Reviewed by Svetlana Pashneva, Kursk State University
This volume is a collection of interdisciplinary studies examining the ways motions are encoded in Slavic languages. The multiplicity of approaches and perspectives presented here provides a comprehensive picture of the semantics, structure, and aspectual behavior of motion verbs. The book is divided into three parts, each addressing a particular area of investigation.
Part 1, ‘Diachrony of motion expressions’, consists of four chapters. The major issue addressed is the evolution of the expression of motion from Proto-Slavic to the present day. Sarah Turner argues that modern categories are not helpful for analyzing earlier texts because their organization differs from modern ones. The development of the indeterminate category of Slavic motion verbs is discussed in the articles by Johanna Nichols, Stephen M. Dickey, and Marc L. Greenberg.
Part 2, ‘Synchronic approaches to aspect’, contains three chapters investigating the place of motion verbs in the aspectual system of modern Slavic languages. The articles in this section utilize typological, semantic, functional, and cognitive approaches. Laura A. Janda argues that motion verbs are rather prototypical in their aspectual behavior and that a distinction of completability can account for the aspectual behavior of both motion and non-motion verbs. Olga Kagan demonstrates that the aspectual restrictions imposed on sentences containing indeterminate verbs are pragmatic, rather than semantic, in nature. Renee Perelmutter shows that aspectual choice depends on spatial relations between the moving figure and an observer of motion at goal or origin of the motion trajectory.
Part 3, ‘Typological approach to the study of Slavic verbs of motion’, includes the remaining eight chapters. The impact of typological variation on lexicon, syntax, and discourse, as well as the fields of translation studies and second language acquisition, are discussed here. Victoria Hasko demonstrates that compared to English, Russian motion verbs are more complex semantically and structurally, allowing greater specificity of motion descriptions. Similarly, Anetta Kopecka argues that the lexical set of manner verbs in Polish is both smaller and less fine-grained than in English. Luna Filipović explores the decisive role prefixes play in conveying information regarding spatial and temporal features of events in motion expressions, as well as determining lexical choices. Tatiana Nikitina argues that if an endpoint of motion is encoded by a locational phrase, the event of motion is inferred rather than expressed overtly.
Ekaterina V. Rakhilina shows that even close and genetically-related languages such as Russian and Polish exhibit a considerable difference in the ways their lexical systems structure the semantic field of rotation by privileging different parameters for lexical distinction. Similarly, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Dagmar Divjak, and Ekaterina V. Rakhilina demonstrate that closely related languages show significant typological differences in their aquamotion systems. Tore Nesset suggests that since the verb idti ‘to go on foot’ represents prototypical motion, it is used in a number of metaphorical senses as a generalized motion verb. Finally, Kira Gor, Svetlana Cook, Vera Malyushenkova, and Tatyana Vdovina show that the system of Russian verbs of motion is not fully acquired by even highly proficient second language learners of Russian, whether early or later starters.
References are given at the end of each chapter, and the volume ends with indexes of authors (383–85), languages (387–88), and subjects (389–92).