Main Verb Properties

摘要

Talmy (1991, 2000b) proposed a typology in which languages fall into two categories on the basis of whether they characteristically express the Path component of a Motion event in the verb root (verb-framed languages) or in the satellite and/or preposition (satellite-framed languages). Subsequently, Slobin (2004) held that the languages of certain published descriptions did not fall neatly into either category of this typology, either because the lexical category of the Path constituent was unclear, or because the Path constituent and the coevent constituent were both verbs or both satellites. He classed such languages together as a group exhibiting a third category of the typology, "equipollent framing". The present article disputes most of these claims of equipollent framing, demonstrating how, on closer inspection, the languages in question are actually either verb-framed or satellite-framed. This demonstration rests mainly on identifying the factors that assign main verb status to a constituent.