The paper offers a critical outlook on the taxonomy of motion situations proposed by Zlatev et al. (2007, 2010) and its application to cross-linguistic comparison of motion-emotion metaphors (Zlatev et al. 2012). The critique is then applied, together with the results of a corpus-based analysis of motion metaphors by Woźny (2013), to creating a new, language independent taxonomy of motion situations, reflecting the naive physics – a linguistically coded, widespread set of intuitive beliefs concerning motion, proven to be resistant to the passage of time or the achievements of modern physics, extensively described by the body of literature collectively known as Disaster Studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSess a (1988, 1993, 1996).

The paper offers a critical scrutiny of Leonard Talmy’s comparison of linguistically coded Force Dynamics and modern physics (Talmy 2000 : 456-459). It is argued that six out of seven ‘differences’ mentioned by Talmy are in fact similarities between the naive (linguistic) and the scientific conceptualization of forceful interaction. We have also found that one of the notions of Talmy’s Force Dynamics- the intrinsic force tendency- has no counterpart in either pre-Newtonian theories of force (Aristotle, Philoponus) or intuitive (folk) physics, richly accounted for in numerous empirical studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996).