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Motion and Space across Languages: Theory and applications
Edited by Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
[Human Cognitive Processing 59] 2017
► pp. 151–176

Chapter 5
Latin to Ancient Italian motion constructions

A complex typological shift

| DISUM – UNIUPO

Cognitive linguists traditionally view the evolution of motion constructions from Latin to Italian as a typological change from an S-framed to a V-framed language. Empirical data from some Late Latin travel reports and the Early Italian texts made available by the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano (OVI) show, instead, that the observed linguistic changes naturally follow from a rearrangement of the balance between the elements involved since Classical Latin (verb prefixes, prepositions, cases). Each motion schema has evolved according to idiosyncratic lines, thus yielding the present variety of motion expressions. It is, therefore, more appropriate to view this evolution as a restructuring of a single linguistic type, characterized by the variety of constructions and the instability of many of them.

Keywords: Ancient Italian motion constructions, Ancient Italian prepositions, Latin motion constructions, Latin prepositions, typological shift
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Objectives and methodology
    • 2.1Standard Latin
    • 2.2Lines of evolution
  • 3.Verb roots
    • 3.1 motion-into and motion-out
    • 3.2 motion-up and motion-down
    • 3.3 motion-across
  • 4.Prepositions
    • 4.1 motion-into
    • 4.2 motion-out
    • 4.3 motion-up
    • 4.4 motion-down
    • 4.5 motion-across
    • 4.6Generic or manner verbs
  • 5.Conclusions and further research directions
  • Sources
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.59.07mos
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