Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

Features 79 and 80 dealt with intransitive motion-to and motion-from constructions (e.g. 'I go to Leipzig', 'I come from Leipzig'). The present and the following features parallel these two features in that they also analyze motion-to and motion-from constructions, but this time transitive motion constructions with 'push' and 'pull'.

In this feature, we investigate constructions with the verb 'push' (or semantically very similar transitive motion verbs), as in Lea pushed Maria into the hole. We are especially interested in how orientation or motion-to in this transitive motion verb is expressed in comparison to the corresponding at-rest situation (’to be at a place’). Do we find a special motion-to preposition, such as into in the English example cited above, which cannot be used in at-rest contexts (*Lea is into the hole)? Or does the language use the at-rest preposition also for motion-to, which is for instance the case in Seychelles Creole? (cf. motion-to: Lea ti pus Mari dan trou ‘Lea pushed Maria into the hole’, at-rest: Lea ti dan trou. ‘Lea was in the hole’).

Some languages may use serial verb constructions (with or without a preposition) to express the transitive motion construction in question.