Cover not available
Part of
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. 73–112

The domain of olfaction in Basque

This chapter analyzes the domain of olfaction in Basque. Stemming from Ibarretxe-Antuñano’s (1999, 2013) previous work on smell verbs, it explores the role of other olfaction constructions in the encoding of physical and figurative meanings in data drawn from dictionaries and corpora. Results show that smell constructions encode two types of physical perceptual meaning and then develop their figurative meanings accordingly. Copulative perception is related to characteristics and feelings; active / experience perception to information, cognition, and search. Negative connotations usually associated to this sense (i.e. ‘to suspect’) do not necessarily hold in Basque. With respect to usage, few of these smell words are frequently used in present-day Basque, and some of them have undergone specialization and narrowing processes.

Keywords: smell, perception, metaphor, Basque, olfactory vocabulary
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Olfactory expressions: The case of smell verbs in Basque
  • 3.Beyond verbs: Smell nouns in Basque
  • 4.The semantic scope of olfactory vocabulary
    • 4.1Physical meanings
    • 4.2Figurative meanings
  • 5.Just a word on the use of olfactory vocabulary
  • 6.Final remarks and future work: smell in language and culture
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • Dictionaries
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.131.03iba
References

Primary sources

Euskara Institutoa
2013 Euskal Klasikoen Corpusa (EKC) (Classic Basque Corpus). UPV / EHU, Euskara Institutoa. [URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar
Sarasola, Ibon, Salaburu, Pello & Landa, Josu
2001–2007 Ereduzko Prosa Gaur (EPG) (Contemporary Reference Prose). UPV / EHU, Euskara Institutoa. [URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar
2001–2015 Egungo Testuen Corpusa (ETC) (Corpus of Contemporary Basque). UPV / EHU, Euskara Institutoa.<[URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar
UZEI
1987-2001  XX. mendeko Euskararen Corpus Estatistikoa (Statistical Corpus of 20th Century Basque). UZEI / Euskaltzaindia, [URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar

Dictionaries

Elhuyar
n.d. Elhuyar hiztegiak online. [URL] (13 December 2017).
Lakarra, Joseba A.,Manterola, Julen & Segurola, Iñaki.
2019 Euskal Hiztegi Historiko-Etimologikoa (EHHE-200) (Historical-etymological Dictionary of the Basque Language (HEDB-200)). Bilbo: Euskaltzaindia.Google Scholar
Mitxelena, Koldo
1987–2005 Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia (General Dictionary of the Basque Language). Bilbo: Euskaltzaindia. [URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar
Oyharçabal, Beñat
(ed.) 2009–2013 Nola Erran. Frantses-Euskara Hiztegi Elektronikoa (How to speak. A French-Basque Electronic Dictionary). [URL] (13 December 2017).
Sarasola, Ibon
2008- Egungo Euskararen Hiztegia (A Dictionary of Contemporary Basque). UPV / EHU, Euskara Institutoa.[URL] (13 December 2017).Google Scholar
Abbi, Anvita
1994 Semantic Universals in Indian Languages. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study.Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. & Storch, Anne
(eds) 2013 Perception and Cognition in Language and Culture [Brill’s Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 3]. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ackerman, Diane
1990 The Natural History of the Senses. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Akita, Kimi
2009  A Grammar of Sound-Symbolic Words in Japanese: Theoretical Approaches to Iconic and Lexical Properties of Mimetics. PhD dissertation, Kobe University.
Almagor, Uri
1987 The cycle and stagnation of smells: Pastoralists-fishermen relationships in an East African society. Res 13: 106–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameka, Felix
2001 Ideophones and the nature of the adjective word class in Ewe. In Ideophones [Typological Studies in Language 44], F. K. Erhard Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds), 25–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berro, Ane
2015a Breaking Verbs. From Event Structure to Syntactic Categories in Basque. PhD dissertation, UPV / EHU and Université Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM).Google Scholar
2015b Egoera predikatu berriak euskaraz (New stative predicates in Basque). Lapurdum 3: 11–25.Google Scholar
Burenhult, Niclas & Majid, Asifa
2011 Olfaction in Asian ideology and language. Senses and Society 6(1): 19–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burton, Robert
1976 The Language of Smell. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Caplan, David
1973  A note on the abstract readings of verbs of perception. Cognition 2(3): 269–277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chrea, Christelle, Valentin, Dominique, Sulmont-Rossé, Claire, Mai, H.Ly, Nguyen, D. Hoang & Abdi, Hervé
2004 Culture and odor categorization: Agreement between cultures depends upon the odors. Food Quality and Preference 15(7–8): 669–679. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Classen, Constance, Howes, David & Synnott, Anthony
1994 Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Corbin, Alain
1986 The Foul and the Fragrant: Odour and the French Social Imagination. Leamington Spa: Berg.Google Scholar
Cuyckens, Hubert & Zawada, Britta E.
(eds) 2001 Polysemy in Cognitive Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 177]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Detienne, Marcel
1977 The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology. Atlantic Highlands NJ: The Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark
2011 Ideophones and the aesthetics of everyday language in a West-African society. Senses and Society 6(1): 77–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dobkin de Rios, Marlene & Hayden, Brian
1985 Odorous differentiation and variability in the sexual division of labor among hunter/gatherers. Journal of Human Evolution 14(3): 219–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drobnick, Jim
2006 The Smell Culture Reader. Leamington Spa: Berg.Google Scholar
Dupire, Marguerite
1987 Des Goûts et des odeurs: Classifications et universaux. L’Homme 27(104): 525. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Essegbey, James
2013 Touch ideophones in Nyagbo. In Selected Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Linguistic Interfaces in African Languages, Olanike Ola Orie & Karen W. Sanders (eds), 235–243. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Etxepare, Ricardo
2003 Valency and argument structure in the Basque verb. In A Grammar of Basque [Mouton Grammar Library 26], José Ignacio Hualde & Jon Ortiz de Urbina (eds), 363–426. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández, Beatriz & Ortiz de Urbina, Jon
2010 Datiboa hiztegian (The Dative in the Lexicon). Bilbo: UPV/EHU.Google Scholar
Gisborne, Nikolas
2010 The Event Structure of Perception Verbs. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González Holguín, Diego
1608 Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Perú llamada lengua qquichua o del Inca (Vocabulary of the General Language of Peru Called Qquichua Language or that of the Inca). Los Reyes (Lima): Francisco del Canto. [URL] (13 December 2017).
Gorrochategui, Joaquín, Igartua, Iván & Lakarra, Joseba A.
2018 Euskararen historia / Historia de la lengua vasca (History of the Basque Language). Gasteiz: Eusko Jaurlaritza.Google Scholar
Gries, Stephan T.
2015 Polysemy. In Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics [Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Sciences 39], Ewa Dąbrowska & Dagmar Divjak (eds), 472–490. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harrison, K. David
2007 When Languages Die. The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Homan, Phillip, Benjamin, Ely A., Yuan, May, Brosch, Tobias, Ng, John, Trope, Yaacov & Schiller, Daniela
2017 Aversive smell associations shape social judgment. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 144: 86–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio & Ortiz de Urbina, Jon
(eds) 2003 A Grammar of Basque [Mouton Grammar Library 26]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide
1999 Metaphorical mappings in the sense of smell. In Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 175], Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. & Gerard J. Steen (eds), 29–45. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Vision metaphors for the intellect: Are they really cross-linguistic? Atlantis 30(1): 15–33.Google Scholar
2013 The power of the senses and the role of culture in metaphor and language. In Sensuous Cognition: Explorations into Human Sentience: Imagination, (E)motion and Perception [Applications of Cognitive Linguistics 22], Rosario Caballero & Javier Díaz-Vera (eds), 109–133. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Basque ideophones from a typological perspective. Canadian Journal of Linguistics / Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 62(2): 196–220. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 Perception metaphors in cognitive linguistics: Scope, motivation, and lexicalization. In Perception Metaphors [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 19], Laura J., Speed, Carolyn O’Meara, Lila San Roque & Asifa Majid (eds), 43–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kulemeka, Andrew Tilimbe Clement
1993 The Status of the Ideophone in Chichewa. PhD dissertation, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Lahaussois, Aimée
2017 Ideophones in Khaling Rai. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 40(2): 179–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey
1971 Meaning and the English Verb. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lehrer, Adrianne
1990 Polysemy, conventionality, and the structure of the lexicon. Cognitive Linguistics 1(2): 207–246. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Majid, Asifa & Burenhult, Niclas
2014 Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language. Cognition 130: 266–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Areta, Mikel
(ed.) 2013 Basque and Proto-Basque: Language-Internal and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Reconstruction. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Michelena, Luis
1990 Fonética histórica vasca (Basque Historical Phonetics). Donostia: Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia.Google Scholar
Ong, Walter J.
1991 The shifting sensorium. In The Varieties of Sensory Experience. A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses, David Howes (ed.), 25–30. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Osborne, Harold
1977 Odours and appreciation. The British Journal of Aesthetics 17(1): 37–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pandya, Vishvajit
1993 Above the Forest: A Study of Andamanese Ethnoanemology, Cosmology and the Power of Ritual. Delhi: OUP.Google Scholar
Pawłowska, Kamilla
2014 The smells of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey: Time and space of human activity. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 36: 1–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poutsma, Hendrik
1926 A Grammar of Late Modern English, Part II: The Parts of Speech, Section II. Groningen: Nordhoff.Google Scholar
Rogers, Andrew
1971 Three kinds of physical perception verbs. Chicago Linguistics Society 7: 206–223.Google Scholar
Sweetser, Eve E.
1990 From Etymology to Pragmatics. Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantic Structure [Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 54]. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thoden van Velzen, Hendrik U. E. & van Wetering, Wilhelmina
1988 The Great Father and the Danger: Religious Cults, Material Forces, and Collective Fantasies in the World of the Surinamese Maroons. Dordrecht: Fortis.Google Scholar
Trask, Robert L.
1997 A History of Basque. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tufvesson, Sylvia
2011 Analogy-making in the Semai sensory world. Senses and Society 6(1): 86–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela, Javier
2017 Meaning in English: An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Beek, Walter E.A.
1992 The dirty smith: Smell as a social frontier among the Kapsiki / Higi of North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria. Africa 62(1): 38–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vanhove, Martine
2008 Semantic associations between sensory modalities, prehension and mental perceptions: A crosslinguistic perspective. In From Polysemy to Semantic Change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations [Studies in Language Companion Series 106], Martine Vanhove (ed), 343–370. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Viberg, Åke
1984 The verbs of perception: A typological study. In Explanations for Language Universals, Brian Butterworth, Bernard Comrie & Östen Dahl (eds), 123–162. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wnuk, Ewelina & Majid, Asifa
2014 Revisiting the limits of language: The odor lexicon of Maniq. Cognition 131(1): 125–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zuazo, Koldo
2013 The Dialects of Basque. Reno NV: Center for Basque Studies.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Siahaan, Poppy
2022. Indonesian basic olfactory terms: more negative types but more positive tokens. Cognitive Linguistics 33:3 ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo
Toratani, Kiyoko
2022. Introduction to the volume. In The Language of Food in Japanese [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 25], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
ÖZKAN KURT, Fatma
2022. Türkiye Türkçesinde Koku Alanını İfade Etme Biçimleri: Eylemler. Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi 6:4 ► pp. 1416 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.