In:The Linguistics of Olfaction: Typological and Diachronic Approaches to Synchronic Diversity
Edited by Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Przemysław Staniewski
[Typological Studies in Language 131] 2021
► pp. 403–448
To what extent can source-based olfactory verbs be classified as copulas?
The case of German and Polish
Published online: 26 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.131.14sta
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.131.14sta
In recent decades, there has been growing interest in the semantics and syntax of perception verbs in various languages. This has led to establishing a widely accepted classification in activity, experiencer- and source-based verbs – also labelled copulative. This chapter deals with the latter category in the olfactory domain in German and Polish. It provides a general theoretical discussion of the copulas, the perception verbs and their interfaces. Further, it focuses on the main four construction types in which the source-based olfactory verbs can occur in order to determine, based on their contextual embedding, if they qualify as copulas. Ultimately, the influence of regarding the source-based verbs as (non-)copulas for the description of the olfactory perception is pointed out.
Keywords: semantics-syntax interfaces, copula verbs, perception verbs, German, Polish
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Copula verbs
- 3.Perception verbs
- 4.Perception verbs – Copulas, semi-copulas or pseudo-copulas?
- 5.Analysis
- 5.1Subject construction
- 5.1.1 Constructions of the type subject + source-based smell verb + adjective/adverb
- 5.1.2 Construction of the type subject + source-based smell verb
- 5.1.3 Construction of the type subject + source-based smell verb + prepositional phrase/instrumental noun phrase
- 5.2Impersonal construction
- 5.1Subject construction
- 6.Conclusions
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Notes References
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