4 Associated motion and directionals: where they overlap
Matthew S. Dryer
Abstract
The literature frequently distinguishes associated motion morphemes from directional morphemes. The goal of this chapter is to provide evidence that it is not uncommon for languages to use the same morphemes to cover both of these functions, coding associated motion with non-motion verbs and direction with motion verbs. In fact, it seems to be more common for a language to use a morpheme either for associated motion or as a directional than it is for a language to use a morpheme that covers more than one type of associated motion. While this could be interpreted as an argument that directionals ought to be treated as a type of associated motion, this chapter argues that the frequency of morphemes that function either as markers of associated motion simply reflects the naturalness of extending markers of associated motion to use as directionals.