The typology of manner expressions

要旨

Abstract The morphosyntax of manner expressions has attracted less attention than that of path expressions in the framing typology. Drawing primarily on experimental and quantitative data in Japanese and English, we propose and examine three parameters in the complex typology of manner expressions. It is argued that coarse-grained, event-inherent manners that the speaker does not intend to stress (e.g. normal running) are more likely to be realized in tight morphosyntactic constructions headed by manner verbs than fine-grained, event-concomitant manners that the speaker intends to stress (e.g. an annoying and characteristic shout of a jogger). The proposed parameters appear to share an iconic, communicative motivation that links pragmatic prominence with morphosyntactic prominence.

主題