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Directional motion verbs

DylanK

Registered
27 Feb 2015
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Hello everyone!

I find the concept of directional motion verbs rather interesting. First of all, some interpretations of a few directional motion verbs of which I want to know if they are right.

行く= outward motion from your current location. No specified end point.
向かう = outward motion from your current location with a specified end point.
来る = motion towards your current location. No specified starting point.
帰る = motion from your current location towards a location you've formerly been, most often home.
戻る = similar to the above, except it also seems to have the meaning of going back to a former state.

Am I correct in the way I am thinking about these verbs?

Anyway, I was wondering what other verbs are considered directional motion verbs (as these are probably not the only ones), and if it's true that you can only use the へ-particle only with directional motion verbs.
 
I'm not sure what classes something as "directional motion verbs", へ can also be used to indicate recipient (of a thing delivered), so verbs like 送る (send) 届く (deliver) can also take it. So can 走る・歩く・飛ぶ and so on.

いく・くる are also used to note motion in time as auxiliary verbs. e.g. なっていく for "going to become, over time" and なってきた for "became the current state, over time".

Another interesting one I find is that くる is often used as auxiliary verb to say "go, do some action, and return to where I started".

牛乳を買ってくる → I'm going to go somewhere from here, buy some milk, and return to my start location.
 
行く= outward motion from your current location. No specified end point.
向かう = outward motion from your current location with a specified end point.
来る = motion towards your current location. No specified starting point.
帰る = motion from your current location towards a location you've formerly been, most often home.
戻る = similar to the above, except it also seems to have the meaning of going back to a former state.
counterexamples
駅に行く (with a specified end point)
北に向かう (no specified end point)
アメリカから来る (with a specified starting point)
初心に帰る (going back to the initial state)
客が帰る (motion from the speaker's current location towards a location the subject(=guest) has formerly been)
家に戻る (the same meaning as 帰る without the meaning of going back to a former state)
 
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