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Broader Perspectives on Motion Event Descriptions
Edited by Yo Matsumoto and Kazuhiro Kawachi
[Human Cognitive Processing 69] 2020
► pp. 105–140

Chapter 4
Syntactic and semantic structures of Thai motion expressions

| Kanda University of International Studies

Thai expressions for a single motion event usually take the form of a single clause that is typically composed of serial verb phrases encoding sub-events (semantic components) of the motion event. The present chapter aims to show that the syntactic and semantic structures of such expressions can be adequately formulated based on the ‘force-dynamic’ structures (cf. Talmy 1988, 2000a) of motion events and ‘aspectual’ types (cf. Vendler 1967) of motion verbs. The event structures and verb types that are relevant to the syntactic patterns of the expressions reflect Thai speakers’ conventional construals for expressing motion events in the Thai language.

Keywords: aspectual types, event structures, serial verbs
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Thai motion expressions: General descriptions
    • 2.1Review of previous studies
      • 2.1.1Thepkanjana (1986)
      • 2.1.2Zlatev and Yangklang (2004)
      • 2.1.3Kessakul (2005)
    • 2.2Typical examples
  • 3.Syntactic and semantic structures of Thai motion expressions
    • 3.1Thai verbs of motion
    • 3.2Syntactic patterns of Thai motion expressions
    • 3.3Acceptable vs. unacceptable linear order
  • 4.The nature of path-related morphemes in Thai
    • 4.1Verbs vs. prepositions
    • 4.2Verbs and satellites
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 11 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.69.04tak
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