With reference to extensive material the study shows that the linking behaviour of French and Italian verbs of feeling is rule guided The crucial factor here is neither non accusativity nor causativity but the distinction between episodic and non episodic feelings The former require a subject EXPERIENCER the latter an object EXPERIENCER After an initial demarcation of the boundaries of the topic a large number of classes of verbs of feeling are established followed by an analysis of verbs of annoyance liking and astonishment as instances of a negative positive and neutral feeling respectively