Chapter 5. On a few instances where deictic directionals confound expectations
-
Philippe Bourdin
Abstract
Directional deixis (DD) is characterized by a set of properties that recur across languages, e.g. the feature of goal-orientedness and the built-in asymmetry between ventive direction and itive direction. These properties define a formal and semantic space that has a core and a periphery. DD systems that are outliers with respect to any given property or properties can be shown to support, rather than call into question, the validity of DD as a self-standing descriptive category. This requires articulating an explanatory framework that reconciles the complexity at the periphery with the simplicity of the overarching logic, i.e. the fundamental imbalance between the intrinsically conjunctive semantics of ventive markers and the disjunctive semantics of their itive counterparts.
Abstract
Directional deixis (DD) is characterized by a set of properties that recur across languages, e.g. the feature of goal-orientedness and the built-in asymmetry between ventive direction and itive direction. These properties define a formal and semantic space that has a core and a periphery. DD systems that are outliers with respect to any given property or properties can be shown to support, rather than call into question, the validity of DD as a self-standing descriptive category. This requires articulating an explanatory framework that reconciles the complexity at the periphery with the simplicity of the overarching logic, i.e. the fundamental imbalance between the intrinsically conjunctive semantics of ventive markers and the disjunctive semantics of their itive counterparts.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction: The description of motion events 1
-
Part I. Motion and deixis
- Chapter 2. What does deixis tell us about motion typology? 25
- Chapter 3. Linguistic representations of visual motion 43
- Chapter 4. Deictic directionals revisited in the light of advances in typology 69
- Chapter 5. On a few instances where deictic directionals confound expectations 95
-
Part II. Motion and asymmetries
- Chapter 6. Implicit landmarks and opposite polarities in French motion predicates 125
- Chapter 7. Source–Goal asymmetry in Standard Chinese 149
- Chapter 8. Source–Goal asymmetry in German 173
-
Part III. Motion and constructions
- Chapter 9. Co-event relations in Swedish motion constructions 189
- Chapter 10. The description of transitive directed motion in Lakhota (Siouan) 209
- Chapter 11. Constraints constrained 235
- Chapter 12. Lexical aspect and morphosyntactic cohesion between motion verbs and spatial particles in Homeric Greek 257
- Language index 273
- Subject index 275
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction: The description of motion events 1
-
Part I. Motion and deixis
- Chapter 2. What does deixis tell us about motion typology? 25
- Chapter 3. Linguistic representations of visual motion 43
- Chapter 4. Deictic directionals revisited in the light of advances in typology 69
- Chapter 5. On a few instances where deictic directionals confound expectations 95
-
Part II. Motion and asymmetries
- Chapter 6. Implicit landmarks and opposite polarities in French motion predicates 125
- Chapter 7. Source–Goal asymmetry in Standard Chinese 149
- Chapter 8. Source–Goal asymmetry in German 173
-
Part III. Motion and constructions
- Chapter 9. Co-event relations in Swedish motion constructions 189
- Chapter 10. The description of transitive directed motion in Lakhota (Siouan) 209
- Chapter 11. Constraints constrained 235
- Chapter 12. Lexical aspect and morphosyntactic cohesion between motion verbs and spatial particles in Homeric Greek 257
- Language index 273
- Subject index 275
