Agency beats space - 'put' and 'take' words in Hungarian

What is it about?

This paper explores the role of various types of location control in descriptions of placement events in Hungarian. It is shown that general verb choices cannot be explained in terms of spatial relations (such as containment and support) or spatial relational changes (such as joining and separation). On the contrary, all main verb distinctions within the placement domain can be described in terms of agentive control settings between the Figure and agentive entities (e.g., the Agent, other persons). In Hungarian, only events with continuous agentive control along the motion trajectory are described as either ‘putting’ or ‘taking’, and only events where the Figure is furthermore controlled by a non-agentive entity at the Goal are described as ‘putting’.

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Why is it important?

This characterization of Hungarian placement events shed light on the relevance of the agentive control domain in explaining lexical choices. It was shown that descriptions of spatial events that include animate entities cannot be characterized in purely spatial terms. The general human tendency to perceive the motion of living beings as goal-directed behaviour is also reflected in the language.