LINGUIST List 13.1364

Wed May 15 2002

Sum: Sensation Predicates

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

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  • Daniela Caluianu, sensation predicates

    Message 1: sensation predicates

     Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 13:50:02 +0900
    From: Daniela Caluianu <danielacrest.ocn.ne.jp>
    Subject: sensation predicates


    Dear Linguist List members,

    On April 24 I posted the a query about the treatment of the semantic distinction in (1):

    (1) a. This tea is hot b. I am hot

    I was particularly interested in: (a) accounts of this semantic distinction in languages where it is not associated with any formal marking. (b) whether there are any languages that use distinct predicates to express (1a) and (1b).

    The following people have replied to my query. I wish to thank them once again.

    Werner Abraham, Ron Artstein, Isabelle Barriere, Elena Bashir, Bingfu, Lisa DeWaard Dykstra, Soren Harder, Hans-Werner Hatting, Wim Honselaar, Peter Jacob, Ernest McCarus, Asya Pereltsvaig, Hayim Y. Sheynin, Javier Sim $B...O(J,J L Speranza,

    The replies include data from:

    Lebanese Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Kurdish (Sorani dialect, Iraq and Iran) ,Russian, Spanish, Squamish

    It appears that most languages are unlike English. The opposition between 'This is hot' and 'I am hot' is usually marked. Only Chinese, among the listed languages, behaves like English.

    There is quite a variety of mechanisms used to this effect.

    a. Case Marking (nominative vs. dative) b. Choice of auxiliary (BE vs HAVE, BE vs. DO, BE vs. ATTACH) c. Syntactic category of the predicate (adjective vs. adverb, adjective vs noun) d. Distinct lexical items

    Languages may use one of the mechanisms or more. Thus, German, Hebrew, Romanian mark the opposition only through the case distinction. French marks it only thorugh choice of auxiliary. But most languages use combined means. Hindi and Spanish combine case marking with choice of auxiliary, Kurdish choice of auxiliary and distinct syntactic category. Russian seems to be the language marking the opposition most thouroughly, as it uses different case marking on the argument, combined with choice of different forms of the predicate and sometimes different lexical items.

    When a language marks the semantic distinction property vs. sensation formally, the use of the property form with human arguments leads to metaphorical reading.

    It is interesting that none of the languages on the list makes use of a form expressing directly the semantic element 'feel' implied in 'I am hot'. The semantic distinction beteen the property reading and the senation reading is expressed indirectly, by marking differences in the features of the participant (sentience, control, affectedness).

    I attach the relevant data:

    RUSSIAN(dat vs. nom; adj vs. adv; lexical items) Chaj gorjachij / gorjach (in the past/future tense, also gorjachim 'hot.INSTR') tea.NOM hot.LONG.NOM / hot.SHORT

    Mne zharko. me.DAT hot.ADV

    Chaj xolodnyj / xolodnovat. tea.NOM cold.LONG.NOM / somewhat-cold.SHORT

    Mne xolodno. me.DAT cold.ADV

    HINDI(case and aux) mujhe garmii lagii hai I(DATIVE) heat attach-PERFECTIVE AUX(present) 'I feel hot.'

    aaj baRii garmii hai today much heat is 'Today it is very hot.'

    GERMAN(case) 1. Mir.DAT ist kalt = "I am cold qua temperature" 2. Ich,NOM bin kalt = ""I am frigid" There are dialects which say instead of 1 above: 3. Ich habe es kalt "I have it cold"

    DUTCH(aux)

    Dutch: deze thee is heet lit. this tea is hot

    Dutch: ik heb het heet lit. I have it hot

    The latter construction - with HEB, present tense form of the verb HEBBEN,plus the dummy pronoun HET - is the normal idiomatic way of expressing sensations:

    HEBREW(case) ha-te xam the-tea hot `The tea is hot'

    xam li hot to-me `I am hot'

    CHINESE(no marking) Zhe-bei cha re. this-cup tea hot.

    wo re. I hot

    wo juede re I feel hot.

    SPANISH (case and auxiliary) This tea is hot. Este te esta caliente. This tea is (temporary characteristic) hot (adjective).

    I am hot. Me hace calor. It is hot to me (the weather is acting on me and causing me to be hot).

    FRENCH(auxiliary) 1. a ce the est chaud/this tea BE-3rd person singular hot 2. b j'ai chaud/ I HAVE -1st person singular hot (Literally; I have hot)

    SQUAMISH (lexical items) ts'lhulh "something that is cold to the touch" ts'ulhum' "feeling cold, feeling chilly" (sensation) tesi7 "feeling cold" (sensation) t'iqw "cold weather"

    DANISH(syntactic category, aux) 'har det varmt/koldt' ("has it warmly/coldly") The adjectives 'varm' and 'kold' would not be used about people, except in metaphorical senses:kind/unkind, numb or disinterested

    KURDISH(synt category and aux) "It is cold" saard-a cold-is and "I am cold": saardaa m-a coldness-I-have saard cold (adj) saardaa cold (noun).

    Italian (auxiliary) It is cold":- fa freddo "I am cold": - ho freddo

    LEBANESE ARABIC (syntactic category)

    T-Taqs kaan bard 'the weather was cold'; bard is the noun "cold". l-xubz kaan baarid 'the bread was cold'; baarid is an adjective meaning 'cooled off, cold' yuusif kaan bardaan 'Joseph was cold'; bardaan is a [+animate] adjective of resultant state: '(having become) cold'

    yuusif kaan baarid ma`ii 'Joseph was cold with me' baarid with human referents refers to attitude: cool toward, a bit aloof with, not too happy with.

    To these examples I might add the Japanese data which prompted my query: JAPANESE a. atsui (It is hot/ I am hot)

    b. watashi-ga hitai-ga atsui I-NOM forehead-NOM hot My brow feels hot

    c. watashi-ni kono ocha-ga atsui I-DAT this tea-NOM hot This tea is (feels) too hot to me

    Notice that in both (b) and(c) there are two arguments. This fact had made me curious about the treatment of the semantic distinction in languages with no overt marking. I was wondering whether it is customary to attribute diferent semantic representations to the property and the sensation readings or attribute the distinction to pragmatic factors and keep the representation of the predicate constant.

    I have received the following reading suggestions: Moore, John and David Perlmutter (2000) What does it take to be a dative subject? NLLT 18. 373-416H. P. Grice(1989)'Some remarks about the senses' ,Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University PressH. P. Grice()Aristotle on the multiplicity of being' Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 69, sp. section 'Focal Unification', on Aristotle on paronymy (Metaph. IV ii)

    The gricean notion of _meanings-in-context_ and Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon were suggested as possibly useful tools in dealing with this semantic opposition.

    I thank all the people who took the time to reply to my query. I have quoted only the most relevant data in order to keep this message moderately short. I have received many interesting comments and data. If you are interested, please mail to me and I will send you the unabridged version of all the messages.

    Best,

    Daniela Caluianu danielacrest.ocn.ne.jp