Chapter published 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. 305–338

Alternating smell in Modern Hebrew

| The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Many studies on perception verbs have dealt with the typology and semantic properties of their clausal complements. Other studies have dealt with the lexical relatedness of different perception verbs with a common sensory modality. Bridging these two views, this work focuses on the Modern Hebrew verb le-hariax ‘to smell’, which alternates in the case-marking of the experiencer and in the type of complement clause, and on the semantic properties which accompany the alternation. The lexical relatedness between words with a common sensory base is expressed through morpho-syntactic means, shared with verbs of other sensory modalities, and these shed light on the linguistic manifestation of the sensory hierarchy and on the contribution of voice alternation within the field of perception.
Keywords: perception, indirect perception, voice, nominative vs. dative experiencer, factivity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The perception of smell
    • 2.1Modern Hebrew perception verbs: An overview
    • 2.2The morpho-syntactic alternation of Modern Hebrew perception verbs
    • 2.3Factivity
    • 2.4Belief formation
    • 2.5Indirect perception
    • 2.6Non-literal uses
    • 2.7An account for the alternating perception le-hariax in Modern Hebrew
  • 3.Smell and taste verbs in Modern Hebrew
    • 3.1 le raxreax ‘to sniff out’ and le hasnip̄ ‘to sniff’
    • 3.2Odor emission le-hariax
    • 3.3 li-t’om ‘to taste’
  • 4.From Biblical smell to Modern Hebrew smell
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.131.11avi
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