In:The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French: Descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression
Edited by Michel Aurnague and Dejan Stosic
[Human Cognitive Processing 66] 2019
► pp. 141–177
Manner as a cluster concept
What does lexical coding of manner of motion tell us about manner?
Published online: 29 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.04sto
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.04sto
Abstract
The chapter deals with the lexical coding of manner of motion in French. A twofold aim is pursued: to provide a better understanding of what manner is from the semantic point of view and to determine what makes some motion verbs express manner and others not. First, I show that there are five types of linguistic devices involved in the expression of manner: lexical, syntactic, morphological, grammatical and prosodic ones. Next, I propose a more comprehensive definition of the concept of manner, arguing that it is compositional by nature and by no means monolithic. Finally, adopting Levin and Rappaport Hovav’s lexical decomposition approach, I report an in-depth semantic analysis of 562 manner of motion verbs in French and show that manner interpretation in their meaning is generated by a small set of more basic, non-idiosyncratic semantic features which fill a modifier position and whose role consists in diversifying, and thereby in modifying, the root predicate.
Keywords: manner, motion verbs, manner of motion verbs, French
Article outline
- 1.Five ways to express manner in French
- 1.1Syntactic encoding of manner
- 1.2Lexical encoding of manner
- 1.2.1Predicate decomposition approaches
- 1.2.2Lexicalization of manner in Talmy’s typological approach
- 1.2.3Manner as a structural lexical relation
- 1.3Morphological encoding of manner
- 1.4Grammatical encoding of manner
- 2.Towards a more comprehensive definition of manner
- 3.Manner of motion verbs in French: Where does the manner reading come from?
- 3.1Studying motion verbs in French: A long-standing tradition
- 3.2Lexicon of manner of motion verbs in French
- 3.3Towards an in-depth lexical exploration of manner of motion verbs in French
- 4.Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References Dictionaries
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