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Neglected Aspects of Motion-Event Description: Deixis, asymmetries, constructions
Edited by Laure Sarda and Benjamin Fagard
[Human Cognitive Processing 72] 2022
► pp. 95–121

Chapter 5
On a few instances where deictic directionals confound expectations

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Directional deixis (DD) is characterized by a set of properties that recur across languages, e.g. the feature of goal-orientedness and the built-in asymmetry between ventive direction and itive direction. These properties define a formal and semantic space that has a core and a periphery. DD systems that are outliers with respect to any given property or properties can be shown to support, rather than call into question, the validity of DD as a self-standing descriptive category. This requires articulating an explanatory framework that reconciles the complexity at the periphery with the simplicity of the overarching logic, i.e. the fundamental imbalance between the intrinsically conjunctive semantics of ventive markers and the disjunctive semantics of their itive counterparts.

Keywords: asymmetry, conjunctive vs. disjunctive semantics, goal-orientedness, itive, ventive
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Towards a working definition of directional deixis
  • 3.Directional deixis as against other categories of deixis
    • 3.1Directional deixis and positional deixis: The case of Tima
    • 3.2Directional deixis and person deixis
  • 4.Some design features of systems encoding directional deixis: Canonicity and exceptionality
    • 4.1On the asymmetry of DD systems
    • 4.2Obligatoriness and multiple exponence
    • 4.3Associated motion and unrestricted applicability
    • 4.4DD proper vs. endophoric anchoring
    • 4.5DD and the internal temporal structure of the motion event: The case of Assiniboine
  • 5.Exceptional targeting in Somali, Uduk and Gumuz
    • 5.1The basics
    • 5.2The challenge
    • 5.3Towards an explanation: Canonical targeting vs. exceptional targeting
    • 5.4An alternative explanation
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.05bou
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