MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES OF MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NGOC HIEN
MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES
OF MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH AND THEIR
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐỘNG TỪ BIỂU THỊ PHƢƠNG THỨC CHUYỂN ĐỘNG
TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH

Ha Noi, 2018


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “Motion verbs expressing emotion in English and their Vietnamese
equivalents.” submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the degree of
Master in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other
person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Ha Noi, 2018

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Hiền

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh
Date:

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the following people for
their great supports during my two – year time for the MA course.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Tuyet Minh, for her enthusiastic and useful
guidance, insightful comments, and encouragement without which my thesis would
not have been completed.
My special thanks go to all my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their
precious assistance, knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in their lectures, from
which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor
thesis.
I also would like to express my indebtedness to my family, my friends and
colleagues who have given me constant support and love during the completion of
the thesis.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are for the people who will give me the
precious comments after reading the graduation thesis.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hien

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ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate into syntactic and semantic
features of English motion verbs expressing modes of movement and their

Vietnamese equivalents. The eleven verbs studied are run, walk, crawl,
climb, dive, stroll, jog, dance, march, jump, swim. The study employed two
major methods: descriptive method is used to describe mainly the syntactic
and semantic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movements in
English and the similarities and differences between these and their
Vietnamese equivalents and comparative method is used to make a
comparison between motion verbs expressing modes of movements in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents in order to point out the
similarities and differences between them. The findings pointed out that: (i )
In terms of syntactic features, based on sentence patterns, all motion verbs
expressing modes of movement are intransitive, that means, 11 motion verbs
in the scope of the study have SV sentence patterns. Six of them have SVO
sentence pattern, they are run, walk, climb, job, jump and swim. Three of
them have SVOA, they are run, walk and march. In short, there are two
verbs having three sentence patterns, they are run and walk. (ii) In terms of
semantic features, they express majorly the meaning of bodily functions of
movement such as (i) moving using parts of the body); (ii) moving with
speed (jump, run and dance); (iii) In terms of comparison between motion
verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese
equivalents, based on the English – Vietnamese dictionaries, therefore, all
the structures of the motion verbs expressing modes of movement in in
source language are translated and transferred the same structures in the
target language. The study hopefully supplies some implications to teachers
of English teaching English as a second language in Vietnam.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A

adverbial

C
Co

complement
object complement

O

object

Od
Oi

direct object
indirect object

S
V

subject
verb

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1. Summary of sentence patterns in terms of verb elements and their
complementations .....................................................................................................13
Table 2.2 Fillmore‟s frames for the verbs of motion of this study. ..........................14
Table 2.3 Levin's Verbs of Motion arranged in a table. ............................................18
Table 2.4 Levin's Verbs of Motion ...........................................................................20
Table 2.5. Application of Faber and Mairal Us n‟s matrix (1999: 9 ) for
distinguishing features of verbs of motion ................................................................22
Table 4.1 Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes ..............................36
of movement in English ............................................................................................36
Table 4.2 Semantic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in
English using bodily functions ..................................................................................41
Table 4.3 Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents ................................................................42

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TABLES OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ...................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................. iv
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ........................................................................ v
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................1
1.1. Rationale ..............................................................................................................1
1.2. Aims and Objectives of the study ........................................................................1
1.3 Research questions ................................................................................................2
1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................2
1.5. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3
1.6. Structure of the study ...........................................................................................3

Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................5
2.1. Previous studies ....................................................................................................5
2.2. An overview of syntax and semantics ..................................................................7
2.2.1. Theory of syntax ...............................................................................................7
2.2.2. Theory of semantics ..........................................................................................7
2.3. Overview of English Verb .................................................................................10
2.3.1. Definition ........................................................................................................10
2.3.2. Classification of verbs according to their complementation ...........................11
2.4 An overview of motion verbs ..............................................................................13
2.4.1 What is motion? ...............................................................................................13
2.4.2 What is a motion verb? ....................................................................................14
2.4.2 Classification of motion verbs .........................................................................25
2.5 Motion verbs expressing modes of movement ...................................................25
2.6. Summary ............................................................................................................26
Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................29
METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................29
3.2. Methods of the study ..........................................................................................29
3.3. Data collection and data analysis .......................................................................30
3.4 Summary .............................................................................................................32

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Chapter 4. MOTION VERBS EXPRESSING MODES OF MOVEMENT IN
ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ...............................33
4.1. Syntactic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English 33
4.1.1 SV sentence pattern ..........................................................................................33
4.1.2 SVO sentence pattern .......................................................................................35
4.2 Semantic features of motion verbs expressing modes of movements in English ....... 36
4.2.2 Moving with speed ...........................................................................................40

4.3 A comparison between motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English
and their Vietnamese equivalents..............................................................................42
4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features ...........................................................................42
4.3.2 In terms of semantic features ...........................................................................43
4.2.2 Moving with speed ...........................................................................................45
4.4. Implications for teaching motion verbs expressing modes of movement in
English to Vietnamese learners of English ...............................................................46
4.5 Summary .............................................................................................................47
CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................47
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................47
5.1 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................47
5.2. Limitations and suggestions for further study....................................................48
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................49

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Nowadays, English is considered as one of the most popular language for
everyone all over the world. There are many problems in learning English as
listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, lexicology, etc. Grammar plays a
very important role in English, it is not easy for English learners to study.
Moreover, learners are affected by their mother tongue during the process of
studying that causes much confusion to them. However, it is not so difficult that
English learners cannot study because English grammar is also systematic.
Theoretically, verbs are very important constituents of every sentence.
Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs in English are dealt with in
every general grammar book such as: Quirk, et al (1985), Biber et al (2000) or

Huddleston et al (1985). There exist a large number of publications dealing solely
with verbs, their characteristics and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer,
F.R (1985), Sinclair, J.ed (1998) or Levin, B (1993). It is also possible to find many
publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications
specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs:
Kudrnacova, N (2008), Tenny, C. (1995) and also publications dealing only with
certain characteristics of the verbs such as Comrie (2006).
In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in
every general grammar book such as Nguyễn Lai (197 ), Nguyễn Lai (1984) and
Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984). It is also possible to find many publications dealing with
specific motion verbs.
As has already been said above, this construction can be labeled as
understudied. Therefore, the study will be to shed more light on syntactic and
semantic features of English motion verbs expressing modes of movement in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents.
1.2. Aims and Objectives of the study
This study is aimed at investigating syntactic and semantic features of certain
motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and their Vietnamese
equivalents to help teachers of English teach English this kind of verb group to
Vietnamese learners of English effectively.

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In order to achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward:
- Identifying syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs expressing mode
of movement in English.
- Finding out similarities and differences between English motion verbs
expressing modes of movement and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of
syntactic and semantic features.

- Giving some implications for teaching the motion verbs expressing modes of
movement in English to Vietnamese learners of English effectively.
1.3 Research questions
1. What are the syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs expressing
modes of movement in English?
2. What are the similarities and differences between English motion verbs
expressing modes of movement and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of
syntactic and semantic features?
3. What are implications for teaching the motion verbs expressing modes of
movement in English to Vietnamese learners of English effectively?
1.4. Scope of the study
In English, there are seven subtypes of Motion verbs: 1. the RUN subtype
refers to a mode of motion; 2. the ARRIVE subtype deals with motion with respect
to a definite Locus; 3. the TAKE subtype refers to causing something to be in
motion with respect to a Locus; 4. the FOLLOW subtype refers to motion with
respect to something which is moving; 5. the CARRY subtype refers to motion in
juxtaposition with some moving subject; 6. the THROW subtype describes causing
something to be in motion; 7. the DROP subtype refers to unwanted motion
(R.M.W. Dixon, 1991), but within the framework of this study, we focus on the
motion verbs group expressing modes of movement which Dixon (1991) called
them as the RUN subtype, including such as run, walk, crawl, slide, spin, roll, turn,
wriggle, swing, wave, rock, shake, climb, dive, stroll, trot, gallop, jog, dance,
march, jump, bounce, swim, fly, but in this study, the motion verbs expressing
modes of moving by using bodily functions with a distance are chosen as the
subjects of the study, they are run, walk, crawl, climb, dive, stroll, jog, dance,
march, jump, swim.

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All the 11 verbs of this group are investigated in English – English
dictionaries and English – Vietnamese dictionaries.
In terms of syntactic features, all the 11 verbs are identified as sentence
patterns in accordance with verb elements and their complementations.
In terms of semantic features, the modes of movement in the 11 verbs are
determined, that means the meanings of these verbs are meanings of modes of
movement with bodily functions, saying the meaning of movements using parts of
the body such as legs, arms, hands, knees.
In terms of their Vietnamese equivalents, these verbs are examined according
to English – Vietnamese dictionaries in order to make a comparison in terms of
their syntactic and semantic feature to find out the similiarities and differences
between them.
In this study, English is considered as source language, and Vietnamese is
target language, so in this study, syntactic and semantics features of the motion
verbs expressing mode of movement in English are analyzed and made comparison
with their Vietnamese equivalents.
1.5. Significance of the study
Theoretically, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical basis of the
characteristics of the syntax and semantics of the group from the movements in
general and motion verbs expressing modes of movement in particular and the
similarities and differences with their Vietnamese equivalents.
Practically, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning
and researching language. The result of the study through analysis and comparison
between two languages may be of great benefits for teachers and learners of
English, as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life. Suggestions for
teaching and learning from this verb group are given more effectively. Beside that,
this research is conducted with the hope that in the foreseeable future, teachers of
English will get to know more about the motion verbs expressing modes of
movement and realize the importance of them in teaching the motion verbs
expressing modes of movement so that they can adapt it to their own teaching

conditions.
1.6. Structure of the study
To gain the above goals, the study is divided into five chapters:

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Chapter I, Introduction, deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the
aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance of the thesis.
Chapter II, Literature Review, summarizes the results of the previous studies
in Vietnam and overseas in order to build the theoretical background for the study.
Chapter III, Methodology, points out the research approach, describes the
methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and
analyzing techniques.
Chapter IV, Motion verbs expressing modes of movement in English and
their Vietnamese equivalents, points out syntactic and semantic features of
English motion verbs expressing modes of movement, and comparison between
syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs expressing modes of
movement and the Vietnamese equivalents are made. Implications for teaching
English motion verbs expressing modes of movement are given.
Chapter V, Conclusion, summaries the whole contents of the study, indicating
concluding remarks, the limitation, thus giving some recommendations and
suggestions for a further study.
References comes at the end of the study.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter: An overview of the
MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese; theory of motion verbs;
classification of verbs according to the verb elements and its complementations.
These theories are the basis of the study in the following chapters.
2.1. Previous studies
Verbs are very important constituents of every sentence. Particularly, the main
features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every general grammar book
such as “A Comprehensible Grammar of the English Language” (Quirk, et al,1985),
“Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English” (Bibber et al,2000) or “The
Cambridge Grammar of the English Language” (Huddleston et al, 2006). There
exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics
and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer, F.R,1985) “The English Verb;
Sinclair, J.ed Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs” or (Levin B,1987) “English Verb Classes
and Alternations : a Preliminary Investigation” (1993) . It is also possible to find
many publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications
specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs (for
example: Kudrnacova. (2008). “Directed Motion at the Syntax-Semantic Interface
or article How motion verbs are special” (Tenny, 1995) and also publications
dealing only with certain characteristics of the verbs such as aspect (e.g. Comrie,
2006) “Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related
Problems”.
There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act
verbs in both English and Vietnamese. For speech act verbs in English, R.M.W.
Dixon (1991) studies about the semantic and syntactic features of English verb
groups such as the MOTION group, AFFECT group, GIVING group,
CORFOREAL group.etc. This book has two purposes: one purpose is practical: it is
meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and
to people learning or teaching English as a second language. The other purpose is
scholarly, it is meant to be a study of an important section of the English
vocabulary, a study of a kind which has never been undertaken before. The present

5


dictionary can be regarded as a justification of the semantic theory on which it is
based. This does not mean, however, that the practical lexicographic purpose is
subordinated to a theoretical linguistic goal. On the contrary, the semantic theory is
viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference
book. According to R.M.W.Dixon (1991), the MOTION verb group includes twelve
English verbs: go, come, arrive, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, escape, reach,
approach and visit. These verbs are analysed thoroughly in terms of their meanings
and using in daily life. Given the necessary limitations of scope, the clues offered
by the syntactic properties of the individual verbs have not been exploited as fully
and as systematically as it was hoped.
Randolph Quirk (1985) gives a description about the syntactic and semantic
functions of words in simple sentence, complex sentence, clause structure and seven
clause types (SV, SVO, SVA, SVC, SVOO, SVOA, SVOC) as well. Especially, in
chapter 10, he researches in the simple sentence that stressed on the syntactic
functions and the semantic roles of clause elements such as subject, verb, object,
adverbial.
In Vietnamese, many authors did long researches and gave out worthy
collections such as Nguyen Lai (1976) with “Động từ chỉ hƣớng trong tiếng Việt”
and Nguyen Lai (1996) with “Nh m từ chỉ hƣớng vận động trong tiếng Việt hiên
đại”. Although both of the studies focused on researching the different Vietnamese
Motion verbs, the authors saw the same characteristics: The popularity of these
verbs in daily life. They gave remarks: Almost the previous researches only paid
attention to the grammatical features of the speech act verbs, the semantic structures
were not carefully concerned with. So, these studies have the same purpose, that is
studying the semantic structures of the Vietnamese motion verbs expressing mode
of movement.

Moreover, Nguyễn Lai (1984) with Động từ trong tiếng Việt is the basis of
this thesis in the comparison between the MOTION verb group in English and
Vietnamese. In this thesis, the author developed and improved to the study of
semantic structures of Vietnamese motion verbs. The author‟s aim is to create new
theoretical basis and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically. The
author found new trend of the tittle in order to improve the good points, as well as
to cut down the limitation of the prior thesis.

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The books above are the background that the theory part of the study will be
carried out.
2.2. An overview of syntax and semantics
2.2.1. Theory of syntax
In the past, syntactic clues have sometimes been utilized in lexicography as an
aid to establishing polysemy. In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too, the
claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (Dixon, 1985). In the
present work, however, a stronger claim has been tried to explore: that a syntactic
similarity is likely to reflect a similarity in meaning, so that shared syntactic
patterns are likely to reflect shared semantic components. To the extent to which
this claim is validated, shared syntactic properties can be seen as evidence for
postulated semantic structures.
According to R.M.W. Dixon (1991), syntactic clues have to be treated with
care, and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not
determined a priori. For example, if we ask about the semantic correlate of the
pattern “X Ved Y for Z”, we will probably discover nothing of significance.
2.2.2. Theory of semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content
of communication. According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), semantics is the

study of meaning in language. Language is a means of communications, and people
use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving
information, and other things to make social relationship. Human beings have been
given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful
utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings. They communicate
about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and
feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like
to happen, and a lot more. Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state that the giving of
information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships.
This is also part of communication. There are some linguists that tried to define
semantics. Morries as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study
of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable. And then he
revised his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals
with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying.

7


Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Carnap (Lyons, 1977:116)
says that descriptive semantics (i.e. the investigation of the meaning of expressions
in “historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics.
The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that
he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only
inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or
context. Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that semantics studies how
these signs are related to things. And pragmatics studied how they are related to
people. According to Leech (1983:5) in practice, the problem of distinguishing
language and language use has centred on a boundary dispute between semantics
and pragmatics. Hurford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of
semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in

a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we
can draw from our knowledge.
But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study of
meaning is semantics. Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the
meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of
utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”
David Crystal (1992:347) defines that semantics is the study of meaning in
language. Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the
study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense
relation), such as synonymy and antonym. In generative grammar, the semantic
component is a major area of the grammar‟s organization, assigning a semantic
representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features. The
theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which
words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other.
In general, semantics can be defined as the study of meaning. It is central to
the study of communication. In addition, there is no doubt that communication is a
crucial factor in our life, which is why the need to understand semantics becomes
more and more pressing.
Semantic features
Semantic features play a very important part in differentiating the match
between word and meaning. We need a very large number of features to do this

8


work. But linguists believe that a much smaller number of features would be needed
in writing grammar description.
But Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber (1987, 254) say semantic
features are “the smallest units of meaning in a word. The meaning of a word may
be described as a combination of semantic features”.

According to David Crystal (1992, 346), semantic feature is “a minimal
contrastive element of a word‟s meaning, in some approaches called a semantic
component.” e.g. Boy = + young + male + human.
Semantic roles
Clauses are divided into types according to the types of the verbs that occupies
their semantic and syntactic core. Verbs, in turn, are divided into semantic
according to the kind of involvement of the participants in the state or event coded
by the clause. The array of semantic roles typically associated with each verb
defines the propositional frame of the verb and thus the semantic type of the verbal
clause. In Givon.T (1992, p.91) terms the major semantic roles in the clause are
agent, patient, dative, instrument, benefactive and a set of locational and temporal
roles like source / location / goal and associative
Here are typical examples of these semantic roles in simple clauses
(1992,p.92):
Mary (agent) kicked John. (patient)
John (dative) heard Mary.
She worked with her father. (associative)
She went to the store. (locative)
Semantic fields
The semantic structure of vocabulary of a language can be studied in a precise
and systematic way by means of componential analysis of which the theory of
semantic field greatly leans.
The assumption of lexical field analysis or semantic field analysis is that
lexemes can be grouped together into semantic fields on the basis of shared
meaning and that most, if not all the vocabulary of a language, can be accounted for
in this way. The description of meaning, the definition of lexemes, is then
undertaken within each semantic field and involves defining each lexeme in relation
to the other lexemes in the field.

9

Different terms such as lexical field, semantic field and word field are usually
treated as synonyms, but some authors have proposed distinctions among then. For
example, John Lyons [43,p.429] distinguishes between “conceptual field” (a
structure of concepts on the semantic level, a structured conceptual area)and lexical
field (a set of lexemes that covers a specific conceptual field ).
Semantic field (lexical field) is defined by Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi
Weber (1987, 164) as “the organization of related words and expressions into a
system which shows their relationship to one another.”
For example, kinship terms such as father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, ants
belong to a lexical field whose relevant features include generation, sex,
membership of the father „s or mother‟s side of the family, etc. For example, in
English there is no singular noun that covers both cow and bull as horse covers
stallion and mare.
According to David Crystal (1982, p.346,347), semantic field is defined as
“the view that vocabulary of a language is a system of interrelated lexical networks,
and not an inventory of independent items, also called lexical field theory.
Examples include the fields of vehicles, fruits, clothing, colour, and part of the
body. Not all aspects of experience nearly divide into semantic fields, however, and
it is always necessary to consider the context before assigning a lexical item to a
field. For example, “hospital” relates to both the semantic field of health (as in I was
in hospital last week) and that of buildings (as in The hospital needs a new roof )”.
The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study syntactic
and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English.
2.3. Overview of English Verb
2.3.1. Definition
A verb is a part of speech that usuallydenotes actions (“go, learn”) occurrence
(“to decompose”, “to glitter) or a state of being (“exist”, “live”) Similarly,
according to crystal D, verb is a word class, which is traditionally defined as a

“doing” or “action” word. Adverb can be formallyidentified in many languages as
an element displaying contrast of tense, aspect, voice, mood, person and number. In
“The functional Analysis of English by ThomasBloor and Merited Bloor [14 P.18],
verbs are traditionally defined as words which express an action or state (a rather

10


feeble definition) Verb show the greatest degree of various inform (morphology) of
any of the word classes
According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2005), verb is “a group
or a group of words that express an action, an event, or a state” [p.1636]
“Verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence carries
markers of grammatical categories such as fence, aspect, person, number and mood,
and refers to an action or state” (Cambridge dictionary com).
As for dictionary of Merriam – Webster “Verb is a word that characteristically
is the grammatical categories center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence,
or mode of being, that in various language is inflected or agreement with the subject
for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full
descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometime nearly devoid of
these especially when us e an auxiliary or lining verb”.
2.3.2. Classification of verbs according to their complementation
According to R. Quirk et al (1985), verbs are classified into two types:
intensive verbs and extensive verbs.
2.3.2.1. Intensive verbs
Intensive verbs are also called copular verbs and they are usually followed by
a nous or a nous phrase and adjective or prepositional phrase intensive verbs are
used to descried the subject it means that the focus is on one thing – the subject
only. Intensive verbs appear in the structure “SVC” or “SVA”. Words or phases,
which are followed by an intensive verb work as the subject compliment and they

apply to the subject, not be verb let‟s consider the following example:
Your dinner seems ready.
(SVC)
My office is in the next building (SVA)
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721)
Intensive verb does not take any object. It presents the relationship between
the subject and the subject complementation the verb in sentences with subject
complement is a “copular” (or linking verb), which of itself has little meaning but
function as a link between the complementsubject
There are two subgroups:
Current intensive: be, appear, look, feel, remain, keep …
Her rug is too small for her living room.
(SVC)

11


(E, Warier, J. graham, L.S, 1980: 108)
Resulting intensive: be come, come, get, go, grow, turn …
She grew tired of his complaints.
(SVO)
(E. WarierJ & Graham, L.S.1980:108)
2.3.2.2. Extensive verbs
Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment.
Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing. It covers wider area; it
takes the information away from the subject. Words or phrases, which are followed
by an extensive verb work as the verb‟s object. They apply to the verb, not the
subject as in:
He borrows a book from me.
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 55)

Extensive verbs include three small types: monotransitive, complex transitive
and intransitive. Intransitive verbs are verbs which take a subject and two objects or
have the structure SVOO.
According to certain linguistic consideration these objectives may be called
direct, indirect objectives or primary and secondary objectives as in following
examples:
I must send my parents an anniversary card.

(SVOO)
(R. Quirk, 1985:721)
In contrast, monotransitive verbs take only one object and appear in the
structure SVO as in the following examples:
That lecture bored me.
(SVO)
(R. Quirk, 1985: 721)
Verb requires both a direct object and another object complex transitive
verbs appear in the structure SVOC or SVOA in a complex transitive contraction,
the object complement identifies a quality or attributes pertaining to the direct
object. Let‟s consider the following examples:
Most students have found their reasonably the disk on the table. (SVOA)
(R. Quirk, 1985: 721)
The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. Finite
Verbslocator the condition or action of the verbs in a specific time frame: past,
present or future and have a specific tense and a subject with which they

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grammatically agree. A complete sentence must contain a finite verb. Verbs create
the relationship between the subject and the object of the Verb. In a command, there

is still this relationship with the subject and object understood “Go!” (subject – you
– understood, verb “go! object away - understood)
The form of the Verb must agree with the number of its subject, which will
be a noun or noun group, for example “He was a singer (as opposed to” He were a
singer) confusion can arise when deciding whether the subject is singulars or plural,
for example “This group of children is very intelligent” or when there are two
subject, for example: The farmer and his buffalo are in the field.
The following list present examples of the basic sentence pattern according to
classification of verbs and their complementations:
Table 2.1. Summary of sentence patterns in terms of verb elements and their
complementations
(1) Type SVC

S
Jenny

Vintensive
is

C
a singer.

(2) Type SVA

S
Jenny

Vintensive
is

A place
in the house.

(3) Type SV

S
The baby

Vintransitive
was laughing.

(4) Type SVO

S
Some body

Vmonotransitive
caught

Od
the ball.
Od
him

(5)
SVOC

Type S
We

Vcomplex transitive
have proved

(6)
SVOA

Type S
I

Vcomplex transitive Od
put
the vase

A place
on the table.

(7)

Type S

Vditransitive

Oi

Od

give

me

expensive
presents.

SVOO

He

2.4 An overview of motion verbs
2.4.1 What is motion?
Wildgen (2003:13) describes motion with quite a few words:

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Co
generous.


If a person performs a locomotion which is composed of a number of separate
limb motions, two levels can be distinguished:
a. The rhythm of the composed movements, which is a code for the
categorical perception of moving agents.
b. The overall GESTALT of the movement. In the case of simple locomotion,
there is an initial phase which starts the locomotion. It destabilizes the system in its
position of rest and creates a steady evolution until the system is at rest again.
The coarse topology of locomotion has three phases:
1. loss of position of rest, beginning of motion;
2. steady motion;
3. gain of a new position of rest, end of locomotion.
2.4.2 What is a motion verb?
The definitions have been shortened, so that only the first and most essential

part of each definition appears below. It must be mentioned that what we normally
consider „one verb‟ may be sorted into multiple frames as for example the verb run
with eight frames to represent its eight various meanings: run away [Escaping], run
[Cause_motion], run [Cause_impact], run [Fluidic_motion], run [Leadership], run.v
[Self_motion], run.v [Impact], run_through.v [Practice]. The frame system
emphasizes the fact that some words cover several semantic domains. Run
belonging to the frame [Self_motion] is the only run of interest to this study.
Similarly, all verbs of this study are only presented with their frames of interest to
this essay.
Table 2.2 Fillmore’s frames for the verbs of motion of this study.
Frame

Definition

Lexical units

“Some entity (Theme) starts
out in one place (Source)
[Motion]

and ends up in some other
place (Goal), having
covered some space
between the two (Path).”

blow.v, coast.v, drift.v, float.v,
fly.v, glide.v, go.v, move.v,
roll.v, slide.v and soar.v

“In this frame a Theme

drop.v, fall.v, plummet.v,
[Motion_directional] moves along a certain Path
plunge.v, topple.v
which is determined by

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gravity or other natural,
physical forces. The theme
is not a self-mover.”
amble.v, back.v, barge.v, bolt.v,
bop.v, bound.v, burrow.v,
bustle.v, canter.v, caper.v,
clamber.v, climb.v, clomp.v,
coast.v, crawl.n, crawl.v, creep.v,
cruise.v, dance.v, dart.v, dash.n,
dash.v, drive.v, flit.v, flounce.v,

“The Self_mover, a living

fly.v, frolic.v, gallivant.v,
gambol.v, goose-step.v, hasten.v,
head.v, hike.n, hike.v,
hitchhike.v, hobble.v, hop.v,
hurry.v, jaunt.n, jog.v, jump.v,
leap.v, limp.v, lope.v, lumber.v,

being, moves under its own lunge.v, lurch.v, make a
[Self_motion]

power in a directed fashion, beeline.v, make.v, march.n,
i.e. along what could be
march.v, meander.v, mince.v,
described as a Path, with no mosey.v, nance.v, pace.v, pad.v,
separate vehicle.”

parade.v, plod.v, pounce.v,
prance.v, proceed.v,
promenade.v, prowl.v, repair.v,
roam.v, romp.v, run.v, rush.v,
sail.v, sashay.v, saunter.v,
scamper.v, scoot.v, scramble.n,
scramble.v, scurry.v, scuttle.v,
shoulder.v, shuffle.n, shuffle.v,
sidle.v, skim.v, skip.v, skulk.v,
slalom.v, sleepwalk.v, slink.v,
slither.v, slog.n, slog.v, slop.v,
slosh.v, sneak.v, spring.v,
sprint.n, sprint.v, stagger.v,

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stalk.v, stamp.v, steal.v, step.n,
step.v, stomp.v, storm.v,
straggle.v, stride.v, stroll.n,
stroll.v, strut.v, stumble.v,
swagger.v, swim.n, swim.v,
tack.v, taxi.v, tiptoe.v, toddle.v,

totter.v, traipse.v, tramp.v,
tread.v, trek.v, trip.v, troop.v,
trot.v, trudge.v, trundle.v, vault.v,
venture.v, waddle.v, wade.v,
walk.n, walk.v, waltz.v,
wander.v, wriggle.v
angle.v, ascend.v, ascent.n,
bear.v, bend.v, crest.v,
crisscross.v, cross.v, descend.v,
descent.n, dip.v, dive.v, drop.v,

[Path_shape]

“The words in this frame
edge.v, emerge.v, emergence.n,
describe either the “fictive” enter.v, exit.v, ford.v, leave.v,
motion of a stationary Road meander.v, mount.v, pass.v,
or the literal motion of a
Theme.”

plummet.v, reach.v, rise.v,
round.v, skirt.v, slant.v, snake.v,
swerve.v, swing.v, traverse.v,
twisting.a, twisty.a, undulate.v,
veer.v, weave.v, wind.v,
winding.a, windy.a and zigzag.v.

arch.v, bat.v, bend.v, blink.v,
bob.v, brandish.v, clap.v, close.v,
“This frame contains words

cock.v, crane.v, crease.v,
for motions or actions an
[Body_movement]
crinkle.v, cross.v, crumple.v,
Agent performs using some
curtsy.n, curtsy.v, drop.v, duck.v,
part of his/her body.”
fidget.v, flap.v, flex.v, fling.v,
flutter.v, gnash.v, grind.v, hang.v,

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jerk.v, jiggle.v, kneel.v, lift.v,
nod.v, open.v, pout.v, pucker.v,
purse.v, roll.v, scrunch.v, shake.v,
shiver.v, shrug.v, shudder.v,
shuffle.v, shut.v, smack.v,
stamp.v, stretch.v, swing.v,
throw.v, toss.v, twiddle.v,
twitch.v, wag.v, waggle.v,
wave.v, wiggle.v, wink.v,
wriggle.v, wrinkle.v, writhe.v and
yawn.v

[Attack]

“An Assailant physically
attacks a Victim (which is
usually but not always

sentient), causing or
intending to cause the

ambush.n, ambush.v, assail.v,
assault.n, assault.v, attack.n,
attack.v, charge.n, charge.v,
fall.v, incursion.n, invade.v,

Victim physical damage. A invasion.n, jump.v, lay_((into)).v,
Weapon used by the
Assailant may also be
mentioned,”

offensive.n, onset.n, onslaught.n,
raid.v, set.v, storm.v, strike.n and
strike.v

Having reached an understanding of what motion is and how it is construed in
cognitive models, we will proceed to an analysis of verbs of motion. Levin (1993) is
a comprehensive investigation of verb classes. According to her, verbs of motion
can be subdivided into six main groups, two of which are relevant to the present
survey, which includes sixteen verbs: climb, crawl, dive, float, fly, go, hop, jump,
leap, plunge, roll, run, stagger, swim, tiptoe, and walk. All are labelled „Verbs of
Motion‟ by Levin except dive, which is reported as a „Verb of Searching‟ and
excludes the sense represented in Figures 14 and 15 above. Levin‟s classification of
English verbs is based on their semantic characteristics. In Table 2, the first and
essential part of her comments on each verb class is quoted as her definition (1993:
263- 267), and all class members are shown for comparison, whereas the verbs
studied in this paper are given in bold.

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