Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs: a cross-linguistic study

3.6. CONCLUSIONS 
In this chapter, I have presented a brief overview of the etymology of perception 
verbs in English, Basque and Spanish. The purpose of this chapter has not been to 
discuss in detail either how or why the meanings in these perception verbs have evolved 
in the way they have, or what their etymological origin is – this falls beyond the scope of 
this thesis, whose aim is to analyse the polysemy of the semantic field of perception 
verbs from a synchronic perspective.
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In Latin, sapere also meant ‘to smell of’. This meaning does not seem to occur in Spanish. 

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However, a study of synchronic polysemy would be incomplete if it lacks any 
reference to the diachronic development of the semantic field under analysis. Words do 
not change, loss, or add meanings suddenly or whimsically; words are polysemous as a 
reflection of diachronic semantic changes. I have included a chapter on the etymology of 
perception verbs in this thesis for several reasons. On the one hand, to put together in 
one place all the information on the etymological development of the perception verbs 
discussed in this thesis. Other chapters in the thesis will make reference to this chapter 
for the relevant etymological information. On the other hand, these etymological data 
have been aimed at supporting some of the main claims put forward in this thesis, as 
well as at providing a starting point for future research on the issue of semantic change 
(see Chapter 4). One must not forget that the same questions of how and why polysemy 
takes place can be applied to semantic change. And it is a commonly agreed possibility 
among cognitive linguists to suppose that the same mechanisms that explain synchronic 
polysemy can be used to explain semantic change (see Sweetser 1990, Geeraerts 1997). 
Etymology is important because it gives us the necessary background 
information about the development of a particular word in a particular language. For 
instance, the case of susmatu ‘to suspect’ in Basque. Without any previous etymological 
knowledge, it would be impossible to ascertain that this word is related to the sense of 
smell. We would have to simply accept that this word in contemporary Basque means 
‘to suspect’. However, the etymology of this word shows that it is related to smell (see 
Section 3.4) and that at some point in history, the meaning of this word shifted from 
physical smell to abstract suspicion. As we know from the analysis of the conceptual 
mappings in the sense of smell in Chapter 2, the connection between physical smell and 
abstract suspicion is also present in the polysemous verb usaindu ‘to smell’. Therefore, it 
seems that this link between these two different conceptual domains is quite common 
and strong. Etymological data provided us with further information to support such a 
claim. 
Etymological data is also very useful when analysing cross-linguistic polysemy, 
i.e. the meaning extensions that take place in one semantic field in different languages. 
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Presently, gustar with the meaning of ‘to enjoy’, ‘to like’ usually refers to other experiences 
but not food or drink. When you take pleasure in what you are eating and drinking, the verb degustar (< 

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One of the theoretical hypotheses in this thesis is that most semantic extensions of 
perception verbs are cross-linguistic because these links between different conceptual 
domains of experience are motivated by our understanding and knowledge of the world, 
which is shared by all humans with the same cultural background. A way to support the 
cross-linguistic character of these mappings is to look at languages from different 
families. Take, for example, the link between vision and knowledge. As was shown in 
Chapter 2, this mapping not only occurs in English and Spanish, two IE languages 
whose sight verbs derive from the same IE roots, but also in Basque, a non-IE language 
whose vision verb ikusi does not seem to come from any IE root. 
In these last two chapters I have described the semantic field of sense perception 
verbs. The description of the semantic extensions in these verbs, as well as their 
etymological origins, are the ‘raw’ material that will provide the data necessary to 
illustrate and support the theoretical claims on polysemy in the following chapters. 
Lat de-gustâre ‘to enjoy by the experience of taste’) is the correct verb to use. 

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