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• Slovak Verbs of Aquamotion (in Contrast with Other Slavic Languages)

  17 p.

  Kaname Okano

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  227

  This paper studies the semantics and distribution of Slovak verbs with the meaning of aquamotion in contrast with other contemporary Slavic languages. As pointed out in previous studies in lexical typology, the lexicalization pattern of the semantic field of aquamotion differs in many languages of the world and there are subtle but significant differences even between closely-related languages such as Slavic. As far as the Slovak language is concerned, there still does not exist a detailed study of aquamotion verbs and their lexicalization patterns. This paper applies the theoretical framework of lexical typology and analyses the lexicalization patterns of the following three semantic zones: the semantic zone of swimming and flowing (plávať, plaviťsa), the semantic zone of liquid motion (tiecť, prúdiť, liaťsa), and the semantic zone of diving and immersing (ponáraťsa, potápaťsa, topiťsa). This paper aims to reveal which semantic parameters are relevant for the lexicalization of the semantic field in question, and to demonstrate the distribution of the Slovak verbs describing aquamotion. In addition to that, our analysis deals with some contrastive aspects to point out similarities and differences between Slovak and other Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Serbian and Vojvodina Ruthenian.