Chapter 3. Common Slavic “indeterminate” verbs of motion were really manner-of-motion verbs

This paper attempts to reinterpret the class of Common Slavic indeterminate verbs of motion, e.g., xoditi ‘walk’, nositi ‘carry’, as manner-of-motion verbs. I examine the attestations of indeterminate verbs of motion in contexts of determinate motion taken primarily from Old Church Slavic and Old Russian texts to form the basis for this reinterpretation. Following a discussion of the “manner-of-motion verb hypothesis”, I argue that the development of Common Slavic manner-of-motion verbs into the functionally peculiar class of indeterminate verbs of motion in North Slavic arose as a result of the effects of prefixation in the nascent Slavic aspectual system. Finally, a hypothesis of the development of the Slavic correlation determinate/indeterminate in verbs of motion is offered.

Published online: 6 May 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.115.06dic