Transitivity of Motion Verbs in Persian Language

According to Talmy (2000), the basic motion event consists of one object (the ‘Figure’) moving or located with respect to another object (the reference-object or ‘Ground’). Moreover, its semantic structure has another two internal components, i.e. ‘Path’ and ‘Motion’. The ‘Path’ is the track followed or the location occupied by the Figure object with respect to the Ground object, and the ‘Motion’ refers to the presence in the event of motion or location.
The present research focuses on the transitivity of motion verbs in Persian language. In order to seek the notion, research data have been analyzed based on Talmy's theoretical framework (2000), and the components of motion in these verbs have been investigated. The research method is descriptive-analytic. Consequently, seeking the notion of transitivity in motion verbs, the research includes 219 Modern Persian verbs from two sites (Persian Linguistic Database (PLDB) and Hamshahri Online news website). Among those mentioned motion verbs, 126 cases were intransitive and 63 were transitive. Based on the main goal of the research, the question was raised; “what is the difference between the figure and the ground in transitive and intransitive verbs?” it is necessary to mention, the criterion for determining the transition is following the pattern of "NP1, transitive verb, NP2".
Persian language express a Motion event using the transitive construction in which the subject denotes the Figure (the moving entity) and the object denotes the Ground (the reference object). In Persian language, in most cases, verbs can express a motion event in the Intransitive Construction. . In Persian, the object usually depicts the referral point or path based on the semantic features of the verb. In cases of causative verbs, the object is the same as the figure that makes the displacement. In addition, in the intransitive structures, the subject is the figure and intransitive verbs demonstrate a change or a new position. In these examples, the path is often shown through a prepositional phrase.