119 |
Instead, certain combinations of verb plus adjective occur frequently and are
conventionalized. Other less frequent adjectives that appear with the same verb are usually
synonymous with the conventionalized expressions (2006:330).
We can say that
lanzar X al aire
‘throw X into the air’ is a conventionalized or
routinized schema. A
speaker will prefer to use
lanzar
with the phrase
al aire
‘into the air’
over any other verb.
Lanzar
also occurs frequently with other phrases meaning upward
motion on analogy to
lanzar X al aire.
A speaker can note that this
aire
‘air’ schema means
upward motion and that it preferably occurs with
lanzar
. This will motivate the use of
lanzar
with other phrases that mean upward motion.
The downward motion column in table 15 shows results that do not completely
coincide with the collostructional analysis. The collostructional analysis had shown that
tirar
highly attracts
suelo
‘ground’ and attracts
piso
‘floor’. Yet, in the questionnaire,
tirar
’s data
count is within the expected values. It is
arrojar
that shows higher than expected numbers in
the downward motion set, even though in the collostructional analysis
arrojar
attracted both
suelo
‘ground’ and
piso
‘floor’ to a lesser extent than
tirar
.
Goodness-of-fit tests did not show any difference for either
tirar
or
arrojar
when
comparing
sentences with
al suelo
and
al piso
to the other
DIRECTIONALS
or when we
comparing sentences with
al suelo
versus
al piso
. This suggests that the preference to use
arrojar
in the downward motion set applies across all types of
DIRECTIONALS
. It also means
that the questionnaire did not find a high attraction between
tirar
and
al suelo
‘to the floor’.
In this case, the questionnaire results do not replicate the collostructional data.
It is possible that the questionnaire data illustrate a case of dialectal variation:
Hondurans’ use of
arrojar
is different from that represented in the CdE corpus. Here it is
worthwhile to note that some respondents reported that they rarely if ever used
arrojar
and if
they did it meant ‘to vomit’. We might tentatively state that
arrojar
is uncommonly used in
the Honduran dialect to refer to a physical act of throwing. But when speakers use it in this
sense, they associate
arrojar
with downward motion.
Next we can analyze the results for the optionality of the
DIRECTIONAL
(the third
column in table 15). The
questionnaire shows that
tirar
was used more than expected in
sentences without a
DIRECTIONAL
.
This result, though, is on the threshold of significance: the
p-value is 0.0538 and p-values over 0.05 are standardly considered non-significant (King &
Minium 2008:255-256). The 400-sentence corpus does not show any verb strongly prefering
sentences without
DIRECTIONALS
. The results from the questionnaire I believe indicate that
tirar
is used, at least in this dialect, as a default verb. It is
the most commonly used verb
120 |
throughout the questionnaire.
Additionally, of the 138 instances where respondents used
more than one verb in a single response,
tirar
is included in 121 of those. Throughout the
questionnaire, respondents strongly tended to use this verb, and even
in cases with multiple
acceptable choices,
tirar
was usually also found acceptable.
The results for the set with
DIRECTIONALS
(last
column in Table 15) indicate that
echar
appears in this sentence type more than expected. Though it occurs less frequently
overall in the questionnaire, it is more frequent
in sentences with a
DIRECTIONAL
. The 400-
sentence corpus shows that
echar
has far more sentences with a
DIRECTIONAL
as compared to
the other verbs. I had argued that this was in large part due to the metaphorical extensions
that the verb appears in. Now we can state that even when expressing physical motion, this
verb prefers the presence of a
DIRECTIONAL
. From the results of both the questionnaire and
the corpus we can posit that
echar
has
a stronger preference for the presence of a
DIRECTIONAL
in the
THROWING
schema when compared to the other
throw-
verbs. .
Still, further investigation is needed. The types of
DIRECTIONALS
in the questionnaire
all marked the end point of motion. Additionally, several of the
DIRECTIONALS
referred to
goals construed as containers:
en el cesto
‘in the basket’,
en la fuente
‘in the fountain’ and
al
bote de basura
‘to the trash can’. An analysis of
echar
with a wider variety of
DIRECTIONALS
could potentially give results that provide a more nuanced picture of
echar
and the other
throw
-verbs’ behavior.
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