Kita (1999) compares Japanese and English Enter/Exit verbs in spatial expressions, and argues that Japanese Enter/Exit verbs lack semantic encoding of motion. He claims that this runs counter to the view which considers motion and location to be primitives in the semantics of spatial expressions; instead, he proposes that discrete change of state should be included in the set of primitives. In this reply,I will first show that Kita’s evidence does not support lack of motion in Japanese Enter/Exit verbs, but that instead these verbs do pattern with motion verbs in the language, where conflation of motion is not disputable. I finally demonstrate that Kita’s claim about change of state may be well taken, but it should be put in a larger context of regular polysemy.
2013. Change of Location and Change of State. In Advances in Generative Lexicon Theory [Text, Speech and Language Technology, 46], ► pp. 291 ff.
BROWN, AMANDA & MARIANNE GULLBERG
2011. Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in event conceptualization? Expressions of Path among Japanese learners of English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
BEAVERS, JOHN
2008. On the nature of goal marking and delimitation: Evidence from Japanese. Journal of Linguistics 44:2 ► pp. 283 ff.
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