Exploring source/goal asymmetries in spontaneous and caused motion expression in Yuhup

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the asymmetry in the expression of Goal and Source in spontaneous and caused motion events in Yuhup (Makú/Naduhup family). We examine the asymmetries at the semantic, morphological and syntactic levels. As this language does not have a specialized system of nominal morphology that distinguishes the ground constituents representing the Source or the Goal of a movement, an asymmetrical treatment of Source and Goal is not evident. However, verbal semantics make more distinctions for Goal than for Source, ground constituents are more frequent in the expression of motion to(wards) the Goal than the one (away) from the Source, and structural variety and complexity differentiate between Source and Goal expression. Also, the Goal bias is stronger in the descriptions of caused motion than in the ones of spontaneous motion. The data were collected using tools designed for elicitation of spontaneous and caused motion events.