This project fits within the research into the possibly universal polysemy of perception verbs, but concentrates especially on a very complex but neglected element. More particularly, the project aims at the systematic analysis of the semantic and syntactic characteristics of sentir in Spanish and in comparative perspective with other Romance languages (French, Italian). In accordance with this twofold objective, it aspires to map out accurately the metaphorical extensions, the semantic fields and their intersections that determine the meaning of the Spanish verb sentir taking into account a diachronic perspective. In addition, it examines to what extent this intricate polysemy can be associated with specific syntactic patterns. By means of a thorough corpus-based approach, the semantic-syntactic interface will be captured both synchronically and diachronically leading up to a fine-grained behavioral profile of the verb. Furthermore, it examines to what extent this profile applicable to Spanish also exists in other Romance languages such as French and Italian and how some language specific semantic specializations of the verb give rise to particular pragmatic implications.