Journal: Languages
Issue: Recent Developments on the Semantics of Perception Verbs
Call Deadline: 30-Nov-2025

Perception, the process by which a conscious entity captures, decodes, and interprets external stimuli, can rightly be considered one of the most sophisticated and fascinating processes of nature. As a cognitive process fundamental to all living beings, the phenomenon of perception has received considerable attention across various scientific fields, including linguistics. Indeed, since language is used primarily to talk about the world we perceive, language and perception are inextricably interwoven (Miller & Johnson-Laird 1976). This relation is reflected in the rich linguistic bibliography and the numerous studies dedicated to verbs of perception (cf. for instance Enghels 2007; Evans and Wilkins 2000; Ibarretxe-Antuñano 1999; Jansegers 2017; Norcliffe & Majid 2024; Sweetser 1990; Viberg 1984, 2001 among many others).

Over the last few decades, perception verbs have garnered widespread interest as a key to understanding the relationship between language and cognition and how language mediates our human experience. Therefore, they can be studied from many angles, including – but not limited to – a typological, diachronic and syntactic perspective.

First, verbs of perception have been studied typologically in relation to their polysemy and the (universal) patterns of lexicalization they give rise to. This had led to the idea that the lexicalization of perception verbs is constrained by a biologically grounded sense-modality hierarchy (Viberg 1984, 2001): sight > hearing > touch/taste/smell. According to this hierarchy, a verb having a basic meaning belonging to a sense modality higher in the hierarchy can get an extended meaning that covers some (or all) of the sense modalities lower in the hierarchy. Verbs higher in the hierarchy also give rise to metaphorical extensions. For example, it is well known that visual perception verbs have developed extended meanings beyond their denotational meaning linked to the domain of cognition (cf. ‘I see what you mean’) and similarly auditory perception has extended towards the notion of obedience (cf. ‘a child that does not listen’) (Evans and Wilkins 2000; Sweetser 1990). Likewise, it is well known that verbs of sight often give rise to a wide range of evidential values in various typologically non-evidential languages (Albelda 2018). Also, senses higher in the hierarchy are supposed to be more frequent, diachronically stable and morphosyntactically complex.

From a diachronic perspective, then, scholars also have focused on the lexicalization and grammaticalization process of perception verbs evolving towards discourse markers and serving a more pragmatic function. This process typically involves a gradual shift from concrete sensory meanings to more abstract, interactional and even discursive uses helping to organize and manage the flow of conversation (e.g. look in English, écoute in French, guarda in Italian, mira in Spanish). These patterns of grammaticalization have originated a rich bibliography on the cross-linguistic comparison of these grammaticalization patterns including both major national languages and under-studied indigenous languages (Van Olmen & Tantucci 2022; San Roque et al. 2018; Norcliffe & Majid 2024).

Third, perception verbs and their meaning extensions are closely related to the choice of argument structure. Indeed, perception verbs can select both nominal or sentential complements and this selection interacts with their meaning (Dik & Hengeveld 1991). This syntax-semantics interface has been studied in large corpora, which allows not only qualitative descriptions of perception verbs, but also quantitative and statistical processing of the data (cf. among others Divjak 2015; Gries et al. 2020).

The main purpose of this Special Issue consist of reporting on new and current interest and developments in research on the semantics of perception verbs, focusing on studies that innovate in terms of their topic, theoretical approach, and/or methodology. We welcome a wide range of (relevant) topics, which may include but are not limited to:
- Cross-linguistic variation of perception verbs: studying both major national languages and under-studied (indigenous) languages, but also dialectical variants of the same language and sign language;
- Cross-linguistic comparisons of grammaticalization trajectories of perception verbs: convergences and divergences;
- A re-evaluation of the sense modality hierarchy through the analysis of lesser-studied languages (e.g. descriptions of tactile-dominant languages, alternative hierarchies in languages with different sensory salience);
- New (diachronic) case studies of perception verbs evolving into discourse markers or modal particles. Perception verbs as markers of stance, evidentiality or (inter)subjectivity; emergence of discourse-level functions;
- Lexicalization and grammaticalization of perception verbs as observed in different kinds of corpora, including spoken data;
- New quantitative approaches to the syntax-semantics interface of perception verbs;
- Corpus-based or experimental approaches to the analysis of the syntax and semantics of perception verbs.
- Relevant papers regarding all languages from different frameworks are welcome.

Timeline:
Abstract Submission Deadline: September 10th
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: September 30th
Full Manuscript Deadline: November 30th

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected]) or to /Languages/ editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

More information and full list of references can be found on the on the journal’s website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/6RKEQ25KPG

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
Psycholinguistics
Semantics
Sociolinguistics
Syntax