"Hear" as "understand"

[Lukas Pietsch]

Old High German "firneman" (> Modern German "vernehmen") might be an
example. Apparently from a third, even more concrete original meaning
"take in"; hence "hear"; hence as another meaning in OHG "understand".
Although it might be possible that both the "hear" and the "understand"
meaning could be independently derived in parallel from the literal
"take in". 

Lukas

Am Montag, den 01.02.2010, 20:37 +0100 schrieb Nino Amiridze:
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> I was wondering whether you could help me in finding languages that
> use the verb 'hear' for 'understand', just like English uses 'see' for
> the same purpose (I see (=I understand)).
> 
> I would be grateful if you could give data and/or references, if there
> are investigations on the use of the 'see' vs. 'hear' verbs in
> figurative language.
> 
> Thank you very much.
> 
> Best regards,
> Nino Amiridze
> http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/n.amiridze/