1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

MAI THỊ THU HÂN

VERBS OF MOTION AND THEIR LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS
AN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE COMPARATIVE STUDY FROM
COGNITIVE APPROACH

(Động từ vận động và các mô hình từ vựng hoá của chúng
Nghiên cứu so sánh Anh Việt từ góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics
Code: 602215



Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Trần Hữu Mạnh
Hanoi - 2010

DECLARATION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

PART 1. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
2. Aims of the study
3. Scope of the study
4. Research questions
5. Contribution of the study
6. Methodology
7. Design of the study

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2.2.2 The motion event
2.2.3 Satellites
2.2.4 A two-way typology of motion event
2.3 Summary

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CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON OF LEXICALIZATION PATTERNS OF
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE MOTION VERBS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion verbs
3.2.1 Lexicalization pattern 1: Motion + Co-event
3.2.2 Lexicalization pattern 2: Motion + Path
3.2.3 Lexicalization pattern 3: Motion + Figure
3.2.4 Other minor patterns
3.3 Split and parallel system of conflation
3.4 The parallel pattern of conflation in Vietnamese?
3.5 Summary


1. Major findings
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study

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REFERENCES
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Beth Levin (1993)‘s classification of motion verbs in English and
the Vietnamese equivalents
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Appendix 2: Motion verbs in English (Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts)
[iii] Appendix 3: Motion verbs in Vietnamese (Chương 31: Chiến trường
Hogwarts)
Appendix 4: Analysis of sample motion verbs in chapter 31: The Battle of
Hogwarts and the Vietnamese version
Appendix 5: A table of contrast between basic English and Vietnamese motion
verbs
Appendix 6: Chapter 31: The Battle of Hogwarts (Motion scene 2)
Appendix 7: Chương 31: Chiến trường Hogwarts

SVCs: Serial verb constructions
V: Verb
V-language: Verb-framed languages 10

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS Diagram 3.1: Co-event conflated in the Motion verb (adapted from
Talmy, 2000b: 28)

Table 1.1: Path verbs and Directional complement verbs in Vietnamese

Table 4.1: Lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion
verbs in chapter 31 ‗The Battle of Hogwarts‘


motion. He was mainly interested in evidencing typologies, i.e. small number of patterns
exhibited by groups of languages, and universals, i.e. single patterns shared cross-
linguistically. According to Talmy, some languages lexicalize in the verb the manner or the
cause of motion, other languages lexicalize the path, and finally in a few languages the figure
or object that moves is worth mentioning.
This theoretical framework arises in me as to whether there are any similarities and
differences between English and Vietnamese motion verbs, how lexicalization patterns are
cross-linguistically applied to analyzing English and Vietnamese motion verbs, and what
might be the lexicalization patterns of Vietnamese motion verbs. These questions are the
strong motivations that inspire me to carry out this small research with a view to uncovering
the notions of motion verbs and applications of lexicalization patterns in both English and
Vietnamese.
2. Aims of the study: The paper aims to
(i) Examine, in some depths, the main concepts of cognitive semantics, its main
concepts and tenets, the theory of lexicalization patterns with its typological and universal
principles across languages.
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(ii) Provide an insight into the analysis of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese and
set this as the basis for the English and Vietnamese comparison of lexicalization patterns of
motion verbs.
(iii) Find out and compare the lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in English and
Vietnamese; based on which to discover some similarities and differences between English
and Vietnamese lexicalization patterns of motion verbs.
(iv) Apply the theory of lexicalization patterns to analyzing motion verbs in an
English novelist text and its Vietnamese version with the aim to confirm the results of the
preceding parts.
3. Scope of the study
This study essentially adop Leonard Talmy (2000)‘s theory of lexicalization patterns
of motion verbs and some notions proposed in Talmy-related studies by Slobin (1996, 2004,

The strategic method chosen is the descriptive and analytical which seeks to describe
and explain the phenomenon. Contrastive Analysis is also used in this research. For
comparison, we will describe motion verbs and their lexicalization patterns in the two
languages under the same theoretical framework and then find out the similarities and
differences. The data used for the study e.g. examples or illustrations, are cited from the
reliable resources provided by famous scholars or from real life situations. It is hoped that
valuable conclusions will be reached by deductive reasoning.
Together with these methods, we also use the quantitative procedures that are based on
data, facts and features to examine motion verbs and their lexicalization patterns used in a novel
and its translated version in the mother tongue. Given this method of inductive reasoning, we
expect to reach a confirmation for the conclusions drawn out. Supporting techniques such as
reference to the publication, consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colleagues, and
personal observations are also of great significance.
7. Design of the study: The study is divided into three main parts presented as follows:
Part 1: Introduction, which states the reasons, reveals the aims, narrows the scope,
identifies the research questions and presents the significance, methodology as well as the
organization of the study.
Part 2, including four chapters, reports on the main contents of the study. Chapter 1 is
concerned with exploring the similarities and differences of motion verbs in English and
Vietnamese. Chapter 2 is dedicated to examining some main concepts of cognitive semantics
and the theory of lexicalization patterns. Chapter 3 deals with the comparative analysis of
Talmy‘s lexicalization patterns of English and Vietnamese motion verbs. The last chapter is
toward applying the typology of English and Vietnamese motion verbs in a specific novel text
to confirm the conclusions revealed. Given the conclusions, this part indicates possible
implications for language teaching and translation, hopefully providing an alternative method
of analyzing an aspect of language from a different point of view.
Part 3, the last part of the study, is the conclusion which summarizes what has been
done, what has not been covered, accompanied by suggestions for further study. There are
also appendixes where supplemental materials and list of reference books are provided.
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does not coincide with the verb. For instance, fly implies an aircraft.
e. Waltz verbs: dance, foxtrot, tango, tapdance, waltz, etc. These verbs mean roughly
‗perform the dance‘. E.g They waltzed across/into/through the room.
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f. Accompany verbs: accompany, guide, lead, etc. These verbs relate to one person
taking another from one place to another. E.g Jackie accompanied Rose to the store.
g. Chase verbs: chase, follow, pursue, shadow, tail, track, trail, etc. These verbs are
typically transitive, with the chaser as subject and the person being chased as object. E.g
Jackie chased the thief.
Some famous Vietnamese linguists such as Diệp Quang Ban (2003, 2004), Nguyễn
Tài Cẩn (2004), Lý Toàn Thắng (2005), Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Nguyễn Lai (1990), Nguyễn
Kim Thản (1977) who have done research into verbs and motion verbs all divide motion
verbs into two main types: verbs of movement such as chạy, bay, bò, leo, trượt, lướt … and
directional verbs such as ra, vào, lên, xuống … . However, these linguists tend to pay more
attention to the latter verb group because of its special syntactic and semantic characteristics.
In this study, we will explore the similarities and differences of basic English and Vietnamese
motion verbs based on the seven motion-verb groups taken from Beth Levin‘s classification
and their Vietnamese equivalents.

1.3 The syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of motion
Late traditional grammar classifies verbs into seven major semantic domains: activity
verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, occurrence verbs, existence verbs and
aspectual verbs. (Biber, 1999: 360). Verbs of motion, which primarily denote actions, fall into the
group of activity verbs. Examples are come, go, leave, move, run, etc…
(1) They ran through a green paddy field.
Verbs of motion, are the head alone in the verb phrase or head of the verbal predicate
and take a subject with the semantic role of Agent. According to Biber (1999), every verb can
occur with specific patterns of clause elements which contain a subject and can also include
additional adverbials. In the book ‗Longman grammar of spoken and written English‘, he

such as descend, ascend, exit, leave …. These verbs exist to a very limited extent as Latinate
borrowings. They are mute about any specification of the manner in which the movement is
carried out; but they include a specification of direction of motion, even in the absence of an
overt directional complement, i.e. He entered.
Traditionally, both English transitive and intransitive motion verbs need a locative-
Object as in He entered the house or He ran into the garden. In addition, Tyler, A. & Evans,
V. (2003) state that English particles are spatial oriented; and these spatial particles have
numerous meanings associated with them. People often assign spatial particles based on the
geometry of a visual scene. In English, spatial orientation means the location of an object in
relation to another object from the point of view of the speaker, with respect to the orientation
of the object itself or with respect to the actual direction of the motion of the object. The
English particles which complement Path to the main motion verb are likely to encode some
semantic information like goal in (7), source in (8), via in (9) and direction in (10):
(7) He ran to the store.
(8) I ran from the store.
(9) I slid the sleeve over the valve.
(10) I slid the coupling nut forward.
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As understood, English particles can be either spatially-located (above, below, over, in, on,
under, underneath, at) or directionally-oriented (to, toward, onto, into, by, over, past…).

1.4 The syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese motion verbs
Our notion of motion verbs focuses mainly on the viewpoints proposed by Nguyễn Lai
(1990), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (2004), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977) and
some other studies on Vietnamese verbs by Nguyễn Đình Hoà (1979), Sophana Srichampa
(1997) and Henry Beecher (2004). According to these grammarians, Vietnamese verbs
directly express motions of the entities, including actions and states. Motion verbs (including
directional verbs) take an object or predicative complement. In these cases, they are often
transitive verbs with the subject taking the semantic roles of Agent. As seen in Appendix 1,

(Our army has defeated the American invaders)
(iii) Motion-Path: Tôi rơi vào một cái lỗ. (I fall into a hole)
As summarized by Trần Hữu Mạnh (2007:116), Vietnamese grammarians consider the
first verb in a series the main verb, and other elements following the main verbs are post-
modifiers. In (i), (ii) and (iii), the second verb conveys the Purpose or goal, the Result and the
Path of the main verb respectively.
The Motion-Path SVCs often consist of a manner verb indicating movement and
change of location which can be combined with directional verbs ra, vào, lên, xuống, sang,
qua, về, lại, đi, đến as in chạy ra (run out), đi vào (come in/into), trèo lên (climb up), nhảy
xuống (jump down)… At this point, Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977: 79) confirms that these
directional verbs are originally full verbs but when they are placed after another verb, they
bleach their full meanings and grammatical features, and become functional words denoting
directional meanings. He states that this word group only acts as ‗grammatical tool‘ that adds
directional meaning to the main verbs and calls them ‗phó động từ phương hướng‘. Đinh Văn
Đức (1986), Diệp Quang Ban (2004) agrees that these verbs are not full directional verbs any
more, but become ‗từ phụ‘ (complement word) encoding Path of the preceding motion verb.
Nguyễn Lai (1990) considers these words ‗trạng-giới từ‘ (prepositional adverbs) which
connect the main verb and its complement and confine in themselves two semantic meanings
of motion verbs: Motion and Direction.
In our sense, these directional verbs take the role of a complement to the main verb and
act as the ‗directional complement verbs‘. In this regard, the information of motion in a
sentence consists of three semantic elements: Motion, Manner and Direction. For example:
(14) Xe đã chạy qua cầu.
Motion + Manner Direction
When placed after a manner verb, the directional complement verbs can not be left out,
as if they are omitted, the sentence is grammatically incorrect. It is clear that (14) cannot be
transferred into ‗Xe đã chạy cầu’. These directional complement verbs, therefore, are dependent
to the main verbs.
Interestingly, in Vietnamese, these directional complement verbs can function as the
main verbs which encode path-of-motion verbs in themselves. These path verbs carry two

5
lên
to ascend
up
6
xuống
to descend
down
7
lại
to arrive
at
8
đến/tới
to reach
at
9
đi
to go
off/away
Table 1.1: Path verbs and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese
In Vietnamese, both path verbs and directional complement verbs in Vietnamese are
categorized according to spatial orientation. The path-of-motion verbs and the motion verbs
which take path complement verbs may be followed by either the source (Lan bước ra khỏi nhà/
Lan ra khỏi nhà), or the direction (Thằng cu Bé chạy về nhà/Thằng cu Bé về nhà) or the
destination of the action (Hắn đi tới nhà cụ Bá/ Hắn tới nhà cụ Bá). In addition, these verbs
denote more semantic meanings in Vietnamese. For example, ‗ra’ (go/come out) goes from a
narrow point and moves to a wider point. It refers to direction, not personal relations. The
schema for this verb may be diagrammed as follows:


Vietnamese as đi nước kiệu, đi lang thang, đi lần lần, đi khập khiễng, đi õng ẹo, … (see
Appendix 1).

1.5 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese verbs of motion
Taking English and Vietnamese verbs of motion into comparison, the study finds out
the following main similarities and differences on valency patterns and verb meanings.

Similarities:
1. English and Vietnamese motion verbs both fall into the group of activity verbs. They take the
semantic role of describing motion and are the head in the verb phrases.
2. Both English and Vietnamese motion verbs are transitive and intransitive verbs. They
appear mostly in the patterns of SV and SVO. They can be used either as simple verbs (one-
word verbs) in I cross the road or as compound verbs in I rode across the road or Tôi chạy
vào nhà.
3. Vietnamese motion verbs pattern with English equivalents in that many of them are
manner-of-motion verbs which couple with another word to express the path of motion.
Laos
Ninh Bình
Huế
Lạng Sơn
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4. English and Vietnamese verbs of motion both have a group of verbs that incorporate the path or
direction of the verbs. They are: cross, arrive, come, go, ascend, descend, enter, exit … in English
and vào, ra, lên, xuống, đến, đi, về, qua, lại … in Vietnamese.
5. English particles and Vietnamese counterparts are spatially oriented.


Differences
1. Besides the common SV pattern, Vietnamese motion verbs tend to encode a complex motion


to language, such as Noam Chomsky‘s Generative Grammar (e.g., 1957, 1965). The birth of
Cognitive Linguistics is also rooted in the emergence of the second generation of Cognitive
Science in the 1970s, which studies the human mind.
Cognitive linguistics […] is an approach to language
that is based on our experience of the world and the
way we perceive and conceptualize it.
(Ungerer & Schmid, 1997: x)
CL emphasizes that the study of language is the study of language use (Fauconier,
2000) because language is an integral part of cognition which reflects the interaction of social,
cultural, psychological, communicative and functional cognitive development and mental
processing. The followings are the key concepts in CLs:
 Conceptualization: Conceptualization refers to the ways people perceive things or
situations. One thing or situation can be conceptualized in different ways, resulting in
different linguistic expressions. Langacker (1991:2) claims that ‗meaning is equated with
conceptualization‘.
 Embodiment: The meaning of language is embodied, that is, the speaker/writer‘s bodily
experience triggers the linguistic expressions. People perceive things or event differently, and
thus, language used by us is a description of human perception of reality.
 Experience: Experience refers to the perception people hold of the world around them.
What we perceived from the world is stored in our mind and turned into knowledge. This
experience is then expressed through languages. The experience of each person may be
different, resulting in different linguistic expressions, depending on the different interpretation
of the event or situation.
 Construal: This term refers to the ways people perceive an event or situation in the reality,
which then become knowledge. Cognitive Linguistics claims that one given situation or
event in the external world can be ‗construed‘ in many ways and those different ways of
encoding a situation constitute different conceptualizations.
 Frame: Charles J. Fillmore (1982) develops a theory of frame semantics which argues that
speakers/readers would not understand words without accessing the entire knowledge relating

and conventionalisation. ‗Meaning construction is […] a dynamic process whereby linguistic
units serve as prompts for an array of conceptual operations and the recruitment of background
knowledge. It follows from this view that meaning is a process rather than a discrete ‗thing‘ that
can be ‗packaged‘ by language.‘ (Evans & Green, 2006: 162).

2.1.3 Figure and Ground
The terms ‗Figure‘ and ‗Ground‘ stemmed from Gestalt psychology, but it was Talmy
who gave an easy-to-understand conceptualization of them in language. In volume I of
Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Talmy proposes that in language, there exist two
fundamental cognitive functions: Figure and Ground (2000: 311). This pair of concepts can
be of two objects relating to each other in space in an event of motion or location, and
represented by nominals in a single clause; or of the two events relating to each other in a
temporal, causal, or other type of situation, and represented by the main and subordinate
clauses of a complex sentence. Talmy (2000: 312) draws some specific characterizations of
Figure and Ground in linguistic usage:
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The Figure is a moving or conceptually movable entity whose
path, site or orientation is conceived as a variable, the
particular value of which is the relevant issue.
The Ground is a reference entity, one that has a
stationary setting relative to a reference frame, with
respect to which the Figure’s path, site or orientation is
characterized.
With regard to the linguistic representation of Figure and Ground, Talmy (2000a: 334)
proposes an order of precedence regarding their occurrence in syntactic structures. The
principle states:
‘In their basic form, the Figure has syntactic precedence
over the Ground’.
This precedence order is determined by the general human conceptualization of the

 larger

 geometrically
simpler in its
treatment
 geometrically more
complex in its treatment

 more recently on the
scene/ in awareness
 more familiar/ expected

 of greater
concern/relevance
 of lesser
concern/relevance

 less immediately
perceivable
 more immediately
perceivable

 more salient, once
perceived
 more back grounded,
once Figure is perceived
25  more dependent

concepts are encoded in words.
In volume II of Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2000), Leonard Talmy delves into
the exploration of the systematic relations in language between meaning and overt linguistic
forms, in other words, into the process of lexicalization (Talmy, 2000b: 24):
Lexicalization is involved where a particular meaning
component is found to be in regular association with a
particular morpheme.
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Talmy‘s basic assumption is that we can isolate elements or components separately
within the domain of meaning and within the domain of linguistic expression. As illustrated,
an English motion verb (surface element) can encode distinct types of semantic information:
Manner (e.g., hop), Cause (e.g., kick) and Path (e.g., exit, enter). On the other hand, the Path
element may be encoded in English by verbs and by prepositions (e.g., out, into), that is, by
two different linguistic elements. Talmy (2000b) claims that some characteristics of
lexicalization is to associate a particular meaning component with a particular morpheme.
Generally, there are three processes in a word‘s lexicalization: lexicalization, deletion (or
zero), and interpretation.

2.2.2 The Motion Event
So far, there have been some interesting cognitive approaches to motion
conceptualization. Fillmore (1985) developed a theory of Frame Semantics in which he
specifies the four basic components of the motion frame: some entity (Theme) starts out in
one place (Source) and ends up in some other place (Goal), having covered some space
between the two (Path). For example:
(1) The policeman rushed away from the door, and toward the crowd.
Theme Motion Path Source Path Goal
Langacker (1987) characterizes motion in terms of a sequenced transformation of
component states situated in time. Specifically, motion is defined as a mover m’s successive
occupation of location l1 at the time moment t1, occupying location l2 at the moment t2,

In addition, Talmy proposes that he component of Motion (with capital M) refers to the
presence per se of motion or locatedness in the event […]. In addition to these internal
components, a Motion event can be associated with an external Co-event that most often bears
the relation of Manner or of Cause to it. Let us illustrate it with the following example:
(17) Potter walked quietly down the stairs.
Potter is the Figure, the stairs is the Ground and down is the Path. The verb, to walk
expresses simultaneously the fact of Motion (framing event) and the Manner of motion
(Co-event).
With reference to Motion event, Slobin (2004) thinks that Talmy‘s semantic
components are too general. He broke these elements into more fine-grained categories:
• Figure (the moving object): - Individual or group
- Type: human, animal, bird, etc
- Posture: change of posture at beginning or
end of path
• Ground (entity or entities that the Figure is moving in relation
to)
- Source: initial location
- Goal: final location
- Milestone: location passed along path
- Linear substrate: bridge, etc
- Medium, terrain: field, river, etc
- Non-solid environment: air, fog, storm,
darkness, etc
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• Path (the trajectory of the Figure): - Direction of movement:
forward, up, north, etc
- Deixis: direction with regard to viewpoint
of narrator
- Contour: curved path, zigzag, etc

‗Runny icky material [e.g. guts] are lying on the ground.‘

2.2.3 Satellites
The path is expressed in English by a category which Talmy calls satellite. According
to Talmy (2000b):