The lexical profile of Swedish 33
Example (3), where walking is contrasted with riding in a car, can be compared to
(4) where manner is not profiled. The most important information in (4) is that
the subject “she” does not dare to move into the kitchen. The manner of motion is
irrelevant, even if walking is the default interpretation of English go in this context.
(4) English But she didn’t dare go out into the kitchen [to light the stove,
or even hunt out a warm dressing gown.]
Swedish Men hon vågade inte gå ut i köket (KE)
Norwegian Men hun torde ikke gå ut på kjøkkenet
Danish Men hun turde ikke gå ud i køkkenet
Icelandic En hún þorði ekki að fara fram í eldhús
Dutch Maar ze durfde niet naar de keuken te gaan
German Sie traute sich jedoch nicht, in die Küche zu gehen
French Mais elle n’osait pas aller dans la cuisine
Finnish Mutta hän ei uskaltanut mennä keittiöön
As can be observed, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish use the same verb gå in both
examples and the same applies to German which uses gehen. (Actually, manner is
indicated both in the verb and in the PP zu Fuss ‘to foot’ in Example (3)). The rest
of the languages vary between one motion verb with a more general meaning and
one which explicitly codes manner: English go/walk, Dutch gaan/lopen, French
aller/marcher and Finnish mennä/kävellä. The variation is particularly noteworthy
in Icelandic, where ganga, the cognate of go and its correspondents in the other
Germanic languages is used as a correspondent to walk, when manner is profiled.
When manner is not profiled fara is used in Icelandic, a cognate of English fare (as
in farewell), which is actually the second most frequent motion verb in Icelandic
after koma ‘come’. It is almost three times as frequent as ganga (Pind et al. 1991).
As a motion verb it has a general meaning similar to English go. (Dutch lopen
‘walk’ is a cognate of English leap and German laufen. In Swedish, löpa is a special-
ized alternative to springa ‘run’.)
- Swedish åka
5.1 Travelling as a passenger
Example (5) shows the translations of the Swedish verb åka, which is the most
frequently used verb in Swedish to describe movement in a vehicle as a passenger.
(5) Swedish Hans fru visste ju att de skulle åka med honom. (KE)
[lit. His wife knew that they should go (åka) with him]
English His wife knew he was going to take them.