Aquamotion Verbs in Slavic and Germanic. A Case Study in Lexical Typology.

Maria Koptjevskaja, Ekaterina Rakhilina, Dagmar Divjak

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The paper contrasts the verbs plyt’/plavat’ in Russian and plynac/plywac in Polish with their correspondences in Dutch, English and Swedish against a broader typological background. The three Germanic languages use several verbs for what is covered by a pair of derivationally related verbs in each of the two Slavic languages. The Germanic languages lexicalize the activity/passivity of motion, but vary considerably as to how they carve up the conceptual space. Russian and Polish, on the other hand, use plavat’/plyt’ independently of the activity/passivity of motion and focus on the uni- or non-unidirectionality of the motion. Nonetheless, it appears that the different lexicalizations in the Swedish-English-Dutch systems of aquamotion verbs are reflected in constructional differences in the Russian-Polish systems.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNew Approaches to Slavic verbs of motion.
EditorsViktoria Driagina-Hasko, Renee Perelmutter
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Chapter13
Pages315-341
ISBN (Electronic)9789027288639
ISBN (Print)9789027205827
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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