Valency of an agent and cause in the Russian language

The proposed article examines the semantic roles of an Agent and a Cause when expressed through various cases and prepositions that can also denote a Source of movement and a Path of movement in their spatial meanings. It is shown that these cases and prepositions obtained the meanings of an Agent and Cause on the basis of the competing metaphors AN AGENT IS A SOURCE and AN AGENT IS A PATH, as well as A CAUSE IS A SOURCE and A CAUSE IS A PATH.