Smefig and Perception: A Cross-Linguistic Study

Abstract

Perception verbs have supplied a rich field of research in linguistics: grammaticalisation (Heine, B. & al. 1991). Complementation (Horie, K. 1993) and semantic change (Sweetser E. 1990). Sweetser in From Etymology to Pragmatics. Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantic Structure (1990) states that inside the semantic field of perception. There are metaphorical mappings from concrete or physical meanings onto abstract meanings and regards vision and hearing as the most salient senses, whereas the sense of smell has fewer and less deep meraphorical connections with the mental domain. The aim of this paper is to show that the verbs of smelling extend semantically into the cognitive domain in more than the ways cired by Sweerser, and that as predicted by her, these connections between the physical and mental domain are not language specific bur cross-linguistic. These statements will be supported with data drawn from Bosque, Spanish and English.