The Interplay of Synonymy and Polysemy

4.2.3 Physical Animate Movants 
Physical 
animate 
MOVANTS
account for on 
average 1/3 of the 
MOVANTS
in the data. 
Arrojar 
is the only 
verb 
that 
shows 
any 
significantly differing beha-
vior. It has fewer physical 
animate 
MOVANTS
than 
expected compared to the 
other three verbs.
Of the 100 sentences 
in the data with physical 
animate 
MOVANTS
only 46 are 
instances of one entity throwing another.
(50) Me 
TIRARON
al suelo
y me amenazaron. 
(CdE:19-F, Amante, El) 
‘They 
THREW
me 
to the ground
and threatened me.’ 
Graph 3
. Number of sentences with physical animate 
MOVANTS
for each 
throw-
verb. 
 
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Physical animate MOVANT
arrojar
echar
lanzar
tirar

---

69 | 
(51) 
La explosión
me 
LANZÓ
contra un muro
… 
(CdE:19-F, Lócura Húmeda) 
‘
The explosion
THREW
me 
against a wall
’ 
Most of the non-reflexive sentences in this category express similar meanings to (50) 
and (51). The 
throw
-verb conveys the notion of physically causing another to move. Often 
there is a violent connotation to these sentences. This may be partly due to the fact that 
throwing someone requires force and strength, which are elements of a violent act.
One variant of this non-reflexive sentence type adds a connotation of not simply 
throwing, but of making someone leave a place (DELE, VOX). This is especially true for 
echar
.
(CdE:19-F, El camino) 
(52) Por favor, 
ECHA
a ese hombre