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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2017
Edited by Sander Lestrade and Bert Le Bruyn
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 34] 2017
► pp. 111–126

Proeven as an acquired taste

Semantic change among Dutch gustatory verbs

| University of Oxford
This paper demonstrates the diachronic development of the Dutch gustatory verbs proeven and smaken and the semantic encroachment of the former on the meanings covered by the latter, and explains the current use of proeven in constructions in which smaken is expected (i.e. De soep proeft lekker ‘the soup tastes good’). This spread of the use of proeven (and the consequential increasingly limited use of smaken) can be explained by metaphorization and is analyzed as the result of lexical paradigm levelling.
Keywords: diachronic change, lexical semantics, perception verbs, Dutch
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Perception verbs
  • 3.The synchronic usage of proeven and smaken
  • 4.The diachronic development of proeven and smaken
    • 4.1Development of proeven
    • 4.2Development of smaken
  • 5.Analysis
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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Published online: 23 November 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.34.08poo
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Poortvliet, Marjolein
2021. Early Alternatives to Dutch Descriptive Perception Verb Constructions: A Comparison of Two Bible Translations1. Transactions of the Philological Society 119:2 ► pp. 258 ff. DOI logo

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