Perception verb complements in Akatek, a Mayan language

34 2. PERCEPTION VERBS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTS
to the meaning extensions observed within the domain of perception,
there are some non-sensory sources for the domain of perception including
words expressing `know', `seize, take' or `stretch out, direct one's
attention to' as is shown further below.
Buck (1949) notices that most verbs for general sense perception,
e.g. sentire, are also used in the sense of `perceive' mentally
or `feel' emotionally. These additional usages have not necessarily
been acquired secondarily. For example, perceive developed from Latin
percipere `seize, get, perceive (by mind or senses of sight or hearing),
feel (pain, joy, etc.)', which in turn is a compound of capere `seize, take'.
The Old Norse kenna, which literally meant `know, recognize', also covered
sense perception, especially for smell, taste, and touch, which
Swedish kanna still does today. In other words, a non-sensory meaning
is sometimes the etymological source for verbs expressing general sense
perception.
In IE, vision and knowledge go back to the same root *weid. The
meaning `know' is probably a secondary one derived from the perfect
of *weid, *woida, which meant `have seen' and later on `know'.
The general tendency regarding the semantic change for the sense
of hearing is that sense perception develops into cognitive insight, e.g.
`understand' or `obey' (Latin auscultare, New High German gehorchen).
This can also be observed in nouns that etymologically developed from
`hear'. They often denote `what is heard from speech', e.g. `report,
news, fame' or `word' (Buck (1949), 1036). An uncommon development
can be traced in French for entendre `hear', which does not stem
from a PV but from Latin intendere `stretch out, direct one's attention
to'. Entendre replaced the older verb for hearing, ou r. Along
with Italian intendere and Spanish entender, entendre originally meant
`understand' and semantically extended into the perception domain to
cover hearing.
The etymologically veri ed connection between smell and taste,
and to a degree also touch, in the IE languages (Buck, 1949) explains
in part the di culty to order these three sense modalities along the
hierarchy. For example, Middle English fele `feel' was used basically
for touch, but also for smell and taste. On the other hand, there are
cases of etymologically older words for general sense perception that
have been restricted in the modern languages to a particular sense.
An example is Latin sentire `perceive', which in Modern Italian was
narrowed down to mean `hear' (instead of the older lexicalization for
hearing, udire) and `smell' (instead of the older lexicalization for
smell, odorare). In French, sentir designates `smell'. On the other