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Fictive Motion in Igbo: A Cognitive Linguistic Approach 

 

Charity O. Mbah1  Chinedu Uchechukwu 2 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State 

co.mbah@unizik.edu.ng1  c.uchechuku@unizik.edu.ng 

Abstract 

This study investigates Igbo fictive motion constructions of 

coextension paths within Talmy's framework. Fictive motion, as a 

cognitively universal phenomenon, expresses a static entity by using 

motion verbs and other dynamic linguistic structures. As a result, 

static and dynamic situations may be expressed alike. The effort of 

this paper is to investigate the existence of fictive motion in Igbo 

language. It focuses on one of the fictive motion categories 

identified by Talmy (2000) known as ‘Coextension path’ with the 

aim of identifying fictive motion expressions in the Igbo language in 

order to ascertain if it uses the same constructions that are used in 

Talmy's model. However, Talmy’s (2000) fictive motion framework 

was adopted in the analysis of the data drawn from the Igbo novel 

‘juo Obinna’ by Tony Ubesie through the use of a corpus software 

known as Antconc 3.4.0w (windows) 2014, and analyzed based on 

Talmy's (2000) WA framework. The results of this study reveal that 

motion verbs are predominantly used in expressing Igbo fictive 

motion. Additionally, it establishes that Igbo fictive motion can as 

well occur in serial verb constructions and the constructions are 

evident in coextension path. We therefore confirm that, like in other 

languages, Igbo language has a fictive motion system. Finally, this 

study is a contribution to the ongoing research on fictive motion in 

cognitive linguistics. 

mailto:c.uchechuku@unizik.edu.ng


Fictive Motion in Igbo – Mbah & Uchechukwu 

 

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Keywords: Cognitive linguistics, fictive motion, motion verbs and 

serial verb constructions.  

 

1. Introduction 

This study is an attempt to investigate fictive motion constructions 

in Igbo language from a cognitive linguistic stand point, which 

considers language as both a mirror of the human mind and an 

instrument for construing and conveying information. Cognitive 

linguistics is a radical school to study language, based on human 

experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize 

it. It assumes that the relationship between language and reality is 

mediated by human cognition. It studies how linguistics phenomena, 

like metaphor, metonymy, motion, etc., are cognitively 

conceptualized. The concept of Fictive motion has been utilized by 

cognitive linguists to refer to the dynamic descriptions of static 

scenes.  

Motion is one of the most fundamental experiences in our 

daily life and also in our communicative needs. It refers to everyday 

experience in locomotion, event perception, and action. It is the 

basic category in the physics of the real world as well as in the 

cognitive processes of perception, control, memory, and in human 

linguistic conceptualization. The concept ‘motion’ is the 

fundamental mechanism in cognitive linguistics. The study of 

motion has attracted a great deal of attention in recent times because 

its study has revealed some noticeable differences which 

transcended many languages. Different cognitive linguists have 

suggested various models for representing and understanding the 

semantics of motion. 

Traditionally, motion is characterized as a Source-Path-Goal 

configuration, that is, the direction in which we move from the 



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starting to the ending points. However, Talmy rejects this idea, 

replacing it with his notion of Figure-Move-Path-Ground formula. 

He believes that the two concepts of Figure and Ground are more 

comprehensive than those suggested by Fillmore: Source, Goal, 

Location and Path. Talmy states that ‘The basic Motion event 

consists of one object (the Figure) moving or located with respect to 

another object (the reference object or Ground)". The spatial relation 

between them is called Path, and it may be enlarged and specified 

by what is called Co-Events. 

It is pertinent to distinguish between two types of motion: 

Factive motion and Fictive motion. Zlatev (2014) argues that there 

are two ways of representing the concept motion as a cognitive 

process: one that limits the process as an actual perceived motion, 

and the other extends motion to be more ‘imaginary’ or abstract 

scenarios. In other words, actual motion verbs such as 'go', 'run', 

‘walk’, ‘crawl’ and ‘climb’ express situations in which an animate 

agent physically moves from one location to another. However, 

Fictive motion verbs express situations with no observable physical 

or real motion. Rojo and Valenzuela (2009) exemplified this 

distinction: 

1. a) Frodo climbed to the top of the hill 

  b) The path climbed to the top of the hill 

In the first sentence (1a), Frodo physically moves, changing his 

location from the bottom to the top of the hill. However, in the 

second sentence (1b), the path does not move in any physical way; 

instead, this sentence prompts the hearer for a conceptualization of 

the scene in which the path is scanned in a given direction. 

Therefore, this study is concerned with this second type of motion. 

The goal of this paper is to investigate the existence of fictive 

motion in Igbo language. The rest of this paper is organized as 



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follows. Section two reviews some related literature. Section three 

presents the data collection method. Section four presents the data 

analysis. Finally, section five summarizes and concludes the study. 

2. Literature Review  

This section reviews the treatment of motion verbs in the literature 

and also presents the definitions of fictive motion that will be 

adopted for this work. 

2.1 Motion Verbs 

Motion verbs are verbs that express movement of some entity. In 

other words, they describe how a physical entity changes from one 

place in space to another place in space (Matsumoto, 1996). For 

instance, ‘She drives to Lagos from Port-Harcourt’ means that the 

driver starts her journey in Port-Harcourt and ends it in Lagos. 

Uwalaka (1988:94), in consonance with the above definition, asserts 

that motion verbs are verbs which denote activities that result in a 

change of location of some entity. O’Grady and Archibald 

(2008:203) define motion verbs as words that can describe 

movement through space or those verbs that express a kind of 

movement such as go, walk, and run. Pablo and Gutiérrez (2001) 

explain such verbs as words which describe the situation in which 

an object which is the figure moves with regard to a reference point 

which is the ground following a trajectory which is the path.  

Furthermore, according to Matlock (2004), motion verbs are 

verbs that show motion and action in the verb itself. For instance 

‘Peter runs along the river’. The verb ‘run’ is a motion verb which 

requires a subject to perform the action. Also, Matsumoto (1996) 

opines that motion verbs do not only denote actual changes of 

location of self – moving agents as in ‘This tourist goes from the 

station to the airport’ but are also used to describe immobile linear 



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entities as in ‘The highway runs through the mountains’. In this 

second sentence, there is no physical movement in the external 

world, but such expression reflects human conceptualization of 

linear entity; that is, the use of a motion verb mirrors visual or 

mental scanning along the path.  

2.2 Fictive motion 

Fictive motion, which is the metaphorical motion of an object or 

abstraction through space, has become a subject of study in 

psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics and as such has been 

defined by different authors both in the field of cognitive linguistics 

and also in the field of psycholinguistics. Within the field of 

cognitive linguistics many authors have paid attention to the 

conceptualization of motion in English. Also, fictive motion has 

received different labels in the previous linguistic literatures, such 

as fictive motion (Talmy 1983, 1996, 2000, Matlock and Richardson 

2004), abstract motion (Langacker 1987, Blomberg and Zlatev 

2014) or subjective motion (Matsumoto, 1996). Based on these 

different labels used to refer to this conceptualization of motion, the 

term ‘fictive’ is adopted to represent people’s imaginative ability 

since it is the preferred and accepted term in the field nowadays. 

These fictive expressions can only be conceptualized via the use of 

motion verbs. 

According to Radden and Dirven (2007), fictive motion is 

defined as the construal of a static scene as motional. They further 

explain that in physical motion, the moving object continually 

changes its location in time; whereas in fictive motion, our eyes 

mentally scan an imaginary path, as in the following examples: 

2. a) The gate leads into the garden. 

b) The cliff drops down 600 feet. 



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Like physical motion, fictive motion involves directionality. In 

sentence (2a), we mentally follow the path from the gate into the 

garden, while in sentence (2b) our eyes roam from the top of the cliff 

down to the sea. Therefore, based on the above examples Slobin 

(1996, and 2000), defines fictive motion as a motion in which a 

sentence prompts the hearer for a conceptualization of the scene in 

which the path is scanned in a given direction. He further posits that 

in fictive motion expressions, one cannot find any element which 

physically changes place and moves from one place to another. 

Rather, the displacement that is found in fictive motion is ‘mental’, 

this means that the hearer, when reconstructing the scene evoked by 

the sentence, mentally traces a given object in a certain direction. As 

Huumo (2005) puts it, in fictive motion expressions: 

… “the motion verb and the directional locatives reflect the 

direction of a mental scanning performed by the 

conceptualizer in building up the mental representation of 

the situation. The position of an elongated entity is 

represented gradually as if mentally proceeding along the 

entity”. 

In view of the above, Talmy (2000) defines fictive motion as an 

implicit mental simulation of ‘movement’ through a construed 

scene. This implies that fictive motion is a linguistic phenomenon 

covering instances dynamically depicting such situations that are 

believed to be static and using language characteristic of the 

description of motion. Owing to this fact, fictive motion allows the 

conceptualiser to subjectively impose a state change on what is 

otherwise understood as a stationary scene. That is, it is the 

imaginative ability of conceptualizing a static physical entity or 

scene as dynamic via the use of motion verbs. In harmony with 

Talmy, Núñez and Marghetis (2014) refer to this phenomenon as a 



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cognitive mechanism through which we unconsciously (and 

effortlessly) conceptualize static entities in dynamic terms whereby 

the entities do not actually move anywhere. Literally, motion, in 

these cases, is fictive, imaginary, and not real as exemplified below: 

(3) This fence goes from the plateau to the valley. 

In the sentence above, the doer of the verb go (i.e., this fence) does 

not actually move anywhere. The relation between the fence, the 

plateau and the valley is simply static, and there is no movement of 

the fence in reality. But linguistically, we may conceive and 

conceptualize it as a dynamic movement (moving from the plateau 

to the valley) which is represented by the motion verb 'go' and 

directional prepositions 'from…to…' . 

In addition to the above authors views, Langacker (1987) 

explains that this spatial description is a dynamic conceptualization 

that structure description of static scenes such as “the mountain 

range goes from Mexico to Canada, and in so doing invokes a 

subjective scene of motion or state change. He further opines that in 

everyday conversation, people routinely use language about motion 

to describe static situations which is common practice when people 

are describing stationary spatial layouts. In talking about ‘a 

mountain range’, they use descriptions such as “The mountain range 

goes from Mexico to Canada or the mountain range follows the 

coastline”. Also, in talking about ‘a trail’, they use expressions such 

as “The trail crosses an earthquake fault or a trail runs along the 

coastline”. Even when talking about ‘a tattoo’, they use language 

such as “A tattoo goes down his back or the tattoo runs along his 

spine”. This construction, according to Langacker (1987), features a 

subject noun phrase referent that lacks volition such as mountain 

range, trail, tattoo and a motion verb that convey no motion such as 

(go, follow and run). He further posits that constructions such as 



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“the mountain range goes from Mexico to Canada” were of interest 

to cognitive linguists because they appealed to the idea that meaning 

is conceptualization. Based on this view, dynamic perceptual and 

cognitive processes are seen to motivate linguistic form. 

2.3 Types of Fictive Motion 

Talmy (2000) classifies fictive motion into six categories. They are: 

emanation paths, pattern paths, frame-relative motion, advent paths, 

access paths, and coextension paths. 

2.3.1 Emanation Paths 
This category is the fictive motion of intangible entity moving 

fictively from a source, which continues along its emanation path 

and terminates by hitting a distal object. That is, the motion of 

emanation paths does not include the factive (actual) movement of 

an entity. The movement is fictive and it does not involve any 

physical form, and therefore, what is conceived as fictively moving 

is an object rather than the observation of that object. Thus, the 

emanation of fictive motion is characterized as [-animate],[-

movable]and[+emissive]/[+perceptible].The feature values of 

emanation path expressions are summarized as follows: 

a) Factive motion of some elements need not be present for the 

fictive effect. 

b) The fictively moving entity is itself fictive. 

c) The fictive effect is observer-neutral. 

d) What is conceived as fictively moving is an entity. 

Talmy further divide this emanation path into four subcategories: 

orientation paths, radiation paths, shadow paths, and sensory paths. 

 

 



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2.3.1.1.1 Orientation Paths 

Orientation paths are linguistically conceptualized and perceived as 

a continuous linear intangible entity that emerges away from the 

front of some object. This object can be conceived as either an 

intangible line in motion or an intangible abstraction that moves 

along an intangible line. Orientation Paths are further subdivided 

into five subcategories, depending on whether the front of entity is 

a face type or a point type, or whether the fictive motion of the 

intangible line is axial or lateral. These subtypes include: prospect 

paths, alignment paths, demonstrative paths, targeting paths and 

line of sight. 

 

2.3.1.1.2 Prospect Paths 

It is the orientation of an object which a face-type front has relative 

to its surroundings and can be conceptualized and perceived as a 

fictive motion. The front face of the entity has a “prospect” which is 

characterized as if an intangible line emerges from the front and 

moves continuously away from the main object relative to the other 

object. The intangible line is referred to as a ‘Figure’ which moves 

continually to the other object (“Ground” or “Reference Object”) 

along a path indicated by directional adposition as the following 

example illustrates: 

(4) The cliff wall faces toward the valley.  

2.3.1.1.3 Alignment Paths 

It refers to a stationary straight object with a point-type front. The 

straight object is linguistically conceptualized and perceived as an 

intangible entity that moves along the axis of the object, emerging 



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from its front end, and continuing straight along a prepositional path 

relative to some distal object. 

(5) The snake is lying toward the light. 

2.3.1.1.4 Demonstrative Paths 

It involves a linear object with a point-type front from which an 

intangible line emerges. In demonstrative paths, the fictively 

moving line functions either to direct or guide someone’s attention 

along its path. 

(6) The arrow on the signpost pointed toward the town. 

2.3.1.1.5 Targeting Paths 

An agent in targeting path intentionally sets the orientation of a 

front-bearing object so that the fictive line that is perceived as 

emerging from this front follows a desired path relative to the 

object’s surroundings. The fictive motion establishes a path along 

which the Agent intends that a subsequent motion (either real or 

fictive) will travel. 

(7) I pointed my gun into the living room. 

 

2.3.1.1.6 Line of Sight 

The concept ‘line of sight’ underlies some linguistic patterns and, 

according to Talmy, it is also a component of perceptual structure. 

It is an intangible line which emerges from the visual apparatus 

located on the front of an animate or mechanical entity. It deals only 

with the lateral line of sight motion, that is, its shifts of orientation. 

(8) I slowly turned my camera toward the door. 



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2.3.1.1.7 Radiation Paths 

This second type of emanation is the linguistic conceptualization of 

a radiation emanating continuously from energy source and moving 

steadily away from it. Radiation paths differ from orientation paths, 

in that while, radiation paths are often possible to detect the presence 

of the radiation, orientation paths consist of the motion of a wholly 

imperceptible line. This type of emanation has only one conceptual 

or perceptual form viable for the sun (or fire/flashlight etc.) from the 

sun to an object as seen in example (10). Such motions are generally 

perceived to be static, but linguistically they are conceptualized as 

dynamic processes in which the light moves from one place to 

another. 

(9) The sun is shining into the cave. 

However, Talmy (2000:111) posits that in this type, the radiating 

event can be characterized as involving three entities such as: the 

radiator, the radiation itself, and the irradiated object. This 

radiating event then involves three processes such as: the emanation 

of radiation from the radiator, the motion of the radiation along a 

path, and the impingement of the radiation on the irradiated object, 

as illustrated in the sentence above. 

2.3.1.1.8 Shadow Paths 

Shadow path is a linguistic conceptualization (and perhaps also a 

perception) in which the shadow of an object, visible on some 

surface, fictively moves from that object to that surface. Thus, the 

shadow can be linguistically conceptualized as the Figure (the 

moving entity) and the object that carries the shadow as the Source. 

The surface on which the shadow is located is described as Goal. 

Moreover, the predicate of shadow expressions can only be a motion 



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verb (like throw, cast, project, or fall), and a path preposition (such 

as into, onto, across or against). 

(10) The tree threw its shadow down across the valley. 

The active verb threw is used here, to refer to static shadow of the 

tree, as if it moved from the shadow-bearer (the tree) to the valley. 

2.3.1.1.9 Sensory Paths 

This last type of emanation paths is the conceptualization of two 

entities: the Experiencer and the Experienced, along with something 

intangible moving in a straight path between the two, in one 

direction or in another. Experiencer “emits a Probe that moves from 

the Experiencer to the Experienced and detects it upon encounter 

with it”, whereas the Experienced “emits a Stimulus that moves 

from the Experienced to the Experiencer and sensorily stimulates 

that entity on encountering it”. Thus, the direction can either go from 

the Experienced (we) to the Experiencer (the enemy). According to 

Talmy, Experiencer can be: 

A. Non-agentive -- permits both fictive directions 

i. The verb is lexicalized to take the Experiencer as subject: 

• I can hear him all the way from where I’m standing. 

ii. The verb is lexicalized to take the Experienced as subject: 

• The old wallpaper shows through the paint even to a casual 

passer-by. 

B. Agentive -- only permits Experiencer as Source 

• I looked toward the valley. 

C. Lateral motion of the sensory emanation from an agentive 

Experiencer 

• I slowly looked toward the door. 



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Sequel the above examples, Sensory path can be described as moving 

from the 'Experiencer' to the ‘Experienced’ object. 

2.3.2 Pattern Paths 

It involves the fictive conceptualization of some entity as moving 

through space. The fictive effect occurs when the physical entities 

factively exhibit some form of qualitative change, but these in 

themselves do not constitute the fictive motion. Rather, it is the 

pattern in which the physical entities are arranged that exhibits the 

fictive motion.  

2.3.3 Frame-Relative Motion 

According to Talmy (2000), a global frame of reference factively 

refers to an observer as moving relative to her surroundings. 

Alternatively, it can be referred to by adopting a local frame around 

the observer as centre. Within this frame, the observer can be 

represented as stationary and her surroundings as moving relative to 

her from her perspective. Thus, frame-relative motion is a form of 

fictive motion in which the factively stationary surroundings are 

fictively depicted as moving. 

2.3.4 Advent Paths 

This depicts a stationary object’s location in terms of its arrival or 

manifestation at the site it occupies. In advent path, the stationary 

state of the object is factive, whereas its depicted motion is fictive. 

The two main subtypes of advent paths are ‘site arrival’, which 

involves the fictive motion of the object to its site, and ‘site 

manifestation’, which is not fictive motion but fictive change/fictive 

manifestation of the object at its site. 

 



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2.3.5 Access Paths 

This shows a stationary object’s location in terms of a path followed 

by another entity to the point of encounter with the object. The 

factive representation is the object being stationary without any 

entity traversing the depicted path, while the representation of some 

entity traversing the depicted path is fictive, whether this is plausible 

or implausible. The fictively moving entity can be imagined as being 

a person, some body part of a person, or the focus of one’s attention, 

depending on the particular sentence. 

2.3.6 Coextension paths 

This is a depiction of form, orientation, or location of a spatially 

extended object in terms of a path over the object’s extent. This 

means that Coextension Path involves an extended object over 

which something is imagined to traverse. Therefore, this category 

features a motion verb that is couple with a spatially-extended entity 

which is inanimate and incapable of self-movement. This further 

implies that fictive sense is the representation of some entities 

moving along or over the configuration of the object. The fictively 

moving object can be imagined as being an observer, or the focus of 

one’s attention, or the object itself. 
Finally, of all the categories investigated by Talmy, this study 

shall focus on the Coextension path and its representation in Igbo.  

3.  Methodology 

This study is focused on the analysis of six (6) coextension fictive 

motion constructions in Igbo using the tenets of Talmy’s (2000) 

Coextension fictive motion model. The data for the research study 

were extracted from the Igbo novel ‘juo Obinna’ through the use of 

a corpus software known Antconc 3.4.0w (windows) 2014 and 

analyzed. 



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The next section presents and analyses the data on 

Coextension fictive motion constructions in Igbo using Talmy’s 

(2000) Coextension fictive motion framework. 

4.  Data Presentation and analysis 
This section presents and analyzes the Igbo fictive motion data 

extracted from the Igbo novel ‘juo Obinna’ using Talmy’s 

Coextension paths of fictive motion framework as was earlier 

explained in chapter two. The aim of this study is to understand the 

nature of fictive expressions in Igbo. It attempts to then   describe 

this phenomenon applying Talmy's category of coextension to see if 

Igbo uses the same constructions that are used in Talmy's model, or 

whether there are other categories that can be used in Igbo and 

absent in his categorization and vice versa. 

4.1  Igbo Coextension of Fictive Motion 

Examples: 

11) Ụ́zọ̀     áhụ̀     bànye-re         Ájálị́.  

road  DEM  enter-rV(PST)  Ajali 

  ‘The road entered Ajali’ 

12) Ọ́hịá́     áhụ̀    dị́   yá       n’        íhú      rìgò-rò                         

n’élú úgwū 

bush   DEM   be   him   PREP front    climb.up- rV(PST)  

PREP top hill 

‘The bush before him climbed on top of the mountain’ 

 

13) Ngbọ̀rọ̀gwọ̀ ósísí      áhụ̀      bànyè-rè         n’ímé            íyī. 

root          tree     DEM   enter-PST    PREP-inside  ocean 

‘The tree’s root entered into the ocean’. 

 



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14) Úgwú       áhụ̀     ọ́    nà-èlé        ànyā  gáfè-rè              Ụ́munzè  

nà    Ájálị ́     

Mountain DEM he be looking eye    pass - rV (PST) 

Umunze and   Ajali 

‘That mountain he was looking at passed across Umunze 

and Ajali’ 

 

15) Ụ́zọ̀     áhụ̀     gáfè-rè           ànyị́  sì        n’Òwèrrè Ézúkàlà     

wèré  banye Ajali   

Road DEM   pass- rV (PST) us   from PREP Owerre Ezukala 

then   enter   Ajali 

‘That road that passed across us leads to Ajali from Owerre 

Ezukala ’ 

 

16) Ndị́         Sójà      nnọ̀chì-rì              ókpóró ụ́zọ̀  niile bànyè-

rè               Ájálị́. 

Those     soldier block- rV (PAST)   pathway      all     

enter- rV(PST)   Ajali 

‘The soldiers blocked all the pathways that lead to Ajali’. 

  

In the above fictive motion expression, the extended stationary 

objects ‘ụzọ, ọhịa, ugwu, ngbọrọgwụ osisi’ do not physically move. 

In other words, the expressions in (11 - 16) describe static scene 

because the inanimate entities: ‘ụzọ, ‘road’, ‘ugwu ‘mountain’, 

‘ọhịa, ‘bush’ and ‘ngbọrọgwụ osisi, ‘the tree’s root’ in the above 

examples cannot move or perform the action of  ịba ‘ to enter’ ịrị 

‘to climb’ and  ‘ịgafe, ‘to pass/walk across’, this is because the 

above-mentioned motions depicted in (11 - 16) cannot take place, 

since our experience in the world enables us to know that the 

aforementioned inanimate objects  cannot perform any physical 



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movement. Instead what actually moves is our locus of visual or 

mental attention. 

From the above analysis, it can be seen that just like in English 

language, coextension category in the Igbo language features a 

motion verb that is couple with a spatially-extended entity which is 

inanimate and incapable of self-movement. 

4.2.1 Igbo Fictive Motion Categories and Serial Verb 

Construction 

Verb serialization is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more 

verbs are put together in a single clause. That is, it is a sequence of 

verbs which act together as a single predicate, without any overt 

marker of coordination, subordination, or syntactic dependency of 

any other sort. Trask (1993: 251-252) describes a serial verb 

construction (SVC) as: “a construction in which what appears to be 

a single clause semantically is expressed syntactically by a sequence 

of juxtaposed separate verbs, all sharing the same subject or agent 

but each with its own additional arguments, without the use of overt 

coordinating conjunctions”. In serial verb construction, the two 

verbs must take the same tense markers. Also, both verbs may tend 

to share the same argument. For example, the verbs may have the 

same subject or the object of the first verb may at the same time 

function as the subject of the second verb. In serial verb 

constructions, both verbs can function as independent verbs in a 

fictive motion sentences as can be seen in the examples below. 

17)  Ụ́zọ̀   áhụ̀     rìgò-rò         élú úgwū       pụ̀tá         Òwèrrè 

Ézúkàlà         . 

Road DEM climb-PST up mountain come out Owerre 

Ezukala 



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‘This road ascended the mountain and came out from 

Owerre Ezukala’ 

18)  Úgwú        áhụ̀        rịd́à-rà                     bànyé n’ímé  òbòdò. 

Mountain DEM descend- rV (PST)      enter PREP town 

‘The mountain descended into the town’ 

19) Ụ́zọ̀   áhụ̀   gà-rà      rúé    Ájálị,́ gáá   áká   ịk̀pà wèré  pụ̀-tá       

Òwèrrè Ézúkàlà. 

Road DEM go-PST reach Ajali, go   hand left then come-out 

Owerre Ezukala 

           ‘This road leads to Ajali from Owerre Ezukala’ 

In examples 17 to 19, the subjects of the first verbs are the subjects 

of the second verb. In other words, the two verbs in each 

construction, share the same subject. Hence, the subjects they share 

in the examples include: Ụ́zọ̀, and Úgwú respectively. From the data 

analyzed so far, it can be observed that verb serialization in Igbo 

fictive motion sentences occur in coextension path category. 

Also, it is observed that the above constructions can be 

broken into simple sentences. Examples (17 to 19) are illustrated in 

(20a to 22c) respectively. 

20. a)  Ụ́zọ̀     à     rìgò-rò                élú  úgwū.  

Road DET climb- rV (PST) up mountain 

‘The road ascended the mountain’ 

 

b)  Ụ́zọ̀    à           pùtà-rà                  Òwèrrè Ézúkàlà. 

Road DET come out- rV (PST)    Owerre Ezukala 

‘The road came out from Owerre Ezukala’ 



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21. a)  Úgwú        à       rị́dà-rà                     n’ímé òbòdò. 

Mountain DET descend- rV (PST)   PREP town 

‘The mountain descended into the town’ 

 

b)  Úgwú         à       bànyè-rè              n’ímé òbòdò. 

Mountain DET   enter- rV (PST)    PREP town 

‘The mountain entered the town’ 

22. a) Ụ́zọ̀     áhụ̀      gà-rà     rúé      Ájálị.́ 

  Road    DEM  go-PST  reach  Ajali 

  ‘This road reached Ajali’ 

 

b)  Ụ́zọ̀     áhụ̀        gà-rà          áká     èkpè. 

  Road    DET   go- rV(PST) hand    left    

  ‘This road turned to the left’ 

 

c)  Ụ́zọ̀      áhụ̀        pùtà-rà                 Òwèrrè Ézúkàlà. 

  Road     DET  come out- rV(PST)  Owerre Ezukala 

  ‘This road came out from Owerre Ezukala’ 

4.3  Findings 

Findings from this research show that Talmy’s framework suffices 

to a great extent in describing Igbo fictive motion expressions. It is 

observed that fictive motion exist in Igbo. Different dynamic 

linguistic forms (directional preposition and motion verbs) are used 

in describing static configurations in the language. Motion verbs are 

predominantly used in expressing Igbo fictive motion. Also, it can 

be seen from the data presented that the Igbo fictive motions can as 

well occur in verb serialization which is mostly limited to 

coextension path; though Talmy did not include verb serialization in 

his fictive motion categories.  



Fictive Motion in Igbo – Mbah & Uchechukwu 

 

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5.  Summary and Conclusion 

This research study has investigated fictive motion in the Igbo 

language from the cognitive linguistic point of view. The 

researchers carried out an examination of fictive motion in the Igbo 

language by identifying the expressions that account for fictive 

motion in the language in order to analyze them. Hence, this present 

study reveals extensively the coextension category of Igbo fictive 

motion expressions. In the cause of the analysis, it is observed that 

motion verbs are predominantly used in expressing Igbo fictive 

motion. We therefore conclude that like in other languages, fictive 

motion can be expressed in the Igbo language.  

It is hoped that the present effort shall mark the onset of further work 

on this very interesting aspect of the Igbo language. 

 

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List of Abbreviations 

DET – Determiner 

DEM – Demonstrative 

PREP – Preposition 

CONJ – Conjunction 

RVPST – R + vowel marking past tense in Igbo language 

 

 


