities she and a nurse involve a process of being
in one state and then another. Finally, in the clause he will be an English lecturer, the
entities he and an English lecturer involve an unfolding from a condition to another.
An event such as an action can be seen via process, causation, and motion that are
all presented in certain verbs. The verbs themselves require relatively particulars that
consistently change in a sense that verbs are essentially tied to change, or either change
Strictly speaking, the essential criterion of verbs is a change and this is related to
temporalities; therefore it derives a category of a verb. This means that a change and
temporality determine the type of event that is represented by verbs.
In line with the verb as an event representation, Langacker (in Frawley 1992) states
that there are two basic objects that mentally project domain of reference namely, things
and relations.
Furthermore, he says that a thing is related to the entities that constitute a semantic
property of nouns, but relation is related to verbs that show an event. In other words, thing
is represented by a noun while a verb is just a representation of a relation which shows an
event. Therefore a verb is event representation, which is in relation to change, process and
time.
A verb as the event representation may denote state, process, and action, each of
which has a different form. Frawley (1992) proposes that there are four main types of
events such as acts, states, causes and motion. The events can be manifested by verbs in
various forms.
Every language has such different representation of the events. For example acts
and states have a fundamental distinction, as the following constructions show.
(1) a. John stole $ 25.
b. The car cost $ 500.
The verb stole in (1.a.) expresses an event controlled, executed, or carried out by
John as one of the participants. However, similar thing can be said for (1.b.) in which the
event is encoded by the verb cost, which tends to show a condition of existence or an
(1.a.) is an active event representation because of the participant’s control but the verb in
(1.b.) a stative event representation because there is no execution of the action by the
participant.
Stative events, which contrasts with active events are internally uniform and
structured, and both appear to be heterogeneous. Their structure is different from the
active events; therefore their scope is distinctive. For example, the scope of a stativeevent
is an event in totality while the active one is based on its components, which can be clearly
illustrated by 2.a and 2.b.
(2) a. Ali likes rutabagas.
b. Ali is liking rutabagas. (more and more)
The verb like in (2.a.) expresses a mental state where the entire event is denoted as
an undifferentiated phenomenon while in (2.b.) an active interpretation is forced by the
progressive tense (be + -ing).
However, a verb is not simply defined as an event, morphological features and
syntactic criterion can also identify verbs. From a morphological point of view, the English
language, for example has prefixes, suffixes for verb determination. English verbs can be
derived from other verbs by the use of prefixes like re- in repaint, re-enter, re-writeun- in
untie, and untangle, de- in decompose, and desensitize, dis- in disbelieve, and disentangle.
English verbs can also derive from nouns and adjectives. The verbs derived from
nouns can be indicated by some suffixes like de- in debug, deforest, and delouse, -ise in
organize, patronize, and terrorize, -fy as in beautify, gentrify, and petrify. Prefix –en can be
attached to adjectives to create verbs like in enrage, empower, enslave, enfeeble, enthrone,
strengthen, enliven, embolden, tighten, loosen, stiffen, weaken, widen, redden, deepen,
toughen, etc.
In addition to the morphological point of view, syntactical criteria play an
important role in verbs determination. This feature deals with whether a verb overtly
needs subject or an object in a sentence. In this way, a verb is something that takes a
subject or object. In other words, both syntactical functions determine the verb and its
types, which the following four sentences show:
(3).Tommy is very sick now.
(4).Mary and her friends are beside Anton.
(5).Donna was very ill yesterday.
(6).His friends were beside John two days ago.
From the syntactic analysis, the verbs is, are, was and were require the presence of
subject. In sentence (3), the verb is as a linking verb shows the presence of a singular
subject, Tommy. Also, the verb are in (4) occurs as it is because there is a plural subject
Mary, and her friends. This means that the verb changes its form because of the number of
the subject.
In addition, the verbs was, and were in (5) and (6)just show a form change, i.e. is
into was, and are into were because of the number and tense change. However the
syntactical verb determination fails to encode a certain event which is usually represented
by a verb. Therefore, the syntactic verb definitions seem to only operate in the verb form
change, e.g. her mother baked loaves of bread very well, and her friends baked loaves of
her mother precedes the verb and the plural her friends comes before the verb. Thus,
English verbs are syntactically operative on the level of certain structural phenomenon.
However at the level of seeing an event, syntactic verb conception fails to
determine a type of an event and that’s why semantic verb definition is an alternative
choice. In terms of semantic analysis, a verb denotes a state, a process, and an action as the
events. In other words, state, process and action are the events that verbs present. The
three events have a closely semantic relation with the verbs. The verbs are pictures of
semantically events driven. The process event appears in verbs become, get, increase etc.
The state event presents in verbs be, is, cost, lie, etc. The action events occur in verbs give,
take, bring, drive, go, etc.
Events can be divided into four main kinds, i.e. state, process, action, and motion
which are closely related to change, time, manner and relation because an event itself is a
relatively temporal relation in conceptual space. A process is a series of states that in
sequential or successive grouping constitute a phenomenon as a whole. It is related to a
change and only refers to relational aspects of events in which time is also required for an
event. An action refers to an event that is controlled, executed, or carried out with distinct
effect on the participant, and state deals with an event that shows condition of existence or
attribute rather than procedure enacted or controlled.
In terms of the events, there are two types of English verbs, i.e. stative and active
verbs which may be identified by five consistent diagnostic syntactic tests namely the
progressive test, pseudo-cleft construction, what happened, the imperative test, and the use
of the adverbs carefully and deliberately.
The progressive test may modify active verbs into verb plus –ing. For example,
the verb run in John runs very fast can be a progressive form, and it becomes John is
costing $ 500,000.The psuedo-cleft construction test indicates the active verbs, for example
what John did wasrun very fast. However this fails to work with a stative verb as in what
his car did was cost $ 500,000. Then what happened test also assesses an active verb for
example in what happened to John? The answer is that John got an accident. Appositely,
the test fails when examining a stative verb for instance what happened to cloth.
Additionally, an imperative sentence can also test an active event such as in please come to
my house. In this sentence, come is an active verb because it can be in an imperative form.
Finally, the adverbs carefully and deliberately are applicable to test stative verbs as in John
drove the car very carefully and Jimmy kicked the boy deliberately. But the adverbs of
carefully and deliberately are not applicable to stative verbs, for example the cloth cost $
30.000 deliberately or Mary is sick carefully.
The active event itself can be classed into two types, i.e. a cause and a motion.
Causation is related to two events each of which plays a different role. The prior event
causes the next in a sense that the later event happens because of the previous event.
Therefore the two events are closely related. For example, John killed Mary and Mary is
dead. In those sentences, the next event happens because of the action killing done by
John.
Motion event means a movement in a sense that it is the process of moving or the
way that someone or something moves. It then implies three things in motion namely (1)
someone or something moving (2) the movement itself or motion, and (3) the manner of
the movement. For example, John ran in the stadium in which John did the movement by
running in the place stadium. In that sentence, Subject-agent moved himself by running in
the stadium. It then has three aspects, namely displaced thing, time interval and space.
Conceptually speaking it has a basic structure, i.e. displacement of entities. It entails the
According to Frawley (1992), the motion event represent by the verbs in a sentence
assigns eight semantic roles to the arguments i.e. theme, source, goal, path, site, cause,
manner, and conveyance. It requires that something moves or displayed; and it is called a
theme or figure. For example, the verb throw in John throws the ball has a theme, the ball.
Furthermore, it needs a source or the origin of entity movement, and goal, or the
destination where the entity moves. The role source and goal is usually indicated
syntactically by from and to. For instance, John ran from his room to the school. His room
is the origin of the action running and it is a source; the school is the destination where
John ran to and it is the goal of the action running. To perform a motion act, a verb needs
a location where the action takes place. Location is syntactically indicated by the
prepositions in, and at, for example, we usually run in the stadium. Furthermore, a motion
event requires a path as in he went along the river. As seen in the previous sentence, the
preposition along indicates the path.
It can then be stated that motion covers an entity displacement and a change of
position. From the semantic point of view, the motion has structure which is so called a
semantic structure built around a central verb. The central is the verbs accompanied by
nouns or other elements with a series of thematic roles.
According to Chafe (in Cook 1989:65), the element of the semantic structure is a
verb or a predicate and a noun or an argument. The predicate is generally verbs that
describe events; arguments are generally nouns referring to things, including physical
objects and reified abstractions. The verb is central and the nouns are peripheral.
Accordingly, motion is an event represented by the verbs in sentences. It uses
nouns as the arguments. Thus, a motion event deals with a relation between verbs and
In the analysis of motion event, the verbs are considerable understandable because
they are (1) semantically present in sentences, (2) determine the thematic roles assigned to
nouns and (3) show the inflectional units, like inflection indicating the past, and present
tense or indicating aspects like progressive, perfect, and imperfect simultaneously added to
the entire sentence. Accordingly, there are three essential aspects of motion verb analyzed,
noun and verb relation manifested in English sentences, the grammatical functions of the
nouns, and the thematic roles assigned to the grammatical functions in relation to the
motion verbs in sentences.
A motion event has a closely related syntactic and semantic structure. In terms of
syntactic analysis, a motion verb requires the grammatical functions, such as a subject, an
object, a complement, and an adverbial that bear semantic roles, i.e. the verb got in John
got the letter from his mother. The sentence shows a movement of the letter in which the
subject John is assigned a goal role (G), the object the letter is a figure (F), and the object
his mother is a source (S). Accordingly, it can be clarified that the subject can be assigned
as a goal (G), the object can function as a figure (F) and the object can be a source (S)
semantically. Another example is the pencil rolled off the table. The verb rolled is a
motion verb in which the subject the pencil is a theme (T), the object the table is the figure
(F), the preposition off is path (P) and the verb rolled itself shows manner (M), the way the
subject theme moved.
1.2 Problem Limitation
Based on the above description and explanation, there are some problems to
address. These are the limits of morphological and syntactical criteria of identifying verbs,
verb. These two problems are not discussed in this thesis. The other problems are the four
main types of event such as act, state, causation and motion.
To cover all these problems would be exhausting and cause the discussion to be
unfocused. Therefore, the researcher will only discuss English motion verbs with their
sentence patterns, and thematic roles assigned to grammatical functions. Furthermore, I
will discuss the pattern of English motion verbs in terms of the thematic roles assigned to
the grammatical functions.
1.3 Problem Formulation
Taking into consideration the problem limitations in 1.2, this thesis will mainly
focus on finding the answer to the following questions:
1. In what sentence patterns do the motion verbs occur?
2. What thematic roles do the motion verbs in each pattern show?
The data sources for answering the questions are the English monolingual
dictionary that includes motion verb sentences. Applying five consistent diagnostic tests on
stative and active event will indicate the motion verbs.
1.4 Research Objectives
Based on this problem formulation, it is obvious that questions require
comprehensive answers to adequately describe and explain the English motion verbs. To
meet this purpose, this research is aimed at describing:
2. The thematic roles assigned by the motion verbs in each pattern.
1.5 Benefits of the Study
Linguistic research should give both theoretical and practical contributions.
Theoretically, the result of linguistic research should at least enrich linguistic knowledge.
This research will provide a simple and comprehensive understanding on the thematic role
of English motion verbs. In addition, the research findings will highlight the English
CHAPTER TWO THEORETICAL REVIEW
This thesis is aimed at describing the sentence patterns of English motion verbs and
the thematic roles assigned by the verbs to the grammatical functions in each pattern. To
fulfill the study objectives, three main theories must first be explained. They are [1] verbs
as the event representation [2] the grammatical functions of the sentence patterns and [3]
thematic roles assigned to the grammatical functions in the sentences.
2.1 Verbs as Event Representation
Linguists define verbs in various ways. Verbs are defined in terms of traditional
grammar, syntactic and morphological manner, and semantic motivation. Based on
traditional grammar, a verb is defined as the grammatical category that represents the
action in a sentence. This definition is influenced by Greek-Latin grammar that is based on
philosophical concepts. Although it is philosophical, this definition works in certain areas
and fails in others like in John is very ill now. From this definition, the verb is does not
entirely show an action rather the condition of being sick because John is really doing
nothing. The traditional definition, also called a notional verb conception, falls through
because not all verbs are actions; however, when actions are expressed, they
overwhelmingly tend to surface as verbs.
Based on the syntactic definition, a verb can be defined as something that takes a
subject or object. From this point of view a verb encodes a form class, which is identified
by the syntactic criteria. Therefore the verb is in the sentence above is a verb because its
form is a function of the subject singularity. If the number of the subject changes, the verb
formal definition of verbs above works at some levels because verbs are entirely structural
phenomena.
In terms of the morphological point of view, verbs are indicated by their endings
such as, –ize in globalize and economize-fy in beautify, and -en in widen.
Accordingly, verbs encode events, a cover term for states or condition of existence,
processes or unfolding, and action or executed processes. Nouns are defined in the same
way. Nouns represent entities, a cover term for all atemporal regions or individuals
including persons, places and things. (Frawley: 1992:140)
According to Davidson (1980) in Frawley (1992:142), the essence of events is
change, either changing themselves as in the case of their own derivation by cause and
effect, or bringing about a change in the entities associated with them while entities or
substance or object as Davison calls them are individuated by their sameness in spatial
coordinate. In brief, change is the essential criterion of events. The change is related to
temporality which is another verb criterion. Therefore change and temporality motivate the
verbs categoriality accordingly.
Other linguists like Thompson, Givon and Langacker also share their ideas on the
categoriality of verbs. Hopper and Thompson (1984, 1985) in Frawley (1992) argue that
the informational requirements of discourse motivate the categoriality of nouns and verbs,
with overt form reflecting the relative individuation of the information encoded by the
form. Overt verbal categoriality then reflects the degree to which the events reported are
individuated in discourse. From the point of view, events should have full informational
status.
In addition to full informational status, tense is also important. It increases the
informational status of the event encoded by the verbs or ‘eventhood’. Returning to
over time. However, for Hopper and Thompson, the degree of eventhood is reflected in the
degree to which the forms in discourse surface as verbs.
Givon and Langacker share the same criterion for verbal categoriality—the
temporality of events. For Givon (1979, 1984) in Frawley (1992:144) grammatical
categories are motivated by the perceived temporal stability of their typical referents.
These are prototypically events or actions, and the languages tend to lexicalize them as
verbs. Thus, Givon’s and Davidson’s views are similar in this way but Givon uses change
over time as the essential criterion.
Langacker, another semanticist, believes that two basic objects—thing and
relation—constitute a mentally projected domain of reference. The former corresponds to
entities that are encoded as nouns. Relations are either temporal or atemporal, with the
latter underlying prepositions, adverbs and adjectives and the former corresponding to
verbs. He furthermore says that a verb is a symbolic expression whose semantic pole
designates a process. (Frawley, 1992:144)
Both Givon and Langacker presuppose the time essentiality, but privilege change
and process. Givon relies on stability within time but Langacker emphasizes time priority
by defining a process as something with a temporal characteristic because a processual
predication has a positive temporal profile. Thus both of them support the events
denotation.
Based on these linguists’ accounts, an event can be defined as a relatively temporal
relation in conceptual space. The inclusion of temporal signifies that time importance is
independent of process and change. A process is a series of states that in successive
grouping constitute a phenomenon as a whole. Change and process refer only to the
component states, and change involves the dependency of component states through
different connections.
According to Davidson (1980) in Frawley (1992) change is essential to identifying
events. This means that events are relational. Thus, to identify an event, it is important to
recognize the change and time because the latter is required for events.
From these brief accounts, we can see that events--actions, processes and
states--tend to overwhelmingly surface as verbs. In terms of Davidson’s proposal, an event can be
identified through a change because the change is relational to eventhood. Furthermore,
Hopper and Thompson propose that verbal categoriality can be recognized by the function
of the information requirement of reporting events. The ontologicalist, Givon, believes that
verbs encode less temporally stable phenomena. Finally, the cognitivist, Langacker, sees
verbs as process.
Departing from these different views, Frawley (1992:145) suggests events consist
of four types e.g. acts, states, causes and motions. There are actually many kinds of events,
but these four are the main ones.
Conceptually speaking, acts and states are different. According to Langacker and
Smith in Frawley (1992:146) stative events are internally uniform, in marked contrast to
active, which appear to be heterogeneous and internally structured. Take for example the
verb cost in the sentence the hand phone cost $23. The verb cost does not imply a series of
internal states that lead to the attribution of price. However in an active event like the verb
kill in John killed the cop. In this sentence kill the cop implies the execution of a series of
different sub-processes resulting in the killing of the cop. Thus, an active event is built out
of constituents and any uniformity is a consequence of the sub-processes, not the event as a
Active and stative events are different regarding uniformity. Accordingly, their
scope is not alike accordingly. For stative events the scope of the event is the events as a
whole; for active events, the scope of the event is its components.
According to Frawley, (1992:147) their scope difference lies in the fact that actives
are more associated with temporal change and dynamism of their sub-states. In contrast,
statives typically do not unfold over time, have no internal dynamics, and are thus more
stable in time than actives.
From this statement, we can see that active events are less stable in time and more
dynamics; stative events are more stable in time, and static. Actives and statives differ also
in degree of temporal sensitivity. Consequently, certain features of tense are associated
with each type. Normally actives are found in the non-present tense. In present tense
actives tend to receive a habitual or play-by-play interpretation. For example, the verb took
in the sentence Tommy took the money from the bank is an active verb because its tense is a
past tense; the verb go in John will go to Arabia is active because the tense used is a future.
Actives and statives have semantic criteria like an internal structure, a
homogeneity, a continuousness, a relevance of sub-process, a sub-states, a distribution over
a time interval, an extension and an incrementation.
Besides the event’s recognition via semantic criteria, stative and active events can
be identified in term of surface forms, and this is considered a syntactic diagnostics test.
According to Frawley, (1992:149) there are five tests which are considered structural
reflexes of semantic distinction between acts and states.
The first test is a progressive test. This test is composed of some form of the verb to
be plus a present participle (V + -ing). In this research it is abbreviated with Pt. In general,
and sit potray the active events in the sentences the teacher is reading, the man is writing a
letter now, and the boy is sitting on the chair.
In addition, verbs like understand, cost, and have describe stative events and are
thus disallowed in the progressive test like in the sentence, Mary is having baby, John is
understanding his teacher, and the car is costing $ 200.
The second test is a pseudo-cleft construction test. This is a sentence in the form
of what X do be Y. An active event can be identified by this test, e.g. in the sentences what
you did was disturb your friend, what John did was steal his parents’ money, and what the
boys did was kill the snake. In this research this test is shortly written PCt. This test is very
useful to pinpoint the action itself, what X did was…, and unitize the event. Only active
events are unitizable because they are sensitive to the time intervals.
The third test is a what happened test. In this study this test is named WHt.Based
on this test only active events are expressed by the what happened? The answer is Harry
stole the money.Stative events are not allowed by this test. For an example, the book cost
$10. (Frawley, 1992:150). However stative events can be identified by what happened
diagnostics as with the verbs received and believed in the sentence Bill received a letter
and Bill believed his mother, because both verbs are semantically states though
conceptually they require some action to be carried out. From this perspective semantic
and conceptual structures are divergent. (Frawley, 1992:151)
The fourth test is an imperative test. This test is allowed by actives instead of
statives like in read a lot! It is termed It in this research. The verb read in that phrase is an
active verb because it can be the imperative in form. Further, verbs which are not identified
by what happenedtest fail to be recognized by the imperative test as in receive a letter, and
believe your brother. (Frawley, 1992: 151) In addition to the imperative test, an active can
The fifth and final test involves the adverbs carefully and deliberately. In this
research the test refer to CDAt for short. This test is sensitive to stative and active
distinction. Active events can be encoded in verbs that take two adverbs like in Harry
carefully or deliberately stole $10. (Frawley, 1992:152). Furthermore, these two adverbs
are related to the human agent or animates. They are sensitive to the active verbs because
active events are executed.
Finally, those five consistent diagnostics of the active and stative distinction are
related to the semantic structure of events, i.e. acts have an internal structure and may be
executed, and states are continuous and attributed rather than executed. (Frawley,
1992:152).
Ideally, the categories of acts and states could be consistently identified by those
diagnostics. This means that all the acts meet the active tests and all the states satisfy all
the stative tests. Clearly the active verbs are like lose, fly, eat, attack, drive, sneeze, look at,
listen to, destroy, change, buy, prepare, bury, sweeten, pain, teach, read, etc, and clearly
the stative verbs are verbs like have, be, exist, know, understand, receive, seem, weigh,
cost, like, inherit, belong, believe, etc. (Frawley, 1992:152-3)
Unfortunately, things do not always turn out so well. Some verbs or events satisfy
some diagnostics tests not others. For example, the verb relax only meets some of
diagnostics tests, satisfying the imperative test, and the progressive test as in the
construction Relax! and I am relaxing.
The same can be said for the verb sit, which in the locative sense allows the
progressive event though it otherwise is a stative: The box is sitting in the corner, but??
What the box did was sit in the corner.
To clarify this, Frawley suggests that we can use Dowty’s tack in his study of
which otherwise look very much like stative verbs, permit the progressive test, although
they fail to meet other tests for active events like the pseudo-cleft construction test: the
book is lying on the table? What the book did was lie on the table, the vase is sitting on the
mantle? What the vase did was sit on the mantle. (Frawley, 1992:154)
In other words, we can say that stative verbs, which are successfully identified by
the progressive tests, correspond to a relatively positional state of an entity. Stative verbs
can be put in the non-progressive, habitual or non-temporary interpretation like in the book
lies on the table. Moreover, entities that are normally thought to occupy positions for
extended periods of time do not trigger the exceptional progressive test:? Philadelphia is
lying on the Delaware River and it becomes Philadelphia lies on the Declaware River.
Frawley uses Dowty’s opinion to explain stative verbs that are progressively
recognized. Dowty (1992) says that the progressivizable statives are logically stages. This
means that they range over temporal instantiations of object, like actives normally do.
In Frawley (1992) Dowty proposes two types of statives. The first is stative verbs
that range over objects and entities and disallow the progressive construction. The second
is stative verbs that range over stages. For instance the verb know disallows the progressive
test because it does not express a stage, but simply an attribute of an object. In other words,
it can be said that know ranges over an entity.
The five diagnostic tests actually define three basic characteristics. The progressive
encodes extension; pseudo-cleft and what happened test encodes unitization of an act; the
imperative and the adverbs deliberately and carefully all single out the execution of the
acts. Accordingly, active verbs allow extension, unitization and execution and stative verbs
disallow these.
However, there may be statives that are not unitizable and not executable but are
the verb lie allows the progressive test and is extendible but disallows the pseudo-cleft test.
The event encoded by the verb lie, therefore, might be more properly termed a semi-stative
event.
Extension is represented by the progressive test but execution and unitization are
manifested by the pseudo-cleft construction, the imperative test, and adverbs deliberately
and carefully. One of the verbs that disallows the progressive test although taking tests for
execution and unitization is the verb remain. Therefore it is incorrect to state I am
remaining in the house, but permissible to say what I did was remain in the house; Remain
in the house!; and I deliberately remained in the house. The event expressed by remain
might be best understood as a semi-active event because it is unitizable and executable but
not extendable.
According to Frawley (1992), there are two types of active events, namely
causation and motion events that may occur in various forms of verbs. Causation refers to
causative verbs and motions are related to motion verbs. Causality is a relation and has
distinct features. There are two characteristics of causative events. Firstly, there is a
relation between two events. Secondly, a causative event may assume an independent
surfaces form to varying degrees.
Causative events have a logical and a linguistic structure. Logically speaking,
causative event is a relation between an antecedence and a consequence or a logical
implication. Based on this view, a causative event is abstractly an if/then relation. The
logical structure of causative is exemplified in the expression John forced Jimmy to get a
job. The expression is a logical form of X→ Y and means if John forced Jimmy, then
Jimmy got a job. Accordingly if clause is the antecedence and then clause is the
Besides having formal structures like antecedent and consequent, causative event
possess a non-formal structure such as figure, ground and semantic unity. It can also be
identified by the expression of degree of involvement of the participants and the directness
of the cause itself. The participants involved in causative events are figures [F] and
Grounds [G]. This means that every event can be thought of as an abstract scene in which
the entities that participate in the vent can either emerge as a salient-Figure—or recede and
form part of the background—Ground like in the car is near the tree which means the tree
is near the car. In that example the Figure is the word the car, and the Ground is the word
the tree.
According to Frawley (1995: 161) causative is not a predicate or operator but a
relationship between a precipitating event (Ep) and a resulting event (Er).It is a relation
between a cause and effect. The precipitating event (Ep) is an event that causes the other
event to happen. The resulting event (Er) is an event caused by the precipitating event
(Ep). An example of the causative taken from Frawley (1995) is the bike fell from the ball
hitting it. This construction implies the bike fell because the ball hit it. The resulted event
is the bike fell, and the precipitating event (Ep) is the ball hit it.
In participants may involve the precipitating and resulting event or in a causative
event. The Ground of Ep becomes the Figure of the Er, or the entities are part of the
background of the precipating event itself become the salient or emergent participants in
the resulting event as in Tom shot the arrow. In this sentence, it can be said that Tom acted
on the arrow by shooting it so that the arrow flew through the air. The Figure of the Ep is
Tom, and the Ground is the arrow. However in the (Er), the arrow is the Figure because
A causative is one of the predication types. In the predication analysis, the
causative can syntactically and analytically be analyzed. The syntactic analysis can be
demonstrated through the sentence (1)-(3).
(1) The sunlight yellowed the page.
(2) The heat dried the cloth.
(3) The breeze cooled the water.
The sentence (1) can be changed into the sunlight {made, turned} the page yellow;
the (2) becomes the heat {made, turned} the cloth dry; and the (3) semantically becomes
the breeze {made, turned} the water cool. These three sentences can be analytically
analyzed in that the sunlight caused the pages to become yellow; the heat caused the
clothes to become dry; and the breeze caused the water to become cool. All sentences are
causative, denoting something effecting a change of state in an entity. They involve a
two-place predicate, with a Force role and a Patient role.
Another type of events is motion which syntactically surface in various verb forms.
Motion is one of the event types English language has. English, as one of the Germanic
languages, has such events, which are syntactically and semantically presented. An event is
closely related to a proposition which most often takes the form of a clause or simple
sentences in grammatical structure. (Larson: 1989:189).
Motion event is also sub-class of actives which usually has causative form.
According to Frawley (1992:171) motion entails the displacement of some entity, or
positional changes. Positional change means conceptually relevant positional change.
Under this view, there are two aspects of motion, namely displacement of some entity and
The elemental structure of a motion event is the abstractly displaced (x) as in the
sentences the dog moved, his family traveled, and John went. The verb moved, traveled,
and went can be characterized as motion events because they portray displacement of some
entity or positional change in terms of denotative meaning.
Motion predicate represented in various form of verbs. Because motion verbs refer
to the active events, they can then be identified by the five consistent syntactic diagnostic
tests, i.e. progressive test, a pseudo-cleft construction test, what happened, imperative test,
and carefully and deliberately adverb test.
Besides applying the tests, a motion event can be identified from its semantic
structure, namely its eight semantic properties. The semantic properties of motion are
theme or figure, source, goal, path, site and medium, instrument, manner, and agent. The
subject of motion clause can take a role of theme, author, and instrument. The object can
have theme, goal, source, instrument etc. This assignment of the role is determined by the
meaning, syntactic tests, and prepositions.
Motion verbs can occur in various forms of the verbs. They present intransitively; it
means that they occur without objects, either direct object or prepositional object as in
don’t move. The verb move in that sentence is a motion verb because it has an imperative
form and a displacement meaning or a position change from the initial position to the end
point of the position. Motion verbs without objects can have small word: prepositions or
adverb particles as in a group of swans floated by. The motion verb float by means to move
slowly on water or in the air. It is clear enough that the verb contains motion, manner of
motion slowly, and a locative where the displacement took place. The particle by as a
partner of the verb float can not be omitted and encode path of motion. The verb is motion
because it answers question what happened to a group of swans, it can be put in a
end of the clause as in a group of swans was moving by carefully, and it can be put in
pseudo cleft as in what a group of swans did was move by.
Motion verbs can present with their objects, either direct object or object of
preposition. The verbs themselves are in the form of phrasal verb as in he shoved her down
the stairs. The verb shoved goes with its particle down. This verb is a unit with the particle
and means to push somebody or something in a rough way. The verb shoved down is a
motion phrasal verb because the pronominalized object occur the verb shoved and particle
down. The noun phrase the chair is a path object of that verb. The verb is a motion as it
contains motion, and manner of motion, it has a progressive form as in he was shoving her
down the chair, has an adverb of deliberately as in he shoved her down the chair
deliberately, possess a pseudo cleft as in what he did was shove her downthe chair.
The motion verbs also occur with their object without adverb particles as in they
moved their chairs. The word moved is a motion verb because they have theme their chair,
and the agent they. It is also a motion verb because it answers a question what happened to
them, can be put in a progressive form as in they were moving their chairs, it can be
located in the form of pseudo cleft as in what they did was move their chairs, it can have
the adverb of carefully and deliberately as in they moved their chairs carefully and
deliberately.
The motion verbs can also occur with prepositional phrases as the objects as in we
plodded on through the train. The word plod on is a phrasal verb which means to walk
slowly with heavy steps, especially because you are tired. It is an active verb because it can
be put in a progressive form as in we were plodding on through the train, and in the form
of pseudo cleft as in what we did was plod on through the train. The meaning of the verb
preposition through that indicate a path of the ground the train. The prepositional phrase
through the train is the object of the phrasal motion verb plodded on.
Phrasal verb and verb-plus-preposition that motion verbs may have can be
differentiated by three tests. Firstly, it is movement of the particle or preposition in
question to the front of a wh-question. When the movement is possible, the form in
question is a preposition as in at whatdid John look? Particle attached to verbs cannot be
moved as the prepositions. Secondly, it is fronting of the preposition in a relative clause as
in the picture at which John looked was very clean. Particle is impossible to be fronted as
the preposition. Finally, it is adverb insertion between verb and preposition or particle. The
adverb insertion is possible for preposition as in John looked carefully at the picture.
Phrasal verbs have three semantic distinctions, literal phrasal verbs, completive
phrasal verbs, and figurative phrasal verbs. Literal phrasal verb refers to the verbs that their
particle retains literal adverbial meaning, e.g. up in he hung up the pictures on the wall.
(Murcia, 1983:274). Other examples are sit down, dish out, hand out, take down.
Completive phrasal verb is defined as the verbs where the particle indicates completed
action. The particles up, out, off, and down seem to be used in this type. Some other
examples are mix up, wind up, wear out, fade out, burn down, run down, cut off, turn off,
and so on. Figurative phrasal verbs refer to the verbs that do not have a systematic way of
semantically associating the verb and the particle, e.g. John looked up the information.
Other examples are turn up, catch on, give in, look over, and many others.
As lexicons, motion verbs undergo incorporation. Incorporation is one of the
lexical processes in which they fuse some elements into the verbs. This incorporation
involves noun object to indicate that something is added, taken away, or used for doing
something. The first indication refers to presence of theme in verbs as in Marry buttered
Another example is Monica watered the flower. Its verb is water from noun water. The
verb means to pour water. (Murcia, 1983:52).
The second is concerned with source of theme removed. The verb in this
incorporation take noun object which is used as the verb form in sentences as in Ali dusted
the furniture. The verb dust contains movement theme, its covert origin and its overt goal.
The sentence has the same meaning as Ali removed the dust from furniture. Another
example is Anderson dusted the olives which is equivalent to she took the pits out of the
olives.
The last is related instrument to do something. The verb in this incorporation entails
a tool to do something as in the girl raked the leaves. The verbs raked incorporated a noun
instrument. It has a similar meaning to the girl gathered up the leaves with a rake. Another
example is Bush sawed the log which has an equivalent meaning Bush cut the log with a
saw. Based on the description above motion verbs occur in various forms, incorporations,
can be identified by five syntactic diagnostic tests. Similarly, motion verbs can be
identified by participants’ roles in sentences.
According to Frawley, (1992:172) theme is a displaced entity. It is also called
figure in Talmy’s work. In English it is normal to encode the theme separately from the
event as in the examples given by Talmy, Tom threw the ball or the bird flew. In these
sentences, the Ball and the bird are themes. (Talmy, 1985:72-4) Theme is now and then
fused to verbs like the noun rain in the sentence it rained last night. This means that rain
was displaced last night. English verbs also fuse theme and motion as in (4)-(7).
(4) Tom buttered the bread.
(5) Fred painted the wall.
(7) The farmer seeded his field.
In the motion structure buttered means displaced butter onto the bread, painted
means displaced paint onto the wall, paved means displace seed onto the road, and seeded
means displaced seed onto his field. In these examples, displacement itself is embodied in
the theme, which is encoded separately. Accordingly, the two basic features of
displacement and the entity displaced, and the separated encoding of each in the unmarked
case, constitute the motion event. In other words, displacement or motion (M) and
displaced entities or themes are the features of motion verbs.
Besides, through displacement or motion and theme, motion can also be identified
by source and goal. Source is the origin of the movement and goal is the destination of the
motion. For example, John ran from the back door to the front door. The noun phrase the
back door is the source of motion and the front door is the destination of movement.
(Frawley, 1992:173).
Citing Talmy’s argument, Frawley (1992) fuses that source and goal are types of
ground in which the ground can use the verb as a basic means of expressing motion as
exemplified in (8)-(10).
(8) Ellen boxed the books.
(9) We housed the product in Iowa.
(10) The police exhumed the body.
The word boxed in sentence (8) means displaced into a box, the word housed in (9)
denotes displacement into a storage area, and the word exhumed in (10) means displaced
A motion event can furthermore be identified by location, which is still related to
source and goal. Location is the fixed site of a motion event and source and goal are
considered as spatial locales. (Frawley, (1992): 174). With location the medium is also
included because it expresses the general surrounding of an event as in sentence (11)-(12).
(11) We swam through the waves.
(12) My hat flew through the air.
The noun phrases the waves and the air are the locations. Unlike theme, source and
goal, location is less inherent to the motion event itself. But if pragmatically considered, it
is possible to think of verbs that fuse location. For example, the planets orbited the sun. In
that sentence, sun is location.
Also related to location, the medium is fused into the verb more frequently because
the medium is a part of the expected general locale of a motional event. For example, the
verbs swim and fly encode not only motion of a particular sort, but also motion that takes
place in a specific medium; swim normally evokes ‘water’ and fly evokes ‘air’. (Frawley,
1992:175).
In addition, motion verbs are frequently encoded by the trajectory of the theme
which is technically known as the path. English encodes a variety of paths with specific
semantic feature as in sentences (13) through (15).
(13) I went along the river.
(14) I went by the river.
The word along denotes parallelism of the trajectory of the motion and the ground;
the word by denotes that the theme merely passes the ground; and the word across denotes
a bounded path from one side to the other. (Frawley, (1992: 175-7).
Trajectory as a motional verb factor is related to figure, ground and path. For path
in particular, the nature of trajectory matters to the selection of path expression. Path can
be affected by curvature, boundedness, and interiority like in the statements (16)-(18).
(16) Magellan circumnavigated the globe.
(17) The dog ran across the street.
(18) Tom ran in the gym.
The noun globe is the path singled out by the prefix circum, showing curvature.
The noun street is the path showed by across, where its path is bounded by the lateral
border of the street and goes from one side to the other. Finally, the noun the gym shows
interiority and it is simply the path.
Based on Talmy (1985) in Frawley, paths are the most likely component of a
motion event to be incorporated into the event in overt expression. This means that the
motional verbs are easily and clearly identified from path markers like the phrasal verb
particles up, down, out of, into, across and so on. Accordingly, the verbs go up, go down,
go out of, go into, go across are considered as motion verbs.
Figure is the least important factor that determines paths. The figure itself has
semantic properties like dimensionality, animacy, and countability. These semantic
properties often fail to contribute to the selection of the path. Thus, in relation to the word
cross, the figure can be considered linear, animate, inanimate, countable, or non-countable,
(19) The golf ball went across the road.
(20) The alligator went across the road.
(21) Some gasoline went across the road.
The noun phrase the golf ball is nonlinear, inanimate, and countable figure, the
noun alligator is linear, animate, and countable figure, the noun gasoline is nonlinear,
inanimate, and non-countable. (Frawley, 1992:176).
Ground is also a significant aspect in the path choice because ground itself has
semantic properties that often control the path. In regards to ground, English distinguishes
liquid and solid entities in the selection of certain paths as in the examples as follows.
(22) The alligator went inside the box.
(23) The alligator went into the water.
The sentences above are distinct for the nature of ground. In both sentences the
path is expressed by preposition inside and into. In addition, countability of the ground
could affect a path choice in English. Besides, the ground cannot present when it is mass.
The sentence (24)-(25) exemplify the feature of the ground.
(24) The ant ran between the plates.
(25) The ant ran between the hamburgers.
In the plates in (24) as a ground is countable noun in which preposition between is
a path. The noun phrase the hamburger as a ground is mass noun. From those sentences,
