Perception verbs in Khoe languages : their polysemies and semantic extensions

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This study has revealed a typologically unique feature of the perception verb systems attested in three Kalahari Khoe languages, namely, K≠haba, G|ui and G‖ana. In K≠haba, there are three verbs of perception of experience (non-controlled), i. e./moo/"see", /kum/"hear", and/k‖am/"taste". It is observed that/k‖am/"taste" semantically extends to the other two sensory modalities "touch" and "smell". This system, therefore, presents a counter example against part of Viberg's (1984: 147) proposal on the hierarchy of perception verbs: his hierarchy implies that a verb basically meaning "feel" extends its meaning to "taste", but not vice versa. In addition, the similar semantic extension is observed in the so-called copulative perception verbs in G|ui and G‖ana, as well as K≠haba, i.e. "look" vs. "taste (for sound)" vs. "taste (for taste)" vs. "taste (for touch)" vs. "taste (for smell)". This fact indicates that the following Viberg's view is questionable: "For the copulatives it seems to hold that smell is the first modality to be lexicalized." (p. 145). The important status of "taste" in the perception verbs may presumably be a feature of this language group. The question is why "taste" plays an important role in these languages. In order to explore this question, it is suggestive that G|ui has an elaborated lexical semantic domain of verbs/adjectives of "taste" and/or "food texture". The important status of "taste" in the perception verbs in these Khoisan languages probably reflects a culture-specific feature associated with this special semantic domain.Since these Khoe languages are virtually undescribed or poorly described, this study has conducted field investigations to collect relevant original data in Botswana. The research results, therefore, also include language documentations, such as phonetic-phonological documentation of G|ui, sociolinguistic survey of relevant languages, and anthropolinguistic ethnography. (288 words)