"And you will indeed look, but never perceive." Comparing visual perception verbs in Kindibu: a construction grammar account

In this paper, I discuss two visual perception verbs in Kindibu, namely kumona and kutala. Two related issues are addressed concerning these verbs: (i) What are the meanings of kumona and kutala in Kindibu and subsequently, what are the various constructions they appear in? (ii) A direct corollary of proposing a polysemic network (rather than analyzing the different senses as instances of homonymy) is to establish the underlying link(s) between the various meanings. I will argue, following Sweetser’s (1990) account of perception verbs in (mainly) English and some other Indo-European languages, that the relation between the various meanings of the visual perception verbs in Kindibu is a metaphorical one. It is shown that the related senses of kumona all pertain to perception of an abstract ‘inner’ (both physical as relating to one’s body and psychological as relating to the mind), and those of kutala to an abstract ‘outer’, both willful, volitional perception as well as forming opinions and purposefully scanning the environment.