• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.5
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• pp.265-289
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• 2003

This paper deals with the polysemous phenomenon of perception verbs in terms of metaphor and metonymy and suggest a model of cognitive semantic structure for them. English perception verbs are often used for representing a mental, cognitive activity as well as representing a physical, perceptive activity. This paper looks for a basis for the polysemous use in the creative system of metaphor and metonymy, especially in the meaning extension function of mind-as-body metaphor. English perception verbs show a good example of a metaphor of domain transfer from physical domain to mental or cognitive domain. This paper suggests the conceptual chain and the semantic structure for the perception verb to show the possibility of polysemy and contextual modulation.