hear

[角田 太作]

Dear Typologists,
   In the Warrongo language of Australia, the transitive verb ngawa- means
‘hear, listen to’ (a person, speech, voice, music, etc.). It can also mean
‘understand’. But the second use seems to be confined to language, i.e.
‘understand a language’.
   In view of the above, it might be the case that, in a given language, if
the word for ‘hear, listen to’ acquires the meaning of ‘understand’,
initially its use is confined to language.

Best wishes,

Tasaku Tsunoda


On 10.2.3 0:00 AM, "Marina Chumakina" <M.Chumakina at SURREY.AC.UK> wrote:

> in Archi (Nakh-Daghestanian), kor (the imperfective of kos ‘hear’) means “yes,
> agree, understand, will do” – but only in the “first person” (quotes here
> because Archi verbs do not agree in person), i.e. when I say to somebody “kor”
> it means roughly “yes”.
> but “tuw kor” (he hear.IPF) means “he hears” and nothing else
> Russian verb slushat’sja ‘obey’  is (historically) a reflexive of slushat’
> ‘hear, listen to’ (imperfective)
> 


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