Rooted Motion Events in a Distributed Model of the Arabic Lexicon

ABSTRACT The article presents a study of Arabic motion events based on root classes and event decomposition, which contrasts with most common analyses found in the literature, phrased in terms of category or “verb” classes. “Words” as lexical items start their derivation as abstract acategorial roots, which merge with functional heads (templates, or categorizers); they then get interpreted as vocabulary items (in the dictionary) at the PF interface, or as semantic entities or eventualities at the LF interface. We argue that roots of motion events are associated with simple or complex eventualities (e.g., √ ḥrk “ √ move” represents a simple root motion component, while √ jry “√run” represents a complex root component, resulting from merging the overt manner modifier to a silent motion event root). We present evidence that roots are not distributively free , but rather ontologically construed in composing with other roots, patterns, categories, and structures. Limitations on motion event/verb meanings then depend first on root types.