Path and Manner: An Image-Schematic Approach to Russian Verbs of Motion

Abstract

Russian is notorious for its complex system of motion verbs. In this paper, I will analyze the Russian verbs of motion in terms of the image schemas PATH and MANNER, focusing on the following questions: Why does idti display a goal-bias when used metaphorically as a generalized motion verb? Why is the contrast between unidirectional and non-directional verbs limited to unprefixed motion verbs? Why is the contrast between secondary imperfectives and prefixations of non-directional verbs neutralized? Why are so-called complex act perfectives like pochodit' 'walk for a while' most easily formed with the prefix po-, and why do other prefixes receive metaphorical interpretations in complex acts? Why are there no imperfective motion verbs with the prefix po-? On the face of it, these questions seem completely unrelated, but I will suggest that a unified account is available in terms of image schemas. Image schemas offer not only a neurally plausible and typologically informed analysis, but also enable us to accommodate the intricacies of the Russian verbs of motion. After a brief introduction to image schemas in section 1, I will survey the Russian system of notion verbs in section 2. Section 3 analyzes unprefixed verbs of motion in terms of image schemas, whereas sections 4 through 7 deal with prefixed verbs. The contribution of the paper is summarized in section 8.