Encoding of source in verbs of perception

[Randy John LaPolla (Prof)]

In Chinese there are at least three:

膻 (羶) shān 'smell like that of mutton'
腥 xīng 'smell like that of fish'
臊 sāo 'smell like that of urine or bad body odor'

And a combined expression, 腥臊羶香 xīng sāo shān xiāng, that refers to the smell of chicken, dog, mutton, and beef respectively.

Randy
-----
Prof. Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA （罗仁地）| Head, Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies | Nanyang Technological University
HSS-03-80, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332 | Tel: (65) 6592-1825 GMT+8h | Fax: (65) 6795-6525 | http://sino-tibetan.net/rjlapolla/

“Impressive as the progress has been, science has by no means worked itself out of a job. It is soberly true that science has, to date, succeeded in solving a bewildering number of relatively easy problems, whereas the hard problems, and the ones with perhaps promise most for man’s future, lie ahead.
  “We must, therefore, stop thinking of science in terms of its spectacular successes in solving problems of simplicity. This means, among other things, that we must stop thinking of science in terms of gadgetry.”  Warren Weaver, “Science and complexity”, E:CO 6.3 (2004): 65-74, p. 73.



On Mar 18, 2014, at 8:42 PM, Steffen Haurholm-Larsen wrote:

Dear subscribers,

It has been observed that such concepts as SEE, HEAR, TOUCH, TASTE and SMELL are in some languages encoded together in just a couple of verbs while other languages have more (see Åke Viberg's "Verbs of Perception" in Language Typology and Universals: An International Handbook (2001)). Furthermore, there may be a distinction between 'experience' and 'source' and for the latter, the source may be included in a peripheral NP, e.g. 'my hands smell of fish'.
    But how common is it for the source NP to be lexically encoded in the verb? In Garifuna, an Arawak language spoken in Central America traditionally by a fishing people, there are two verbs for the emission of (bad) smell: hingi- 'stink' and hase- 'smell of fish'. Is it common for languages to encode culturally salient NP smell sources (or other source NPs) into verbs of perception?

Best,

Steffen Haurholm-Larsen
Universität Bern


________________________________

CONFIDENTIALITY:This email is intended solely for the person(s) named and may be confidential and/or privileged.If you are not the intended recipient,please delete it,notify us and do not copy,use,or disclose its contents.

Towards a sustainable earth:Print only when necessary.Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20140318/850baa5f/attachment.htm>