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

2.3.3. TOUCH 
The sense of touch has always been related to the field of emotions. Expressions 
such as I’m deeply touched or touching words are widely used in English. Already in 
1921 Hans Kurath classified sense perception in respect to emotions and stated how “the 
kinaesthetic, the visceral, and the tactual perceptions have a relatively stronger tone than 
those of hearing and especially of sight, the taste-smell perceptions taking a middle 
ground” (p.39). Kurath explained this transfer of meaning from sense perception to 
emotion on the basis of the similarity of feeling that both domains share. This 
connection finds its explanation in the etymology as well. Buck (1949:1062) points out 
that the general word in West Germanic languages for ‘feel of’ and for ‘feel’ as in 
‘perceive by touch’ refers not only to the physical perception but also to the emotions, 
even in the earliest periods of the language. However, if we review the different 
meanings that tactile verbs can convey, it is found that these verbs not only map onto the 
field of emotions but onto other semantic fields as well. 

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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
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The verbs used in this case are touch
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in English, ukitu
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in Basque, and tocar in 
Spanish. 
In the first instance there are two
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physical extended meanings found in the 
three languages. One meaning is ‘to partake of food or drink’ as in (78), (79) and (80). 
(78) John 
hardly 
touched the food 
(79) 
Jonek
ez
du
ia
janaria
ikutu 
john.
ERG
NEG
AUX
hardly food.
ABS
touch 
‘John hardly touched the food’ 
(80) 
Juan no
ha
tocado apenas la
comida 
john 
NEG
has
touched hardly the
food 
‘John hardly touched the food’ 
In these three examples we learn that John did not eat much of his food, so in 
these cases, the meaning is ‘to partake of food’. If we change the direct object food for 
drink, then the meaning will be ‘to partake of drink’ instead. As argued in Chapter 7, in 
the development of polysemous senses of a word it is very important to understand that 
in some cases, the polysemy is due both to one of the words of the sentence, in this case 
the verb, and to the meaning of the other arguments that the verb takes. 
It has been suggested (Barcelona p.c) that instead of having the meaning ‘to 
partake of food or drink’, which is too specific, it would be better to propose a more 
general meaning like ‘to partake of something’. That would cover not only sentences 
like John hardly touched the food, but also examples like I didn’t touch a penny from 
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In English there are two verbal realisations of the sense of touch: to touch and to feel. Although 
the verb to feel is etymologically a tactile verb (see discussion in Section 3.3) and it can be used as a 
tactile activity and experience verb (see Section 2.2.1), it is also the verb of general physical perception 
(cf. Lat sentire ‘to perceive by the senses’ and its Romance cognates). This ‘double’ function of the verb 
to feel creates a problem in the analysis of its extended meanings; namely, to decide which extended 
meanings are derived from which use (as a tactile verb or as a verb of general physical sensation). In order 
to avoid this problem I have decided to include in this analysis only the verb to touch, which is a more 
specific tactile verb. 
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