Cognitive Semantics : Meaning and Cognition

104 ÅKE VIBERG
Och sen en stark rörelse som av en Then a strong movement like an
arm som slog ifrån sig. arm striking out.
Näsorna och pannorna slår ihop Their noses and foreheads bump against
och ben och armar börjar plötsligt each other; there is a sudden flurry of
fäkta i en absurd pantomim. limbs, an absurd pantomime struggle.
There are certain physical objects that are ascribed an inner source of energy
and which, as a consequence, are capable of total or partial self-propelled
motion. The best example of such an object associated with the verb slå is
‘clock’: Klockan slog ‘The clock struck’. An inner organ such as the heart is
also generally conceptualized as having an inner source of energy: Hjärtat
slog ‘The heart was beating’.
Launched objects such as projectiles of various sorts are probably experienced
as self-propelled once they have been set in motion:
En iransk robot slog på torsdagen Thursday, an Iranian robot once again
åter ner i Iraks huvudstad Bagdad. struck down in the Iraqi capital Bagdad.
This is not the case for certain other types of physical objects as in the
following example, where the leaves are obviously moved by the wind:
/---/ och därutanför höll hösten på /---/ the autumn was establishing
att installera sig med flygande löv, itself in flying leaves that sometimes
som emellanåt slog mot hit the windowpanes with small thuds
fönsterrutorna med små dunsar och and bangs, and in the sound of a
smällar, och med ljudet av en allt rising wind.
starkare blåst.
Examples like the above are somewhat problematic to place in the hierarchy.
The concrete physical objects are in motion but not self-propelled, which
should place them to the right of natural forces, whose motion is self-propelled.
At the same time, however, natural forces are less tangible and less
concretely perceptible than physical objects.
In our experience, the motion of natural forces such as rain, wind, waves
and lightning is caused by an inherent force (self-propelled motion):
Grått regn slår mot glas. Grey rain batters the glass.
Till synkoperat ackompanjemang av Accompanying syncopation of
kluckande och suckande vågor som sucking and splashing waves
slår mot makligt guppande skrov. slopping against our supine hulls.
Eller blixten kan slå ner i det [Someone can drop the aquarium,] or
elektriska systemet. lightning strike the electrical system.