[Lingtyp] Reply: Sensory copulas

[Jack Rueter]

Hi, Alon!



In Finnish, verbs of perception (1) "kuulostaa" 'sound', (2) "näyttää
(vi/vt)" 'show/look', (3) "tuntua (vi)" 'feel, seem', (4) "haista (vi)"
'smell' seem to follow the same pattern.
The adjectival complement must be in either the Allative or the Ablative
case.


The Ablative/Allative-case complement template seems to be a dialect driven
choice in Finnish.

Tämä *kuulostaa* hyvä+ltä/hyvä+lle
This   *sounds*     good+Ablative/good+Allative

Tämä *näyttää* hyvä+ltä/hyvä+lle
This   *looks*     good+Ablative/good+Allative

Tämä *tuntuu* hyvä+ltä/hyvä+lle
This   *seems/feels*     good+Ablative/good+Allative

Tämä *haisee* paha+lta/paha+lle
This   *smells*     bad+Ablative/bad+Allative

A similar but not equivalent set of perception verbs also take a special
clausal template:
"kuulua" 'be heard', "näyttää" 'appear', "tuntua" 'seem'. Combines with a
subordinate (complement) clause, where the main verb is in the present
participle genitive singular form.


Kissa *kuuluu*     mene+vä+n                  metsään.
cat.      be.heard.  go+presentParticiple+genitive. forest.Illative

Kissa *näyttää*     mene+vä+n                  metsään.
cat       appear      go+presentParticiple+genitive. forest.Illative

Kissa *tuntuu*     mene+vä+n                  metsään.
cat      seems  go+presentParticiple+genitive. forest.Illative


In Erzya, it would appear that the adjectival complement template works
differently. The perception verbs
"марявомс/marjavoms" 'be.heard, seem, feel', "неявомс/njejavoms" 'appear'
would appear to function as subjective assessments:

The adjectival complement and subordinate clause templates seem to be the
same:

псакась,  *маряви*, шожда.
psakasj,     marjavi,    šožda
cat.def.sg.nom, *it.would.seem*, light.indef.sg.nom
'The cat seems to be light.'

псакась,  *неяви*, шожда.
psakasj,     njejavi, šožda
cat.def.sg.nom, *it.would.appear*, good.indef.sg.nom
'The cat appears to be light'

псакась,  *маряви*, моли вирев.
psakasj,    marjavi, molji virjew
cat.def.sg.nom, *it.would.seem*, goes into the forest
'The cat seems to be going into the forest.

Yours,
Jack Rueter, Ph.D.
University of Helsinki,
Digital Humanities
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20240105/4c3646a2/attachment.htm>