40 Åke Viberg
The subject in (8) is still an Agent that controls and initiates the motion. There are
a number of cases where there is a human subject who is completely out of control
as in (9) and (10). What happens is rather contrary to the will of the subject. In this
use, åka appears in a semi-productive construction where åka is combined with
a PP or a stressed particle. Semantically, it indicates that the subject ends up in an
unpleasant situation which is uncontrolled and cannot be avoided. (Sometimes,
the speaker also implies that this is something the subject deserves.)
(9) Döms man för det kan man åka i fängelse. (ÅL) [lit. go in prison]
If you’re convicted you can end up in prison.
(10) Henry åkte mycket riktigt på stryk så det dånade om det. (KÖ)
Sure enough, Henry was headed for a rip-roaring beating.
When åka is combined with the preposition på ‘on’ stressed as a particle as in
(10), a wide range of nouns referring to unpleasant events can be referred to such
as stryk ‘beating’. This use of åka does not have any direct equivalent in the MPC
languages. Various types of translations are used as in (11) and there are several
alternative translations also in the individual languages. Passive forms of various
verbs are used rather frequently, as in the English and French translations. (This
tendency is strongest in English.) This is a reflection of the semantic feature that
the event is uncontrolled by the human subject.
(11) Vi skulle åka dit direkt. (MA) [lit. go there]
We’d be locked right up.
Wir sollten direkt hinfahren.
On serait coincées illico.
Me jä-isi-mme heti kiinni.
We remain-cond-1pl at.once stuck
(The conditional (cond) is described in Karlsson 2008, ch. 15.2.) Lack of control
is profiled also when åka is used with non-human subjects as shown in the box
illustrating the schematic meaning in Figure 2. The verb can be used to describe
involuntary movement of a body part as in (12). This use appears to be character-
istic of fiction but has a low frequency even in literary texts.
(12) Han ryckte av sig pälsmössan och handen åkte av gammal vana upp mot den
lockiga lejonmanen. (ÅL)
He yanked off his fur hat and his hand went up to his mane of curly hair from
sheer force of habit.
Åka is used with vehicles as subject, but this is not a very frequent use. There are
only two examples in the MPC corpus, one of which is shown in (13).