Advances in Corpus-based Contrastive Linguistics - Studies in honour of Stig Johansson

The lexical profile of Swedish 39

(Examples are presented only with an English translation to show the meaning,
when the number of examples is too small to study the translation patterns.)

(8) Hon satte sej på skinnpåsen och åkte kana utför den branta stenen, (AL)
She sat on the leather bag and slid down the steep boulder.

The crucial feature is that the motion is not self-propelled. This is a feature that is
shared by all uses of åka and is represented as the schematic meaning of the verb
in a separate box in Figure 2 below the prototypical meaning.

Prototypical

meaning

TRAVEL IN VEHICLE

Kalle åkte buss till jobbet.

Charlie went by bus to his job.

Schematic meaning:

Non–self–propelled motion

Subject :Human Bodypart Vehicle Physical object

Kalle åkte av

gungan.

Charlie slipped off

the swing.

Handen åkte upp

till munnen.

His hand rose to

his mouth

Bussen åkte iväg.

The bus left.

Tröjan åkte upp.

The sweater

glided up.

Speciali–

zation:

Ending up in an unpleasant situation

Kalle åkte ut.

Charlie got

thrown out.

Kalle åkte fast.

Charlie got

caught.

Kalle åkte dit.

Charlie got

nailed.

Kalle åkte på en

snyting.

Charlie got himself

punched on the nose.

Non–prototypical vehicle

Kalle åkte cykel / skidor...

Charlie was

riding a bike/ skiing....

Figure 2. The meaning potential of åka