Universal meaning extensions of perception verbs are grounded in interaction
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Table 2:
Recurrent semantic associations for sight verbs. Gray indicates a meaning of this kind was attested in the conversational data.
Aside from the recurrent meanings identified in Table 2, the data included seven uses of sight verbs that were unique to a single language (Supplementary Materials: S10–S16). In four cases, these meanings correspond to extensions reported for other languages (detailed in the supplementary materials). Mandarinkan ‘look’ is used to mean ‘read’, while in our English data, see is used to mean ‘experience’. The three remaining meanings (Chintang ‘video-record’, English ‘express to’, and Mandarin ‘depend on’) have not to our knowledge been described for other languages. We turn now to the complex issue of discourse uses of vision verbs, where perception predicates are employed to manage interaction as it unfolds. Sight verbs were identified as occurring with a discourse function in ten out of the thirteen languages, the three exceptions being Cha’palaa, Chintang, and Lao (the languages with the lowest frequency of perception verbs overall). We discuss two examples here using a conversation analytic approach, taking the opportunity to examine the broader sequential context of the data and the intersubjective demands of conversation. As a precursor, we note the importance of directives (typically, sentences that are formally imperative) to discourse uses of perception verbs. Perception imperatives typically attempt to direct an interlocutor’s attention towards an object in the environment. This can be in the service of various actions, for example, to give a warning, as already seen in (2), or to elicit an assessment, as in (3) from Italian. In this extract, Rita uses guardare ‘look’ [5] to draw the attention of her companions to an aeroplane overhead (see alsoWaltereit 2002). The imperative, together with the exclamation what an airplane, conveys the speaker’s evaluative stance toward its object as especially noteworthy. Bea then responds with a second assessment (madonna!) that aligns with the first (cf. Pomerantz 1984). (3)
‘Look, what an airplane!’
‘Good heavens!’ (Ita_046/GR) Examples such as (3) illustrate how perception imperatives can set up triadic engagement through direction of another’s attention toward an object. The directive redistributes epistemic access (Heritage and Raymond 2005): the recipient now has a basis to know what the speaker knows, putting the object into common ground (Clark 1996). In (3) the triadic engagement further serves to create a “stance triangle” wherein two speakers’ evaluative stances converge in intersubjective alignment (Du Bois 2007). It is a short step from jointly attending to objects in the environment to mutual appraisal of the conversation itself (cf. Fagard 2010: 262). Thus, a sight verb can be used to direct the addressee’s attention towards spoken words in actions that seek to attain or maintain alignment between interlocutors. Example (4) from Duna occurs in the context of a dispute. This dispute concerns the number of pigs that an affiliated clan has available to contribute to a joint settlement of a legal case. At the beginning of this extract Tomas – a farmer from the local clan – asserts that the affiliated clan has three pigs to contribute, for a total of six pigs between the two clans, as mandated by the court. While Peter agrees, Josiah disputes this assertion, claiming that the affiliated clan does not have three pigs to give. (4)
we’re talking about getting the six pigs, look!’ (Dun_188/LSR) In a dispute, participants put forward and defend mutually exclusive versions of reality (e.g., either a clan has three pigs or it does not), and work towards a resolution of such reality disjunctions whereby one version of reality prevails (Pollner 1987). In (4) the verb kepa ‘look’ is the final component in a turn that moves to resolve the dispute through a reformulation of the current activity (“we’re talking about getting six pigs”), from one that can be disputed (the number of pigs the affiliated clan will contribute) to one that cannot (the number required for the settlement). Thus, just as kepa can direct the attention of the other to an object in the environment, so too can it appeal to the other to ‘look’ and ‘see’ a spoken version of the world that he or she apparently has not recognized. Summing up, a link between vision and cognition was found across all languages in the sample. Less commonly explored in cross-linguistic perspective — but with a strong presence in conversation in diverse languages — was the association between vision verbs and attentional meanings, and the use of vision verbs as discourse markers to manage attention and intersubjective alignment in ongoing interaction. 3.2 Hearing For hearing verbs, our pool of relevant languages shrinks to eleven, as Tzeltal and Duna do not have audition-specific verbs (these languages are considered in Section 3.4). For the meaning groups in Table 1, only cognition and attention associations were attested for hearing verbs (see Table 3). In almost all cases these extensions simultaneously related to linguistic communication (cf. Sweetser 1990). (More examples of hearing verbs are shown in Supplementary Materials: S17–S21.) Table 3: Recurrent semantic associations for hearing verbs. Gray indicates a meaning of this kind was attested in the conversational data. (Duna and Tzeltal do not have hearing-specific verbs.)
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