Object complements and verbs of perception

Verbs expressing perceptual processes can take different types of object complement. Since perception verbs are known to be highly polysemous there could be a correlation between complement type and verb meaning. In the case of voir one of the relevant factors appears to be the grammatical category of the object complement: verbal complements tend to confine themselves to perceptual meaning; nominal complements, on the other hand, tend to express opinion. This correlation confirms and extends earlier analyses of adjectival complements. Furthermore, there seems to be a certain correlation with the form of the object complement, nominal complements preferring to be introduced by prepositions and the like (comme). These correlations are found not only in the case of voir, but also in the case of other perception verbs, which opens interesting perspectives for further research into the semantics of these verbs.