Encoding of source in verbs of perception

[Anvita Abbi]

Dear All,
South Asian languages abound in expressive morphology that represent five
senses of perception [called *panchendriya* in Sanskrit]i.e., of smell,
sight, touch, hearing and taste. . Hence, constructions such as the
following are very common across  all languages especially those belonging
to Tibeto-Burman.

Tamil: *g*ә*m g*ә*m* ‘aroma’ (smell)

Mizo: *ol**E**p ol**E**p* ‘sticky’ (touch)

Meitei: *ts*ә*nap ts*ә*nap* ‘sticky’ (touch)

Hindi : *c*ә*m c*ә*m* ‘glittering’ (sight)

In many South Asian languages the expressive morpheme is a root form and
nouns and verbs can be formed from it, e.g. Hindi

*c*ә*m **c*ә*m-aya                                       c*ә*m c*ә*m-ah*
*әʈ   *

* '*glitter-pst  ‘glittered’ (V)                  glitter-nmlz  ‘glitter’
(N)

(*Reduplication in South Asian languages: An Areal, Typological and
Historical Study*. 1991)

In Present Great Andamanese there are more than 18 words for smell. The
ambivalence of noun and verb allows one to use all in verb forms. There is
no generic name for the smell of fish as each fish emits different smell
and hence distinct word. Thus: /*etlapharom/ *'smell of Bam fish' (Bam is a
local fish) but /*meritutceleoi*/ 'smell of parrot fish' etc. Various kinds
of stones, corals and shells have different names for the smell they
emit. (*Dictionary
of teh Great Andamanese Language. 2012.* Ratna Sagar. Delhi)

Anvita Abbi




On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 6:12 PM, 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
>



-- 
Prof. Anvita Abbi
Centre for Linguistics
School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
www.andamanese.net
President: Linguistic Society of India
URL: http://www.jnu.ac.in/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=anvita
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