Motion Verbs of Manner in FrameNet: A Comparison between Persian and English

Authors

  • Zolfa Imani University of Isfahan
  • Rezvan Motavallian University of Isfahan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/4106

Keywords:

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Abstract

This study aims to comparatively investigate the semantic frames of motion verbs in Persian and English within the framework of the frame semantics theory (Fillmore 1977; 1982; 1985). As far as motion verbs are concerned, it is obvious that Manner is considered as one of the motion components expressed by either the verb or any element other than the verb. In English — a satellite-framed language (Talmy 2000b) — Manner is shown by motion verbs, whereas in Persian it is typically indicated by non-verbal elements, although there are also some verbs via which Manner is encoded. Within this study, thirty English verbs of manner were selected from among the ones Levin (1993) has introduced and then the verbs were translated into Persian and looked up through the Persian Corpus of Bijankhan to achieve their contexts of use. Next, FrameNet was asked for the semantic frame each verb evoked. Thereafter, comparing the semantic frames in the two languages, it was revealed that not every verb of manner does exist as a Lexical Unit in FrameNet. Likewise, not for every verb was a specified semantic frame either. Moreover, the frames for some other verbs have been defined in such a way that they cannot semantically distinguish those verbs from each other, whereas such distinctions are prominent in both manner verbs and the frames they evoke especially in Persian.

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Author Biographies

Zolfa Imani, University of Isfahan

Zolfa Imani is currently a PhD Candidate in general linguistics at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Iran. She works in the fields of syntax, semantics, morphology, and typology. She has published 13 research articles in national and international conferences and journals up to now. She has taught English as a foreign language to the university students of Iran since 2015 and works as a translator and editor as well.

She can be reached at: zolfa.imani.1985@gmail.com.

Rezvan Motavallian, University of Isfahan

Rezvan Motavallian got her PhD degree from the University of Teheran. She is currently an Assistant Professor of the Linguistics Department at the University of Isfahan, Iran. Her main interests are restricted to syntax, computational linguistics, and frame semantics. She has published many articles in national and international journals and two books in linguistics, one as a translator and the author one as an author.

She can be reached at: r.motavallian@fgn.ui.ac.ir.

References

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Issue

Vol. 24 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Articles

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