Fictive Motion Event Structure in Estonian: Traversable and Non-Traversable Paths Moving Slowly, Running Quickly or Just Going

Abstract The structure of coextension path fictive motion clauses in Estonian is examined through the combinations of four path nouns (traversable vs. non-traversable) and three motion verbs (2081 clauses in total). The corpus study reveals that although the Goal-over-Source asymmetry also holds in fictive motion sentences, Trajectory turned out to be the most frequently expressed spatial relation. Traversable and non-traversable subject nouns did not result in significantly different semantic structures in fictive motion clauses, though every individual verb-noun combination tended to have its own characteristic clausal behaviour. Finally, when manner was expressed, it mainly related to the shape of the path, though other dimensions of manner (e.g., speed, emotion, condition) were also featured. The results indicate the importance of a fine-grained analysis of fictive motion and provide evidence for a type-internal variability and diversity sensitive to verb as well as subject noun semantics.