Polysemy In The Semantic Field Of Movement In The English Language, Детальна інформація

To fall suddenly a long way from a high position

dive

plunge Water To move in/down below the surface of a liquid

To cause sb/sth to move in/down below the surface of a liquid To move head-first down into water

To cause sth to move down into water quickly and violently

sink Air

Water/

Liquid/

Substance To move down through air

To move in/down below the surface of a liquid To move down through air

To move down below the surface of a liquid/ soft substance

glide Water

Air

Land To move over liquid

To move through the air

To move smoothly To move (boat) quietly and smoothly across water

To fly quietly

To move quietly and smoothly in an effortless way

The verb dart describes sudden movement in air and on land:

(3) He darted across the room.

(4) Bees were darting from one flower to another.

The verbs dive, plunge and sink designate downward movement in air and water:

(5) She plunged into the swimming-pool.

(6) The falcon plunged towards its prey.

Sink, as the general term, denotes movement in a wider variety of contexts:

(7) Helen sank into water/mud/an armchair.

However, we postulate that the verbs dart, dive and sink prototypically describe movement in a given medium: dart is prototypically associated with air, and dive and sink with water. Our claim is supported by the fact that the medium parameter need not be syntactically present:

(8) She dived from the bridge and rescued the drowning child.

(9) The aircraft-carrier, hit by a torpedo, sank at once.

Further, as we will show below, sink has a metaphorical projection onto FEELING, which codifies the metaphor Emotion = Liquid (Goatly 1997):