This article considers the verbs of perception in the three Western Romanic languages: French, Italian and Spanish. In the present paper the bond between deixis and verbs of perception is being investigated. The research has revealed a fundamental difference between a field of indication and a symbolic field, which refers to cognitive, emotional, axiological moduses derived from the modus of perception. The analysis of the material has given grounds to introduce correlative notions of primary and secondary deixis. Depending on the conduct of agential, time and spatial coordinates in the discourse they form primary and secondary deixis of the deictic-field and primary and secondary deixis of the symbolic fieldyesBelgorod State Universit

Koteneva, I. A.

Moiseeva, S. A.

Treshcheva, N. V.

DSpace at Belgorod State University

VERBS OF PERCEPTION IN WESTERN ROMANIC LANGUAGES AND PHENOMENON OF DEIXISSophia Akhmetovna Moiseeva, Inna Anatolievna Koteneva, Natalia Vasilievna TreshchevaBelgorod State University, 85 Pobedy St., Belgorod 308015 (RUSSIA)DOI: 10.7813/jll.2015/6-2/40Received: 05 Feb, 2015 Accepted: 17 Mar, 2015ABSTRACTThis article considers the verbs of perception in the three W estern Romanic languages: French, Italian and Spanish. In the present paper the bond between deixis and verbs of perception is being investigated. The research has revealed a fundamental difference between a field of indication and a symbolic field, which refers to cognitive, emotional, axiological moduses derived from the modus of perception. The analysis of the material has given grounds to introduce correlative notions of primary and secondary deixis. Depending on the conduct of agential, time and spatial coordinates in the discourse they form primary and secondary deixis of the deictic-field and primary and secondary deixis of the symbolic field.Key w o rd s : verbs of perception, deixis, deictic-field, field of indication, symbolic field, correlative notions, spatial coordinates1. INTRODUCTIONBehavior of verbs of perception should be studied not in system only, but also in specific oral practice as well, in syntagmatics, taking into account an important role of specking individuals in organization on of speech, role of situation in the usage and interpretation of grammar phenomena [1, 10]. With such approach one should refer to the concept of functional interpretation of semantic field (SF), which allows connecting syntagmatic and paradigmatic features of units and to discover their interconditionality. In syntagmatic aspect functional hierarchy nexus -  c e n te r-  periphery  in SF is manifested in limitation of usage of units that belong to field of fixed, sometimes, “s tu ff combinability; while in paradigmatic context it is manifested by complexing paradigmatic structure [2, 48].2. METHODSThis work uses systematic-centric and anthropocentric approaches as fundamental ones. Search of common and different traits in studied languages are performed with application of the following methods: comparative-typological one, contrastive one, component and valence ones.3. THE MAIN PARTVerbs in their functional and semantic aspect are divided into nominative and demonstrative (deictic) ones. In the system of verbs of perception (VP) one may not omit deictic compound, since in SF of perception division of sensory and cognitive moduses is closely connected with the theory of deixis, which refers to common-linguistic notions, actual for many modalities and trends. There is a deictic theory of reference [3], there have been developed terminological definitions of role deixis [4, 5], deictic information, deictic marks [6], deicticity [7]. Recently new terms have appeared, such as communicative deixis, situational deixis, quantity-estimative deixis etc. However, connection of deixis with the field theory in “field” research literature hasn’t been studied. K. Buhler’s Theory of two fields -  deictic and symbolic ones -  was left beyond the attention of modern “fieldeologists” . There is an essential notion in Buhler’s theory that states that there is only one demonstrative field in the language, and semantic filling of the mentioned words is connected with percieved demonstrative means, which don’t go without them or their equivalents [8].The aim of this article is to study the connection of deixis with verbs of perception in three W est Romanic languages: French, Spanish and Italian. VP denote the first voluntary and involuntary contact of the person with objective world. Their abstracter is represented by functions of five sense organs: vision, hearing, smelling, touch and taste.Verbs of perception represent a special group of lexical units, where the seme “perception” is found in etymons of the majority of signed words. Verbs of vision denote the sphere of the visible [8, 41]. Thus, R uss ian  w o rd  окно  (a w in d o w ) is d e riva tive ly  con nec te d  w ith  the  w o rd  око  (an eye) th ro u g h  the  sem e “to  se e ” . Fo r in ves tig a tion  and de scrip tion  o f V P  the  th e o ry  o f tw o  fie ld s  (d e ic tic  and sym b o lic  ones) have a fu n d a m e n ta l m ean ing , fa vo u rin g  d iv is ion  o f “p rope r p e rce p tive ” m ean ing  o f  V P  and th e ir “ n o n -p rope r p e rce p tive ” on e s  th a t re la te  to  o th e r m oduses: cog n itiona l, em otiona l and ax io lo g ica l, w h ich  are  d e riva tive s  from  p e rcep tio n  m odus. K. Buhler makes fundamental difference between the field of denomination in the language, where marks performing deictic function exist, and a symbolic field, formed by denominative words, which are situationally independent. Here it is the case of autonomous functions of direct demonstration and perceptual situation. Symbolic field is connected with imaginary (mental perception, according to K. Buhler), and deictic one is directly connected with the perceived information. K. Buhler, while considering these fields, notes three means of denomination:1) de m o n s tra tive  one  (ad ocu lus), i.e. d irec t de n o m in a tio n  w ith  the  he lp  o f g e s tu re s  o r de n o m in a tive  w o rd s  th a t re la te  to  se n su a lly  pe rce ived  sp e c if ic  ob jects ;2) a n a p h o ric  one -  d e nom in a tion  w ith  th e  he lp  o f ve rba l m eans w ith in  the  lim its  o f d e ic tic  fie ld  o r text;3) “d e ix is  to  the  im a g in a ry ” (d e ix is  ad phan tasm a), i.e. d e n o m in a tio n  o f a b s tra c t p lace , w h ich  is  loca ted  in the  deep laye rs  o f  m em ory  [10]. The firs t m e thod is  e n coun te re d  in d ire c tly  pe rce ived  s itua tion  (le t us  ca ll it| 201“b in o cu la r p r in c ip le ”). The second  one  is en coun te re d  at repeated  po in ting  a t th e  deno ted  ob ject. For e xp lica tion  o f the  th ird  one  K. Buhler uses the language of pantomime [9, 77]. P ercep tive  and d e ic tic  ac ts  have co m m o n  and d iffe ren t tra its . D e ic tic  ac t is  p o ss ib le  on ly  in  the  p rocess  o f pe rcep tion , w h ile  in p e rcep tive  ac t p e rcep tio n  and nom ina tion  m ay co inc ide . D eno ta tion  o f d e ic tic  fie ld  (D F) is  re p resen ted  by d e ic tic  m a rks  “m a rks  th a t have  re fe ren ts , but d o n ’t have  d e s ig n a to rs ” [10]: je ,  v o id , vo ila  and o th e rs  -  de n o ta tio n  o f sym b o lic  fie ld  is sem antic  con text, fo rm ed  by de n o m in a tive  w ord s . S enso ry  v e rb s  re fe r to  d e nom in a tive  w ord s , th e se  are the  ve rbs  o f v is io n : fr. voir, regarder, esp. ver, it. vedere, guardare; hearing: fr. entendre, ecouter, esp. oir, escuchar, it. udire, ascoltare and others.The con ten t o f d e ic tic  m a rk  ch a n g e s  w h e n  com m u n ica tive  s itua tion  cha nges , w h ile  se m a n tics  o f  V P  do e sn ’t cha nge  -  no m a tte r if  w e  ob se rve  the  river, fo res t or s ky  th ro u g h  b ino cu la r -  but d e ic tic  w o rd s  and V P  are com b ined  w ith  one and the  sam e p sych o -ph ys io log ica l channe l: the  com m on  “fie ld  o f v is io n ” o f the  spe ak ing  pe rson and lis ten ing  pe rson. H ow eve r, w e  shou ld  e m phas ize  th a t he re  w e  re fe r to  “ p roper p e rce p tive ” V P , w hen  the y  a c tu a lize  the  sem e  “to  pe rce ive  s o m e th in g ” , d isen gag ing  them  from  “n o n -p ro p e r p e rce p tive ” on es  (co gn itive , em otiona l etc). Thus, d e ic tic  fie ld  o f V P  is  SF, in w h ich  p rope r pe rcep tive  m e an ing s  o f the  ve rb s  a re  rea lized , w h ich  a re  con d itione d  by  re fe re n t co n nec tion  w ith  s itua tion  o f pe rcep tio n  hie et nunc. Let us note tha t the re  are va rio u s  seco ndary  m ean ings o f VP, w hen  the  sem e “to  perce ive by the  sense  bo dy” is e ith e r not actua lized , being subs titu ted  by new  m ean ings, or is m ixed w ith  m ental, em otiona l and o th e r ones, w h ich  are d is tribu ted  th rough o th e r type s  o f FS m oduses. Fu rthe r deve lopm ent o f the  no tion  o f de ix is  lies  in in troduction  o f co rre la tive  no tions o f p rim ary  and seco ndary  de ix is . In case “ live ” s itua tion  o f com m un ica tion  is ca lled  p rim ary  de ix is , the n  any o the r one tha t is  not com b ined  w ith  perception , is  ca lled seco ndary  de ix is  [11], o r a n a p h o ric  one  [12, 13]. D e ix is  o f pe rcep tio n  has the  fo llo w in g  coo rd ina tes :a) actan tia l one, w hen  w e  d is tinc t be tw een the  one w ho  pe rce ives (the agent o f pe rceptive  act) and the  one w h o  is perce ived (the ob jec t o f pe rceptive  act);b) tem po ra ry  one: in regard to  the  po in t o f re fe rence on tim e  ax is  o f n a rra tion  (s im u ltane ity , p recedence  and fo llow ing );c) spa tia l one: com m on o r inde pen den t s tay  o f ac ta n ts  (here, there).A c tan t co o rd in a te : VP, w h ich  en te r in to  pe rceptive  acts, have “the  ob se rve r” (narra tor). H e ex is ts  beyond sub je c t-p red ica te  s truc tu re  o f exp ress ion , h is  position  is connected w ith  the  no tion o f “po in t o f re fe re nce ” . D epend ing  in the  num ber and cha rac te r o f ac tan ts  in speech  act, the y  are d iv ide d  into e locu tive  (w h ich  do not have the  rece iver), a llocu tive  (w h ich  inc lude  the  rece iver) and de locu tive . The firs t tw o  o rgan ize  na rra tion  from  the  firs t- pe rson pe rspective , and the  th ird  one rep resen ts  na rra tion  from  the  th ird  person pe rspective . H ere is  an exa m p le  o f e luca tive  act: fr. Ester -  J'etais bete a m anger du foin et j'e ta is  heureuse d'un bonheur stupide. Je ne veux plus etre bete. Je veux penser, regarder, ju g e r  (Cocteau). Depending in time axis, delocutive acts may be connected with secondary deixis. For example: : fr. (1) Je regarde la rue. (2) II regarde la rue. (3) La rue est vue de tous les cotes. In the first sentence all three persons coincide (personal deixis); in the second example the subject of percepice action and narrator are different acting persons (temporal deixis). In the third sentence the object of perception represents subject, while the subject of perception and narrator stay unexpressed (spatial one). All perceived data that come to the person stay within some sequence, in system of reference that is denoted by deictics of “here” , “now” , “me” . They represent the centre of system of reference, in which stay all sensual data that come to a person. Thus, denominative field is directly connected with perceptive act. Deixis includes the concept of speaking person of sender of speech. Personal deixis points at the role of the participants in narration. The category of the first person is grammaticalization of the reference of the speaking person on himself, the second person is a reference one and more receivers, and the third person is a reference to persons or objects, which are neither speaking part nor a receiver. Such denominative words symbolize personal, spatial and temporal deixis and are trhe center of the system of reference [13, 106-115]. Denomination filed is directly connected with perceptive act, and perceptive seme plays the role of basic distinctive feature of lexemes that exist in DF. The main features of deictic elements are their pragmaticity [14] and non-transparency. The content of symbolic filed are polysemic VP + secondary deixis: deixis of retelling, narrative deixis [11, 24]. Let us consider the following example: fr. Tu avais I'air s i gentil de me presenter a tout le monde (F. Sagan). In this sentence we can observe secondary deixis: non-coincidence of place of the narrator with spatial reference point. Thus, object of DF i presented in formula “perception + speech” , where speech reflects the situation of perception and gives information about its actants, about narrator’s attitude to ir. For instance: fr. Mais quand elle le vit entrer chez elle, trapu, le visage colore sous les cheveux en brosse, elle se dit, que la no ix serait assez dure a briser (A. Maurois). This example describes the situation, where the narrator and the perceiving person -  the agent of perceptive action -  do not coincide.S peech fo rm ation  m ay represent pe rceptive  act in present, past o r inform  us about suggested ac ts  in fu ture: fr. Le passe etait le passe, n 'est-ce pas? Si on conservait de la rancune apres des neuf ans e t des dix ans, on finirait pa r ne plus voir personne (E. Zola). The action takes place in the past, but the character’s suggestion, expressed in pronoun “on” refer to the future, while perceptive verb voir is used not in its primal meaning, but rather in the secondary one -  to meet each other. Principle of correlation of two types of moduses (perceptive and speech one) lies at the heart of studying “behavior” of this group of verbs in various types of speech, when there is a difference between: perception as a real fact, consistent with speech (descriptive act of speech); perception as a real fact, not consistent with speech (broadcast), witnessing and narration: imagination. The first one is included into primary deixis, while the other ones are included into secondary one. If the narration happens in the form of the first and second person (I/you), narrator and subject coincide. T hey do n ’t co inc id e  in case  na rra tion  is  pe rfo rm ed  in the  fo rm  o f the  th ird  pe rson . In its  o n to log ica l fea tu re s  na rra tive  and pe rce p tive  typ e s  o f  ac tiv ity , be ing m a n ife s ta tio n s  o f ac tiv ity  o f h u m a n ’s fu n c tio n a l sys tem s, co inc ide , but th e y  do not a p p e a r by  the m se lves : p e rcep tive  ac tio ns  a re  re ac tion  on ex te rna l s tim u li, on speech  m essage, and a large n u m b e r o f  tra nsm itte d  in fo rm a tio n  resu lts  from  th e  fa c t o f pe rcep tio n . W e m ay su p pose  th a t sph e re  o f fu n c tion ing  o f V P  is ra the r a sym b o lic  fie ld , and it’s ju s t the  p lace  w h e re  v e rb s  o f pe rcep tio n  d e m o n s tra te  the  b lossom  o f po lysem y; V P  acco rd ing  to  “p rin c ip le  o f b in o cu la r” a re  used m uch m ore  ra re ly . Thus, w e  m ay m a rk  out p rim ary  and se co n d a ry  d e ix is  o f DF, and, a s  a s tud y  has show n, the re  is a p rim a ry  and seco nda ry  d e ix is  o f s ym b o lic  fie ld .I. Primary deixis of DF is reflected in the following examples: fr. (1) Relevant les yeux, on constate qu 'il est m aintenant debout devant la porte, face a celle-ci, с 'est-a-dire toujours tournant le dos a la salle. (Robbe-Grillet). Apparent narrator, describing one’s perceptive act, is at the same time a perciver (2) Un bruit violent attire /'attention a I'autre extremite| 202de la piece  (Robbe-Grillet). Impersonal narrator describes acts of visual and hearing perception, Time of perception coincides with the time of narration.II. S econdary  de ix is  o f DF is re flected in the  fo llow ing  exam ple: (3) En le voyant avec sa femme, j'a i compris pourquoi dans le quartier on disait qu 7/ etait distinguee (Camus). In this example the perciever’s action is directed into the past. 4) Tu avais I'air s i gene de me presenter a tout le monde (Sagan). In thsi example we may see non-coincidence of place of the speker with point of reference.III. P rim ary  d e ix is  o f sym b o lic  fie ld  is re flec ted  in the  ph rase : fr. Je ne sens pas une unanimite dans le pays sur ce sujet. Multivalent VP sentir actualizes the meaning; the sentence reflects cognitive act., fr. Je vois d ’ic i la page de mon dossier. In this context voir (“to see”) shows the meaning “to imagine, to visualize". This is a deixis to the imagined.IV. Secondary deixis of symbolic filed: J 'a i vu mourir des centaines de blesses. The verb voir is used in the first person, singular, past tense (non-coincidence of narrator’s place with spatial and temporal points of reference). The meaning “to see” is obliterated; it acquires the meaning “to recollect” . GF in the following phrase represents the name of the will act. it. Vedi d i farcela da solo is equivalent to French Tache de te debrouiller tout seul.4. SUMMARYLexical system of the language is not only structurized combination of separate words, but the system of interconnected and intersecting classes of words. In this article at study of the connection of deixis with the verbs of perception we have detected fundamental difference between the field of denomination and symbolic field. SF of the verbs of sensual perception is connected with semantic fields that serve the systems of intellectual, emotional and evaluative activity and other actions that relate to corresponding spheres of language.5. CONCLUSIONSVerbs of perception in perceptive and non-perceptive meanings, connected with the theory of deictic and symbolic fields, they relate to intentional and modal logics, respectively. Quantitative analysis has detected that primary deixis of deictic and symbolic fields is used much more rarely than secondary one. Material of the study has also shown that verbs of visual perception in visual acts are much more often used in non-perceptive meanings.As it can be seen from the above, we have presented some results of studying VP, which is formed by cognitive mechanisms of perceptive activity of human. W e should note that VP are not isolated class in language system. Lexical- semantic field of VP is connected with semantic fields that serve the system of evaluative activity, emotional system, as well as the systems of various actions; however, this connection to the fullest extent is expressed with regards to the system of intellectual activity.REFERENCES1. Gak, V.G., 2000. Theoretical grammar of French. -  М.: Dobrosvet. - 8 3 2  p.2. Денисенко, B.H., 2002. Семантическое поле как функция. Филологические науки. № 4. -  С. 44 - 52.3. Kaplan, D., 1978. Syntax and semantics. Pragmatics. -  N.Y.: San-Francisco, London: Academic Press,Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Comp, XII, pp. 340.4. Buhler, K., 1934.Sprachtheorie: die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache. -  Jena: -  pp.434.5. Krylov S.A., 1984. Regarding typology of deictic systems. Linguistic researches. Typology. Dialectology. Etymology. Comparative linguistics. -  Part 1. -  M. -  P. 138 - 148.6. Kurilowicz, J., 1983.Essays on deixis. -  Tubingen. -  pp. 5-7.7. Gladrow, W., 1979. Die determ ination des Substantiven im Russischene und Deutscen. -  Lpz.8. Buhler, K., 1993. Theory of language: the representational function of language. -  Foundations of semiotics 25. -  pp.496.9. Buhler, K., 1982. Deixis ad Phantasma and the Anaphoric Use of Deictic Words. Speech, Place and Action. Studies in Deixis and Related Topics. Chichester, -  N.Y. -  pp. 619- 629.10. About semantic structure of the language. New development in foreign linguistics. No. 5. -  M. -  301 p.11. Srebryanskaya N.A., 2005. Status of deictic projections in literary text. Bulletin of VSU, Series “ Linguistics and intercultural communication” . No.1. -  P. 24-27.1. 12.Todorov, T, 1970. Problemes de renonciation. Langages. 17. Mars.12. Moiseeva S.A., 2012. Verbs of perception in W estern Romanic languages. Spanish, French, Italian. -  LAP LAMBERT: Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken, Germany. -  279 p.13. Kalashova A.S., 2013. Peculiarities of reference of deictic elements in politic discourse. Bulletin of MSOU. Series “ Linguistics” No.5. -  P.7-13.| 203

Verbs of perception in western romanic languages and phenomenon of Deixis

http://dspace.bsu.edu.ru/bitstream/123456789/14365/1/Moiseeva_Verbs_15.pdf

Verbs of perception in western romanic languages and phenomenon of Deixis

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DSpace at Belgorod State University