Meaning: come

Illustrative Context

I saw him on the road. I don’t know where he was coming from.

Target Sense

• The most generic intransitive verb for moving towards a deictic point of reference. The term selected must be able to refer to humans walking, but should not be specific to only that case.
• Avoid terms limited to particular ways of moving, e.g. on foot, riding an animal, or by transport. Some languages do have several distinct verbs for ‘come’ for particular ways of moving. Only if none of these can serve as an unmarked cover term for ‘come’, applicable to any way of moving, select the lexeme for humans walking.
• Avoid terms for moving in general but which do not specify the deictic directionality of ‘come’.
• Avoid terms specifically with inchoative meaning, e.g. set off for.
• Avoid terms specific to coming from a place, including usage referring to a home territory where one is originally from.
• See also the definition for the IE-CoR meaning go.