Abstract
<jats:p>The aim of the study is to identify the significative potential of Russian, English, and German verbs – used both literally and metaphorically – that realize the denotative meaning ‘caused movement through the air’. The article examines verbs in Russian, English, and German within both free and fixed combinations (as well as in isolated use) that convey the core semantics of imparting a prerequisite of an object’s motion through the air. The study’s contribution lies in the fact that, for the first time for verbs with the denotative meaning ‘caused movement through the air’, a set of prototypical significative criteria is delineated – intensity, controllability, intentionality, and directionality of movement – which are fundamental for demonstrating the additional sense instantiated by the processual series “бросать – кидать – швырять – метать” in Russian, “throw – cast – drop” in English, and “werfen – schmeißen – schleudern” in German. The research findings indicate that, at the level of significative meaning, English and German tend to specify the spatial localization of the mentioned caused action, whereas Russian is predominantly oriented toward emphasizing the variability of the action.</jats:p>