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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. 257–271

Chapter 12
Lexical aspect and morphosyntactic cohesion between motion verbs and spatial particles in Homeric Greek

ORCID logo | University of Palermo
The aim of this paper is to investigate a rather neglected topic in motion event studies, i.e. the role that lexical aspect (i.e. Aktionsart) plays in motion event encoding in Homeric Greek. Building on the theoretical framework of Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000, 2009), this work focuses on the role that telicity (Vendler 1967), as a verb-inherent semantic feature, plays in the distribution of motion verbs and co-occurring spatial particles as well as in their different mutual morphosyntactic cohesion. The textual analysis of the Iliad and the Odyssey shows a non-random distribution of motion verbs and spatial particles with their own semantic value, in particular a stronger morphosyntactic cohesion is found between telic verbs and goal-oriented particles, due to their mutual semantic compatibility.
Keywords: Aktionsart, goal-oriented particles, semantic compatibility, telicity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The framework
    • 1.2Peculiar features of spatial particles in Homeric Greek
    • 1.3Lexical aspect and telicity as verb-inherent aspectual feature
    • 1.4The scope
  • 2.The objects of the analysis
    • 2.1Théō, trékhō, and édramon: The suppletive paradigm for ‘run’ in HG
    • 2.2Goal-oriented and non-goal-oriented spatial particles as Path-encoding elements
  • 3.Textual analysis
    • 3.1Théō and trékhō vs. édramon: Variation in frequency of absolute forms
    • 3.2Théō and trékhō vs. édramon: Variation in spatial semantic values and morphosyntactic status of co-occurring particles
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.72.12nig
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