Semantic Extension In Verbs Of Touch In English And Arabic

Abstract

This paper deals with the semantic extensions of verbs of touch in English and Arabic. Verbs of touch, as one type of verbs of sensation, are extended metaphorically in a variety of ways that is different from one language to another. Culture is assumed to strongly influence the semantic extensions of verbs of sensation in general and those of touch in particular. This study comes out with a conclusion that this type of verbs are extended semantically to cover a variety of meanings in both languages, English and Arabic. 1. Semantic Classification Verbs of touch are one type of verbs of sensation along with verbs of vision, hearing, taste and smell. It is significant to know that these verbs can be categorized into three types depending on the semantic roles played by their subjects. The first group is termed "the receiving of an expression by the senses independently of the will of the person concerned" (Poutsma, 1926: 341). The following example taken from Viberg (1984: 123) may illustrate this point: (1) Cathy felt a stone under her feet. Viberg (Ibid.) indicates that in (1) the stimuli are not consciously controlled by the subject. The verb used in the above example describes a process showing the perception of different phenomena by the relevant sense organ: skin. The second category is called 'active perception verbs' by Rogers (1972: 304 ; Leech, 2004: 23), 'active verbs' by Viberg (1984: 123). Such verbs refer to an "unbounded process that is consciously controlled by a human agent". (2) Peter felt the cloth (to see how soft it was).

A Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Arabic Verb of Visual Perception رأى (ra’a) in Fiction Writing

“…In the same vein, another more recent comparative study which dealt with the semantic extensions of verbs of perception was that of Al-Ameedi and Mayuuf (2016). The study focused on the semantic extensions of the verbs of touch in English and Arabic.…”