A study on syntactic and semantic features of english motion verbs in comparison with the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ THANH BÌNH

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA
CỦA ĐỘNG TỪ CHUYỂN ĐỘNG TIẾNG ANH SO SÁNH VỚI
TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

PHAN THI THANH BÌNH

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
ENGLISH MOTION VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA ĐỘNG
TỪ CHUYỂN ĐỘNG TIẾNG ANH SO SÁNH VỚI TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG
TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH

Hanoi, 2015


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project
report entitled : „STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
MOTION VERBS IN ENGLISH IN COMPARISON WITH THEIR
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS‟ submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements 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.
Student

Phan Thi Thanh Binh

SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Tuyet Minh

Hanoi: 2015
i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like primarily to thank Assoc. prof. Dr. Hoang Tuyet Minh for
helping me complete this study. This paper would not have been possible
without her constant support and encouragement. Her patience and helpful
criticism help me confidently express my ideas into this paper. I regard myself
extremely fortunate in having her as my dissertation supervisor.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all all of the teachers
of the Faculty of Postgraduate studies – Hanoi Open University for their
valuable lectures , which have help me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical
as well as practical acknowledgements.
I would also like to send my thanks to all my classmates of NNA3 for
these -good ideas and helpful assistance.
Last but not least, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my
family members who have constantly supported, inspired and encouraged me to
complete the graduation paper.
Hanoi, November, 2015

Phan Thi Thanh Binh

ii


ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to uncover the syntactic and semantic features of the
MOTION verb group in English, especially ARRIVE motion verbs as well as the
similarities and differences in using the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and

Vietnamese based on the theoretical framework of componential analysis. Special
attention is paid to different senses governed by contexts where these twelve verbs are
used. In order to help Vietnamese learners of English to have a deep understanding of
other nuances of meanings conveyed by these English verbs, their Vietnamese
equivalents are examined.
The participants of the study are twelve English verbs beginning with ARRIVE
is central, followed by go,come, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, escape, reach,
approach and visit which are taken from different sources such as dictionaries, books,
novels in English and Vietnamese. The data are collected by the activities of reading
the materials, identifying and classifying. They are quoted the certain phrases and
sentences from the texts. The data in this study are analyzed by explaining them in
terms of their meanings and syntactic features.
The results of the study show that the twelve English verbs of the ARRIVE motion
verb group in English under discussion can occur in the same syntactic patterns, but
may have different meanings depending on the situation in which they are used and
they can occur in different syntactic patterns that reflect various meanings in real-life
communication. They also reveal that the meaning of a verb is determined by its
relations with other words, that is why if we want to identify exactly the meaning of
any word, we have to put it in a certain context.
A further pedagogical implication resulting from the findings included in this
study could be equally beneficial for teachers and learners who would like to expand
their knowledge concerning the most typical ways of perspectivizing the linguistic
scene by means of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A : Adjunct

C : Complex- transitive verb
C : Complement
D : Double- transitive verb
I

: Intransitive verb

L

: Linking verb

MV : Motion verb
NP : Noun- phrase
O

: Object

Od : Direct- object
S

: Subject

T

: Transitive verb

TG : Traditional Grammar
V

: Verb

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1: Sentence patterns of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English
Table 4.2: Sentence patterns of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English
and Vietnamese.
Table 4.3: Sentence elements of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English
and Vietnamese.
Table 4. 4: Sentence elements of the verb type in English and Vietnamese.
Table 4. 5: Subtypes of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and
Vietnamese.
Table 4.6: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese
(group 1)
Table 4.7: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese
(group 2)
Table 4. 8: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese
(group 3)

v


TABLE 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. Rationale of the study....................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................. 2
1.3. Objectives of the study ..................................................................................... 2
1.4. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 2
1.5. Significance of the study ................................................................................. 3
1.6. Design of the study........................................................................................... 3
Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Review of the motion verbs group in English and Vietnamese ........................ 5
2.2. Review of theoretical framework ..................................................................... 7
2.2.1. Theoretical framework ................................................................................. 7
2.2.1.1. Theory of syntax......................................................................................... 7
2.2.1.2. Theory of semantics ................................................................................... 9
2.2.2. Theoretical background ............................................................................... 11
2.2.2.1. Definition of a verb .................................................................................. 11
2.2.2.2. Definition of motion verb......................................................................... 12
2.2.2.3. Classification of motion verbs in English ............................................... 14
2.2.2.3.1. Path verbs ............................................................................................. .14
2.2.2.3.2. Manner of Motion Verbs ....................................................................... 14
2.2.2.4. Syntactic features of motion verbs in English ........................................ 15
2.2.2.5. Semantic features of motion verbs in English ......................................... 17
2.3. Summary ........................................................................................................ 17
Chapter 3: METHODOLORY
3.1 Research-governing orientations ..................................................................... 19
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3.1.1 Research questions ....................................................................................... 19
3.1.2 Research setting............................................................................................ 19
3.1.3 Research approach........................................................................................ 19

3.1.4 Principles for intended data collection and data analysis ............................ 20
3.2 Research methods ............................................................................................ 20
3.2.1 Major methods vs. supporting methods ....................................................... 20
3.2.2. Data collection techniques .......................................................................... 21
3.2.3 Data analysis techniques .............................................................................. 22
3.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 22
Chapter 4 : FINDING AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE verb group in English ..... ..23
4.1.1. Syntactic features of the ARRIVE verb group in English .......................... 23
4.1.1.1. In terms of their sentence patterns .......................................................... 26
a. SV type ............................................................................................................ 27
b. SVO type .......................................................................................................... 28
4.1.1.2. In terms of their sentence elements .......................................................... 39
4.1.2. Semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English ........... 35
4.1.2.1. Group 1: GO, COME, ARRIVE and RETURN ...................................... 37
4.1.2.2. Group 2: ENTER, CROSS, TRAVEL, PASS and ESCAPE.................. .39
4.1.2.3. Group 3: REACH, APPROACH and VISIT verb in English ................. .41
4.2. Similarities and differences between English and their Vietnamese
equivalents ............................................................................................................. 42
4.2.1. Similarities between English and their Vietnamese equivalents ................ 42
4.2.1.1. In terms of syntactic features ................................................................... 42
4.2.1.2. In terms of semantics features .................................................................. 46
4.2.2.1. Group 1 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents ............................. 48
4.2.2.2. Group 2 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents ............................. 50
4.2.2.3. Group 3 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents ............................. 51
4.2.2. Differences between English and their Vietnamese equivalents ................ 53
4.2.2.1. In terms of syntactic features ................................................................... 53
vii

4.2.2.2. In terms of semantics features .................................................................. 54
4.3. Some possible implications for teaching the ARRIVE verbs group in
English and Vietnamese to Vietnamese learners of English ............................... 57
a. Avoiding Language transfer mistakes ............................................................... 57
b. Mistakes of using ARRIVE motion verbs group with prepositions ................. 59
c. Mistakes of using ARRIVE motion verbs group with sentence structures ...... 60
4.4. Summary ........................................................................................................ 63
Chapter 5 : CONCLUSION
5.1.Recapitulation................................................................................................. .64
5.2. Concluding remarks ....................................................................................... 65
5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies .............................................. 66
5.3.1 Limitations ................................................................................................. .66
5.3.2 Suggestions for further studies .................................................................. .66

REFERENCES

viii


Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Rationale for the study
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 aspect: Comrie (2006).
In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with
in every general grammar book such as Nguyễn Lai (1976) and Nguyễn Lai
(1984) . It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific
motion verbs. And Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984), with Động từ trong tiếng Việt,
these two authors studied about the classification of words in Vietnamese
including the MOTION verbs group in Vietnamese.

1


Practically, we hope to contribute a small part in studying and teaching
the MOTION verb group in English. In this study, the MOTION verb group in
English is described in a variety of contexts and situations. We hope that with
the thesis, we can contribute a small part to help students of English as well as
Vietnamese people who learn English and who are interested in 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 some English motion verbs in comparison with the

Vietnamese equivalents.
1.2. Aims of the study
This study is aimed at Investigating syntactic and semantic features of
certain ARRIVE motion verbs group in English; making a comparison between
ARRIVE motion verbs group in English with their Vietnamese equivalents in
terms of syntactic and semantic features and giving implications for teaching
English ARRIVE motion verbs group to Vietnamese EFL learners.
1.3. Objectives of the study
In order to achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward:
- Identifying syntactic and semantic features of ARRIVE motion verbs group in
English.
- Finding out similarities and differences between English ARRIVE motion
verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic
features.
- Giving some implications for teaching the ARRIVE motion verbs in English to
Vietnamese learners of English.
1.4. Scope of the study
2


In English, there are seven subtypes of Motion verbs: 1. the RUN subtype,
2. the ARRIVE subtype, 3. the TAKE subtype, 4. the FOLLOW subtype, 5. the
CARRY subtype, 6. the THROW subtype, 7. the DROP subtype. (R.M.W.
Dixon, 1991), but within the framework of this study, we focus on ARRIVE
subtype in terms of their syntactic and semantic features with three subtypes:
Group 1 go, come, arrive, return; Group 2 enter, cross, pass, travel, escape;
Group 3 reach, approach, visit.
In this study, English is considered as the source language, and
Vietnamese is the target language, so syntactic and semantics features of
ARRIVE motion verbs in English are analysised 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 syntactic and semantic features of the group from the
movements in general and verb ARRIVE group in particular and the similarities
and differences in 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 group are given more
effectively. Besides that, this research is conducted with the hope that in the
foreseeable future, teachers of English will get to know more about ARRIVE
motion verbs and realize the importance of them in teaching ARRIVE motion
verbs so that they can adapt it to their own teaching conditions.
1.6. Structural organization of the thesis
To gain the above goals, the study is divided into five chapters:
3


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 orientations, describes the
methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and
analyzing techniques.
Chapter IV, Findings and discussion, points out syntactic and semantic features
of English ARRIVE motion verbs, and comparison between syntactic and
semantic features of English motion verbs and the Vietnamese equivalents is

made. Implications for teaching English motion verbs and difficulties in
teaching and learning English motion verbs are given.
Chapter V, Conclusion, summaries the whole contents of the study, indicating
the limitation, thus giving some recommendations and suggestions for a further
study.

4


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 sentences and sentence elements. These theories are the basis of
the study in chapter IV.
2.1. Review of the motion verb group in English and Vietnamese
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, 1988), “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
5


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 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, esape, 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 “Nhóm 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
6


studies have the same purpose, that is studying the semantic structures of the
Vietnamese motion verbs.
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.
The books above are the background that the theory part of the study will
be carried out.
2.2. Review of theoretical framework
2.2.1. Theoretical farmework
2.2.1.1. 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.
7


Consider, for example, the following group of verbs, which can all occur in that
frame: go, come, arrive, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, esape, reach,
approach and visit. What could all these verbs have in common (that some other
verbs, unable to occur in this frame, would not have)? On closer inspection,
however, it emerges that two different syntactic patterns are in fact involved: (1)
„X Ved Y for Z‟ paraphrasable as „X Ved Y to do Z‟ and (2) „X Ved Y for Z‟
paraphrasable as „X Ved Y for doing Z‟. The first of these two patterns singles
out verbs such as go, come, arrive and return ; the second, verbs such as enter,
cross, travel, pass and esape: the third, verbs such as , reach, approach and
visit.
The pattern „X Ved Y for Z‟ which is paraphrasable as „X Ved Y to do Z‟
is particularly worth comparing with the closely related pattern „X Ved to Y for
Z‟, as in the sentences „X appealed to Y for Z‟ and „X applied (to Y) for Z‟. This
pattern, too, correlates with the components „I want you to do Z‟ and „I know
that you don‟t have to do it‟.
Generally speaking, if the addressee phrase is treated as a direct object,

the (implied) effect of the action on the addressee is always greater and more
direct than in the otherwise comparable cases when the addressee phrase is
treated as an indirect object. For example, of the five verbs enter, cross, travel,
pass and esape are clearly more tentative; this semantic difference is reflected in
the syntactic one: „X suggested to Y (that Z)‟ vs. „X advised Y (to do Z)‟. But
the differences in the syntactic treatment of the addressee may also reflect
differences in the agent‟s goal. For example, if a verb implies that the agent
wants to achieve a certain state of affairs and that the role of the addressee is
rather instrumental, then

it is the desired state of affairs, rather than the

addressee, which is treated as a direct object. Hence, for example, the following
contrasts:
He escaped from the prison

(R.M.W. Dixon, 1991, 96 )
8


Of course, if we want to investigate the validity of the correlations
between syntactic and semantic properties, we must also seek to validate
semantic components independently (not on the basis of syntactic clues).
However, once the validity of such correlations between syntax and meaning has
been established, syntactic properties can be used as invaluable clues to
semantic structure. I am not suggesting that syntactic properties should be
treated as „proofs‟ for, or against, a given semantic analysis. I maintain, above
all, that syntactic properties possess an inestimable heuristic value. In
combination with other evidence, however, they can be used in the justification
of semantic formulae.

2.2.1.2. 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.

9


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.
The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study
syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English.
10


2.2.2. Theoretical background
2.2.2.1. Denifition of a verb
As has already been mentioned, verbs are very important constituents of
sentences. Because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also
because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also because of the
existence of an extensive number of publications dealing with their
characteristics in great depth, this part of the thesis does not, by any means,

intend to give a comprehensive description of verbal characteristics and
behavior of verbs.
The opening short definition of a verb from Longman English Grammar
states that “a verb is a word (run) or a phrase (run out of) which expresses the
existence of a state (love, seem) or the doing of an action (take, play) (Alexander
1988, 159). A very general division of verbs is provided by Quirk et al. (1985),
who divide verbs as a class of words into three principal categories. They
classify them according to their function within the verb phrase and label them
full or lexical verbs such as leave, primary verbs consisting of be, have and
do, and modal auxiliary verbs such as will, might, ect. Primary and modal
auxiliary verbs form closed classes (it is not possible to easily add new words in
such groups) whereas the class of full verbs is an open class. Full verbs function
in sentences as main verbs, and the primary verbs can act either as main verbs or
as auxiliary verbs.
When describing verbs in more detail, many publications use the term
„verbs phrase‟ for them. A verbs phrase might be simple such as She lives
opposite me (R.M.W. Dixon, 1971:24) or complex, consisting of two or more
words such as I can’t swim (R.M.W. Dixon, 1971:25). English verbs phrases
give information of different kinds. Verbs phrases indicate: tense, which gives
information about time such as I speak (present tense) versus I spoke (past
tense); aspect, which gives information about the speaker‟s perspective on time
11


such as I spoke (simple aspect) versus I was speaking (progressive aspect);
voice, whether active such as She destroyed it or passive such as It was
destroyed, which gives information about agents and recipients of verbs
processes (Carter and McCarthy, 2006, 405).
Due to extensiveness of verbs as a class of words, it is possible to divide
them into many various categories depending on the features of verb phrases

which are being examined. When the feature of (in) definitiveness is taken into
consideration, verb phrases can be divided into definite (tensed) and infinite
(non-tensed) verb; when the main focus is on the inflection of verbs, we
distinguish verbs regular and irregular. The verbs may also be divided into
active or stative verbs, or, as Lakoff (cited in Frawley, 1992, 146) calls them
non-stative and stative. Kudrnacova (2005, 54) mentions also a division of
verbs from the „lexical aspect‟ into four groups: States such as knowing the
answer, Activities such as running, accomplishment such as running a mile and
achievements such as reaching the border. Many more other classifications are
possible. Frawley (1992, 140), for example, divides verbs into four principal
classes, namely: acts, states, causes, and motion. Main objective of this thesis is
to serve as the primary research sources from motion.
2.2.2.2. Denifition of motion verb
As is apparent from the term, motion verbs are those verbs that express a
kind of motion such as go, walk, run and hurry and so on. The category of
motion verbs is very broad.
As Pablo and Gutierrez (2001,207) explain a directed motion event refers to
a situation in which an object, the Figure, moves with regards to a reference
point, the Ground, following a trajectory, the Path. This description is based on
Talmy‟s description (cited in Kudrnacova 2005, 54) of a motion situation, where
he clarifies the individual component as follows: the Figure (i.e the object
moving with respect to another object, called the Ground), the Path (i.e the
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course followed by the Figure), and Motion (which refers to the presence per se
of motion in the event of motion). To describe this terminology more clearly,
Kudrnacova (2008, 33) offers a sample sentence John ran to the house where
John represents the Figure, the house represents the Ground, to expresses the
Path, and walk presents the Motion and Manner. Kudrnacova (2008, 33) further

states, that dixis embodied in verb roots (as in come and go) is termed
„Direction‟. “The path may also be expressed in particles (called „satellites‟)
such as in John went off’ (Kudnacova 2008, 33).
Motion verbs are also dealt with by Frawley (1992) describes a motion as a
displacement of an entity. However, even though his work is based on Talmy‟s
characterisation of motion events, he does not use entirely the same semantic
factors as Talmy to describe the displacement. Fawley‟s factors are Them,
Source, Goal, Path, Site, Cause, Manner, and Conveyance (Frawley 1992, 170) .
The Theme, the displaced entity, corresponds with Talmy‟s Figure. The Source
represents the origin of the movement and the Goal represents its destination,
the Site denotes the location of the movements, and the Conveyance represents
the means by which the motion is carried out. Manner and Path will be
described in more detail in the following sections.
The semantic properties of English motion verbs are complex and display
several levels of organization (Kudrnacova, 2005). Motion verbs describe those
activities which present progression in space and or progression in time.
Kudrnacova (2008) distinguishes between „pure motion‟ and motion as an
activity. The term „pure motion‟ denotes here motion as a change of location
over time – a strictly kinetic phenomenon

(John walked to the store) and the

term „motion as an activity‟ denotes a motion event that fulfill a causative role
with respect to the change of the agent‟s state ( John walked himself to
exhaustion). It is possible to combine „pure‟ motion events with directional
phrases. On the other hand, motion events presented as „activities‟ can be only
„non –directed‟ events.
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The category of motion verbs can be further divided into two subcategories
with their own specific properties and behavior. These subcategories are manner
of motion verbs and path verbs and will be described in greater detail in the
following parts.
2.2.2.3. Classification of motion verbs in English
2.2.2.3.1. Path verbs
The class of path verbs covers all verbs which incorporate the direction of the
movement. Because directionality represents a constitutive feature of this
category, path verbs are sometimes called verbs of inherently directed motion or
verbs of direction as an opposite to verbs of displacement. In the work of Levin
and Rappaport Hovav (1992), this sub- category is labeled arrive class after one
of the members of this class: Path verbs are mute about the manner of motion
and only encode information about the direction of the motion: John left, John
arrived. (Kudrnacove, 2008, 7). Or, in Levin‟s words, the meaning of these
verbs includes a specification of the direction of motion, even in the absence of
an overt directional complement (Kudrnacove, 1993, 236).
2.2.2.3.2. Manner of Motion Verbs
Manner of motion verbs encode information about the physical modality of
motion but, in contrast to the so-called path verbs , do not provide information
about a specific direction of motion (He ran, He walked) unless they combine
with an explicit directional phrase such as in He ran to the store, He walked to
the store ( Kudrnacove, 2009, 143 ).
These verbs inherently include the notion of the transmission of energy from one
participant to another, this may be the same participant whose „self‟ is divided
into the acting self and the acted upon self, as in John walked himself to the
station (Kudrnacove, 2008, 10 ), and thus are used in different constructions
than path verbs.
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2.2.2.4. Syntactic features of motion verbs in English
Syntax is the study of how combine to the form sentences and the rules
which govern the formation of sentences. However, syntactic structure is
understood as the arrangement of words and morphemes into larger units(
phrases, clauses, and sentences).
Meaning is associated with the way in which words are combines to make
phrases, clauses and sentences. Compare The dog bit the postman and The
postman bit the dog, which involve the same word meanings but quite different
sentence meanings because of their different syntactic arrangements. As Dixon
(1991) claims, there is a principled interaction between the meaning of a word
and its grammartical properties. Once a learner knows the meaning and
grammartical behaviour of most of the words in a language, then from the
meaning of a new word he can infer its likely grammatical possibilities, or from
observing the grammatical use of a new word, he may be able to infer a good
deal about what it means.
Every verb, in its capacity as the core of a clause, is defined semantically
in terms of the semantic roles of the participants in the state or event codes by
the clause. Within the clause, these participants occupy the grammatical roles of,
most commonly, subject, direct object, indirect object, adverb or predicate.
These grammatical roles are marked in English by a combination of morphology
and word-order. But they also have other, more subtle, grammatical-behavioral
properties, such as various constraints on their distribution in grammatical
environment.
According to the grammatical classification of verbs, verbs fall into
three broad subclasses- those that require only one role ( intransitiv verbs),
those which require two roles (copular) and those require two or more roles
(transitive verbs). There is a considerable difference between intransitive
subject and transitive subject.
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