Encoding of source in verbs of perception

[Plank]

Urmas beat me to it -- though I'm less enthusiastic than he is that specialised olfactory derivational morphology is really so common.  The languages that are on record as having possibly extensive basic smell terminologies would probably be the likeliest candidates, but I'm not sure whether they have this sort of thing, let alone non-derived verbs incorporating the olfactory source, like those from Garifuna and Chinese that Steffen and Randy mention.

Among the languages with affixes to derive verbs from nouns that specifically mean 'to smell (perhaps also: taste) of N' are German, especially older stges, but perhaps dialects are continuing this:





Source of this exctract:
Plank, S. & F. Plank. 1995. Unsägliche Gerüche: Versuche, trotzdem vom Riechen zu sprechen.  In: Das Riechen, ed. by B. Busch & U. Brandes, 59-72. (Schriftenreihe Forum, 5.) Göttingen: Steidl. 


Another possibly relevant language (copied from my old notes, hence the font and formating problems;  raised TM is presumably a schwa):

Palauan (Austronesian)
Source: Josephs, Lewis S., et al. (1975): Palauan Reference Grammar. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii.

(1) State verbs with prefix b™-, k™- denoting (unpleasant, disagreeable) smells (p179)
NOUN 						STATE VERB
bau 'smell' 					b™k™bau 'to smell of rotten meat or fish'
riam™l 'football fruit' 			b™k™riam™l 'to smell of football fruit' (i.e. sweaty)
ch™luch 'coconut oil' 			b™k™ch™luch 'to smell of coconut oil'
katuu 'cat' 					b™k™katuu 'to smell of a cat'
uel 'turtle' 					b™k™uel 'to smell of turtle (after eating turtle)'
ngik™l 'fish' 					b™k™ngik™l 'to smell of fish'
-s™ngor™ch [bound stem] 		b™k™s™ngor™ch 'to smell of a male pig, like a pig’s house'

(2) State verbs with prefixes b™k™-/s™k™-, sometimes with different meanings,
though most often habitual or frequentative ('to VERB a lot') (pp177-179)
(b™k™-/s™k™- may contain the prefix b™-)
NOUN 						STATE VERB
-tung™l [bound stem] 			b™k™tung™l 'to have a keen sense of smell'
							s™k™tung™l 'to like to smell things'
(cf. transitive verb: m™lung™l 'to smell')

(3) State verbs with prefix b™-, various meanings, typically denoting states or conditions
characterized by the presence of whatever the corresponding noun refers to (p176)
NOUN 						STATE VERB
chochod (type of tree from 		b™chochod  'to be fragrant'
which incense is made)
 


Frans Plank
Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Konstanz
78457 Konstanz
Germany

Tel  +49 (0)7531 88 2656
Fax +49 (0)7531 88 4190
eMail frans.plank at uni-konstanz.de
http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/plank/






On 18 Mar 2014, at 13:42, Steffen Haurholm-Larsen <steffen.haurholm-larsen at ISW.UNIBE.CH> 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

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