Notes on Type I Subjective Motion Expressions in English

Abstract

In this paper we deal with what Matsumoto (1996) calls Type I subjective motion expressions in English. According to Matsumoto they cannot occur with frequency adverbs and do not generally allow the progressive aspect. We show that his observation is not valid by presenting naturally occurring examples of the expressions which involve frequency adverbs and the progressive aspect respectively. Further we investigate how the frequency adverbs are allowed and what functions the progressive aspect has. For the frequency adverbs we propose a licensing condition employing the sense of iteration. It also turns out that the subjective motion implicit in the expressions makes a major contribution to the occurrence of the adverbs in a certain case. As to the progressive aspect we take up two cases, namely, its use in captions and in discourses describing courses/routes of particular paths and point out that in the former it conveys the speaker's or writer's higher degree of subjective perspective and in the latter it can be used to add a further explanation to a particular phase of the path described. Lastly, we discuss briefly the aspectual property of the expressions and its relation to the occurrence of frequency adverbs and the progressive aspect.