Verbs of perception: a quantitative typological study

Journal article

Previous studies have proposed that the lexicalization of perception verbs is constrained by a biologically grounded hierarchy of the senses. Other research traditions emphasize conceptual and communicative factors instead. Drawing on a balanced sample of perception verb lexicons in 100 languages, we found that vision tends to be lexicalized with a dedicated verb, but that nonvisual modalities do not conform to the predictions of the sense-modality hierarchy. We also found strong asymmetries in which sensory meanings colexify. Rather than a universal hierarchy of the senses, we suggest that two domain-general constraints—conceptual similarity and communicative need—interact to shape lexicalization patterns.

Authors: Norcliffe, E; Majid, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Project MUSE
• Journal: Language
• Volume: 100
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 81-123
• Publication date: 2024-03-15
• Acceptance date: 2023-09-12
• DOI: 10.1353/lan.2024.a922000
• EISSN: 1535-0665
• ISSN: 0097-8507
• Language: English
• Keywords: communicative efficiency; perception verbs; colexification; sensory language; lexical-semantic typology