The Interplay of Synonymy and Polysemy

Schemas with an Optional Directional 
A larger number of schemas show a level of optionality in the 
DIRECTIONAL
. That is, 
for some schemas the data show both cases where there is a 
DIRECTIONAL
and cases where 
there is none. Still, there may be preferences for one or the other. For example, a particular 
schema may mostly appear with 
DIRECTIONALS
,
and only lack them in limiting cases. 
Currently it is not possible to give any statistically sound predictions on this, so only general 
tendencies from the corpus are described.
The central 
THROWING
schema shows a level of optionality in this argument, a fact 
noted by Morante et al. (1998) for verbs of motion in general. Though the vast majority of 
sentences in the 
THROWING
schema include a 
DIRECTIONAL
, there are cases where none is 
present.
(CdE:19-F, Con pena y sin gloria) 
(137) Quizá sin darme cuenta 
TIRÉ
un […] fósforo sin apagar… 
‘Maybe without noticing I 
THREW
a lit match.’ 

---

103 | 
(138) … gana el que 
TIRA
la carta más alta… 
(CdE:19-AC, Enc:Bridge) 
‘The one who 
THROWS
the highest card wins’ 
(139) Luis no entendió, pero 
ARROJÓ
los dardos. 
(CdE:19F, San Antonio Gris Cadáver) 
‘Luis didn’t understand, but 
THREW
the darts. 
The examples in (137-139) show that it is possible to express acts of ‘throwing’ 
without a specified trajectory. The 
THROWING 
schema should be modified to show the relative 
optionality of the 
DIRECTIONAL
.
Figure 13
. Modified 
THROWING 
schema 
 
The dashed box indicates that the element is optional. A sentence can appear with or 
without a 
DIRECTIONAL
. In many cases the direction of motion is understood. Morimoto 
(2001:130) argues that for certain verbs of motion, such as 
caminar 
‘walk’, 
nadar 
‘swim’, 
etc. there is always a reading of movement accompanied by a change in position even when 
there is no complement that expresses trajectory. Fábregas (2007) makes the same proposal 
for the verb 
tirar
, which we could extend to all the 
throw-
verbs. He notes that this verb 
presupposes that the object thrown has changed position in space. Even when there is no 
DIRECTIONAL
in a sentence, it is always understood that the 
MOVANT
was displaced to a 
different location. The 
DIRECTIONAL
is a part of the 
THROWING 
schema, and a trajectory of 
motion is part of the meaning of each verb. The 
DIRECTIONAL 
differs from the other