XLVI. StuTS 

Motion verbs in English and Russian: a comparative study

Abstract:

The domain of motion has always inspired linguistic research. In 1985, Leonard Talmy
proposes the idea of “conflation patterns” for motion verbs. He claims that along with the
semantic component of MOTION, such verbs also encode semantic categories of PATH,
MANNER and/or FIGURE. In his later works, Talmy develops a binary typology that
classifies languages with respect to the semantic component of PATH. In case the PATH
component is expressed by a verb root as in (1), the language belongs to the group of the
verb-framed languages (most Romance languages). If the component of PATH is encoded
by some other constituent termed satellite as in (2), the language can be classified as a
satellite-framed one (Germanic and Slavic languages).
(1) L’uomo attraversò la strada correndo.
[figure] [motion + path] [manner]
The man crossed the street running.
(2) I ran down the stairs.
[figure] [motion+manner] [path]
Slobin (2004) claims to improve Talmy’s in two ways. First, he proposes to rank
languages on a cline of MANNER salience. Second, he argues there exists an additional
factor termed GROUND component that influences the position of the language in the
typology. The presented project aims at allocating the Russian language within the semantic
continuum of motion with regard to these new criteria. Both English and Russian are
considered satellite-framed languages, but do they differ somehow in their approach to
motion?
Based on the methodology developed by Slobin (2004), two studies have been
conducted. Motion events were first analysed in oral narratives elicited on the basis of the
children’s book by Mercer Mayer Frog, where are you?. The second study compared motion
events in Russian-English and English-Russian corpora of creative fiction. Based on
preliminary findings discussed in Slobin (2004), Russian was expected to provide more
GROUND elements encoded in more elaborated descriptions. Also, Russian was expected
to encode more MANNER than English.
The analysis of GROUND elements did not show statistically significant differences
between the languages. But the analysis of MANNER components, on the other hand,
indicated significant discrepancies as to how English and Russian speakers treat MANNER
of motion. It was found that Russian speakers pay substantially more attention to the fact of
how motion is done, i.e. MANNER is more salient in Russian than in English. This finding
suggests that English is closer to the pole of verb-framed languages than Russian.