Another member out of the family: the description of manner of gait in Changana verbs of motion

Abstract

In this paper, we show that the widely accepted tendency that manner of motion is described in greater detail in S-languages than in V-languages does not hold for all natural languages. Based on the analysis of manner of gait verbs applying the “lexical approach” (Kövecses, Zoltán. 2015. Surprise as a conceptual category. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 13(1). 270–290), this study shows that in the manner verb lexicon parameter, manner description in Changana (a V-language) is more nuanced than in prototypical S-languages like English (Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics, vol. II. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press). Contrary to the general tendency of V-languages, Changana presents a rich vocabulary of manner verbs and ideophones that cover many semantic dimensions. Our results suggest that while preserving some features of V-languages, Changana also makes distinctions that are usually only attested in S-languages, even exploring manner dimensions not often explored in S-languages. Our findings suggest that Changana is another language that does not fit well into Talmy’s well-established motion events typology.