The article deals with the lexicalisation preferences in German and Italian verbs referring to the modification of an object. It examines in more detail the subclass of drying and cleaning events. Based on the work by Talmy, by the Copenhagen TYPOlex group and by the IMAGACT ontology, an online survey was conducted involving 30 Italian- and 30 German-speaking subjects. They were shown nine short video scenes and animations in which a person was seen cleaning and drying various objects in different ways, and were asked to verbalise this event in a simple sentence. The data obtained prove that German prefers verbs that contain the manner component, while Italian prefers general verbs with the result component. In German, a higher variation in the choice of verbs as well as a stronger bundling of semantic features could also be observed.
