In press: In: Dimitrova-Vulchanova, M - NTNU

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• For the climbing type: English climb, Norwegian klatre and Bulgarian katerja se, slizam We predict that these verbs are basic-level verbs in the sense of Rosch (1973), thus being used more often than more abstract or more specific verbs in the description of events in that domain. In this section we briefly introduce the linguistic facts for each language, discussing data relevant for our basic hypotheses in the exploratory study. 3.1 The Bulgarian verb pairs The Modern Bulgarian verbs for walking, running, and crawling deserve somewhat special attention. As is widely assumed, language does not tolerate redundancy in the lexicon. True synonyms are rarely attested cross-linguistically (Lyons 1977, among others). Now, a quick look up in standard mono-lingual Bulgarian dictionaries reveals very similar, if not overlapping, definitions. Quite often, one of the verbs is used to explain the meaning of the other. There is indeed some complementarity in the use of the respective verbs, xodja / vurvja (walk1/walk2), tičam / bjagam (run1/run2) and pulzja / lazja (crawl1/crawl2), and native speakers experience problems in explaining the potential difference between the two verbs in the pair 4 . Furthermore, it has not been attested in research whether they agree on how to use those verbs, either. One way to approach this issue is to look for differences on the level of language as a system revealed in patterns of occurrence and collocational restrictions, and in restrictions on the mapping of conceptual and semantic information to syntax. Another approach, empirical in nature, can simply test how native speakers use the items in question. We briefly sketch the differences observed at the level of grammar. One distinction are constraints as regards use in certain idiomatic expressions. Thus, of the two walk verbs, only xodja (walk1) occurs in fixed collocations, such as xodja na-PP (attend), as shown in (2a) below. In contrast, only vurvja (walk2) can be used in the context of Imperatives, most likely because Imperatives are usually associated with a bounded event, i.e. a directed motion situation. An example is given in (2a’) below featuring the two directed motion verbs vurvja (walk2)/otivam (go) vs. the ungrammatical xodja (walk1). Likewise, in aspectual processes involving reference to walking/running situations, only one of the two verbs (verb2) can give rise to an aspectually completed bounded event. This process is characterized by promotion of the prepositional phrase (PP) that expresses the path to direct object accompanied by aspectual prefixation on the verb. In such cases, more often 4 As revealed in random elicitation queries in the preparation of the experiment. 8
than not, the aspectual prefix is a copy of the original preposition that heads the PP (cf. Dimitrova-Vulchanova 1998, 1999, and Guentcheva 2002, 2006 for an analysis and discussion). Consider the examples in (2b-b’, c-c’) below. (2) a. xodja na kino/uciliste/rabota Go to (the) cinema/school/work a’. Vurvi/otivaj/*xodi na rabota walk2/go/*walk1 to work b. vurvja/xodja [ PP po putja] walk on the road b’. Ivan iz-vurvja/*-xodi [ NP celija put] I. asp.pref.-walked the whole road c. bjagam/ticam do kustata run to the house c’. Ivan pro-bjaga/*- tiča razstojanieto I. perf.pref.-ran the distance In both pairs in (2b-b’) and (2c-c’) the contrast is between the possibility of promoting the prepositional phrase, po putja (on the road) and do kustata (to the house), respectively in the case of vurvja (walk2) and bjagam (run2), but not xodja (walk1) and tičam (run1). The PPpromotion construction in Bulgarian is similar, but not identical to the English walk NP (as in walk the corridors, sail the seas) construction, whereby the interpretation in the case of English is that of [+affected] for the direct object. The path PP-promotion pattern is an important test providing evidence of the underlying semantics of the verbs at hand in the sense of whether they encode directed traversal of the ground, or not. Furthermore, primarily xodja (walk1), but not vurvja (walk2) can be used in the derivation of new lexical items combining with semi-lexical/semi-aspectual prefixes to produce new verbs of motion further specifying various aspects of ‘manner’. Thus pro-xodja means to start walking (toddle), raz-xodja (stroll, Norwegian spasere), za-xodja ((the sun) set down). Based in our current research (cf. Dimitrova-Vulchanova & Martinez, forthcoming) we propose that the two Bulgarian verbs in each pair, while both encoding traversal, differ in the presence of the feature [+directed motion]. Thus, xodja (walk1) encodes /low pace/ biological traversal motion, while vurvja (walk2) lexicalizes directed traversal motion. This find is coherent with an assumption that self-propelling based in force accumulation and discharge naturally leads 9
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Page 3 and 4: such as figure orientation). Common
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Page 7: With respect to terrestrial biologi
Page 11 and 12: 3.3 Verbs of walking The most centr
Page 13 and 14: 3.6 Features in the representation
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Page 17 and 18: translation vs. non-translation (re
Page 19 and 20: Fig. 2 Overall frequencies of the t
Page 21 and 22: has demonstrated that infants as yo
Page 23 and 24: verbs only in Norwegian. In Bulgari
Page 25 and 26: Tversky 1977), and are specifically
Page 27 and 28: and respectively the verbs naming t
Page 29 and 30: across species at particular Froude
Page 31 and 32: independently, there is sufficient
Page 33 and 34: 5.2.6 The salience of path shape an
Page 35 and 36: motion scenes that we had selected
Page 37 and 38: Dimitrova-Vulchanova, M. 1999. Incr
Page 39 and 40: Papafragou, A. et al. 2002. Shake,
Page 41 and 42: Appendix 1 This appendix contains s
Page 43 and 44: 13 Long-legged bird walking 14 Croc
Page 45 and 46: 25 Snake crawling 26 Snake sidewind
Page 47 and 48: Fig. 1b. Multiset tree for Bulgaria
Page 49 and 50: Fig. 2b. Multiset tree for English
Page 51 and 52: Fig. 3b. Multiset tree for Norwegia

In press: In: Dimitrova-Vulchanova, M - NTNU

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