Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring

Using verb patterns to represent perceptions

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Introduction

There are four main types of verbs that represent our mental reactions to the world:

	verbs associated with our thoughts and beliefs, eg know, see, understand, believe;
	verbs associated with our perceptions, eg hear, see, smell, feel;
	verbs associated with particular attitudes we have, eg like, love, hate, loathe; and
	verbs associated with our desires and needs, eg want, expect, hope, need.

However, these four types should not be thought of as watertight categories, as there is some overlap with a number of verbs. For example, see can be used in two ways: metaphorically, to mean "understand" , in which case it would be grouped under thoughts and beliefs; and literally, to refer to the act of perceiving through sight , in which case it would be grouped under perceptions.

This file deals with verbs which represent perceptions, eg feel, hear, see, smell, taste, notice, sense, focusing particularly on the grammatical patterns associated with such verbs.

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Introduction
Participants associated with perception verbs
Grammatical patterns associated with the phenomenon
Verb followed by a noun group
Verb followed by a that clause
Verb followed by an object and the bare infinitive
Verb followed by an object and the -ing form
Verb followed by a wh-clause
Verb followed by an if/whether clause
Verb followed by an object and an adjective/-ed participle clause
Ellipsis with perception verbs
Present simple v present continuous tense
A note on the order of participants