Manner of motion: A privileged dimension of German expressions

Within Talmy’s (2000) and Slobin’s (1996) typological framework German belongs to satellite-framed languages which generally express the path of motion in satellites and the manner of motion in the main verb. For Talmy (2000: 281) the expression of the path is the most basic information, it constitutes the core component; the manner expression is a subsidiary dimension. Many studies have focussed on the typological differences between different languages based on the path expression and have paid less attention to the expression of the manner dimension. Our study aims at taking a closer look at this neglected dimension of the manner of motion as it is realized in German. It will show that German is characterized by a manner salience which is realized at different levels of lexicalization and which is not restricted to motion and location verbs as the core of the lexicalization pattern. The manner of motion is typically also expressed in complex prepositional groups, especially with the preposition bis (‘up to/till/until’), or at the level of complex local adverbs or postpositions which are hardly translatable into other languages. Constructions with complex particle verbs which combine a particle expressing a path of motion with a simplex verb that expresses a manner (but not a motion), constructions with a non-motion manner verb accompanied by a path satellite, or syntactic structures that combine a modal verb with a path satellite are typical for the German language as they combine in one structure expressions of path and manner of motion. The study presents the theoretical aspects of these different categories highlighting the «German way of thinking and speaking». It further illustrates the difficulties encountered when trying to translate the above examples into the verb-framed language French which often omits the expression of manner