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

6.2.2. PROPERTY SELECTION PROCESSES IN TOUCH 
One of the extended meanings in tactile verbs is ‘to affect, physically’, as 
illustrated in (11). 
(11) Blackfly 
touched the flowers 
Example (11) states that a type of insect called ‘blackfly’ physically touched the 
flowers and since this insect is harmful to them, the flowers were affected, and 
ultimately spoilt in some way. 
Prototypical 
physical
meanings 
Property selected 
physical
meaning 
yes
> 
yes
> 
no
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes>
Property Selection Process 
Figure 6.1: Property Selection Processes in (11) ‘to affect, physical’. 
In this meaning, it is argued that only three properties
132
from the set of 
prototypical properties that characterise the sense of touch are selected, namely 132
An issue that needs further research is the question of why there is only a number of 
properties, two or three, selected out of a large array of physiological motivated properties. Although I 
cannot give a full account for it yet, a possible reason for this selection may be metonymy. Barcelona (p.c) 
suggests that “a substructure of the target (consisting of a number of closely related properties, e.g., 
contact + effect of contact) is selected. Then the source is searched to find the same set of properties in it, 
and it is these properties only that are mapped in physical extended meanings (metonymy), and in 
metaphorical senses, if the other properties of the source are incompatible with the target”. Whether or not 
metonymy can explain this selection of properties is an area that I would like to investigate in the future. 
169

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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
170
yes
>, yes
> and yes
>. This selection of only some properties from the 
source domain is what is called ‘Property Selection’. The Property Selection Process in 
(11) is represented in Figure 6.1. 
This meaning selects the property yes
> because the fly is on the flowers, 
the fly touches the flowers and obviously, this means that there is some contact between 
this insect and the flowers. If there is some contact between these two entities, then it is 
implied that both entities are close to each other, hence the property yes
>
133
. 
The property yes
> is selected because there has been some change in the original 
state of the flowers as a consequence of the contact between the blackfly and the 
flowers. 
In (11), the meaning remains physical, although it is not the same as the 
prototypical meaning in tactile verbs. There has been a shift from the prototypical 
physical meaning of touch to a different physical domain ‘to affect, physically’. This 
type of physical extension, as argued in Chapter 4, remained unexplained in Sweetser’s 
theory. However, Property Selection Processes solve this problem. These processes 
show how the mapping between the source domain (prototypical physical touch) and the 
target domain (affect physically) is established, i.e. by the selection of some properties 
from the source domain in the target domain. 
The meaning ‘to affect’ can also be interpreted metaphorically as in (12) below. 
(12) John 
touched me very deeply 
In this case, a person called John said or did something that had an effect on me. 
The situation is exactly the same as in (11) and the same properties (yes
>, 
yes
> and yes
>) are selected. However, there is a significant difference 
between (11) and (12): whereas in the former the meaning is physical, in the latter the 
meaning is metaphorical. The meaning in (12) has taken another step on top of Property 
Selection, that of metaphor. These two steps are represented in Figure 6.2. 
In (12), apart from the selection of properties from the source domain by means 
of Property Selection Processes, there is a metaphorical mapping from the domain of 
touch onto the domain of emotion. The agent that touches is the one that causes the 

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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
emotion and the contact he has is the action that causes the emotion, while the effect in 
this case, instead of being physical, is the emotion caused by this action. 
It is important to bear in mind that the extended metaphorical meaning ‘to affect, 
non-physically’ comes from the first prototypical meaning ‘to perceive by touch’ and 
not from the extended physical meaning ‘to affect, physically’. Otherwise it will be 
implied that every metaphorical meaning needs to have an extended physical meaning 
counterpart. This is not true. The other metaphorical extensions in this sense (‘to deal 
with’ and ‘to reach’) do not have an extended physical meaning counterpart. 
Nevertheless, they can be accounted for by these property selection processes. The only 
difference lies in the properties selected for these meanings.
Prototypical 
physical
meanings 
Property selected, 
metaphorical 
abstract 
meaning 
yes
> 
yes
> 
no
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes
> 
yes>
Property Selection 
Metaphor 
Figure 6.2: Property selection and metaphorical processes in (12) ‘to affect, non-
physically’. 
The properties that can explain the extended meaning ‘to deal with’ as in (13) are 
yes
> and yes
>. In this example, the subject does not want to have any 
contact with ‘that business’, hence these two properties. 
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As argued in Ibarretxe-Antuñano (1999c), in the case of touch the property yes
> 
should be understood as an entailment of the property yes
>. 
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B. Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 
Polysemy and metaphor in perception verbs 
172
(13) I 
wouldn’t 
touch that business 
The property yes
> can also be present in this meaning when it 
specifically refers to dealing with something superficially as in (14). This meaning is 
obtained not only by the meaning of the verb but also by the meaning conveyed in the 
adverb barely and the preposition on (see discussion in 2.3.3. above
134
). 
(14) He 
barely 
touched on the incident in his speech 
The meaning ‘to reach’ in (15) selects the properties yes
>, yes
> and yes
>.
(15) He 
touched the high point in his career 
The first property is selected because when the subject metaphorically reaches 
that status in his career, there is a metaphorical contact with that high point. This 
moment in this person’s career is an end-point, he cannot go any further, this is 
represented by the property yes
>. 
Finally, the other physical extended meaning in tactile verbs ‘to partake of food / 
drink’ illustrated in (16) selects the properties yes
>, yes
>, because 
there is a physical contact between John and the food, and therefore, it implies that these 
two entities are near one another. It also selects the property yes
>, because 
John has not eaten much
135
.
(16) John 
hardly 
touched the food