Sensory Linguistics

Abstract

Chapter 1. Sensory linguistics 1.1. Introduction Humans live in a perceptual world. All of humanity's accomplishments, from agriculture to space travel, depend on us being able to interact with the world through seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, and smelling. Everything we do, everything we feel, everything we know, is mediated through the senses. Because the senses are so important to us, it is not surprising that all languages have resources for talking about the content of sensory perception. Miller and Johnson-Laird (1976, p. 3) remind us that "word-percept associations are fundamental" to language. Rakova (2003, p. 34) says that we do not have words "just because it is nice for us to have them," but because they are "devices that connect us to the external world." In fact, without the ability to express perceptual content, language would be useless. "Sensory linguistics" is the study of how language relates to the senses. It addresses such fundamental questions as: How are sensory perceptions packaged into words? Which perceptual qualities are easier to talk about than others? How do languages differ in how perception is encoded? And how do words relate to the underlying perceptual systems in the brain? The time is ripe for bringing these questions and many others together. Research into the connection between language and perception has a long tradition in the language sciences. Among other things, researchers have looked at how many words there are for particular sensory modalities (e.g., Viberg, 1983), how frequently particular sensory perceptions are talked about (e.g., San

Conceptualizing Landscapes Through Language: The Role of Native Language and Expertise in the Representation of Waterbody Related Terms

“…Since our primary interest was whether different groups—varying in language background and expertise—differ in a way that might affect policy communication, we selected a method that could be used for a large number of items and participants regardless of native language or background knowledge. Sensorimotor and emotion ratings have been shown to be important for explaining language use (Winter, 2019; Winter et al., 2018), and behavioral responses to words (e.g., Connell, 2014; Lynott et al., 2020; Speed et al., 2023), in different languages (e.g., Chen, Zhao, Long, Lu, & Huang, 2019; Filipovic Durdevic, Popović Stijačić, & Karapandžić, 2016; Lynott et al., 2020; Miklashevsky, 2018; Morucci, Bottini, & Crepaldi, 2019; Speed & Majid, 2017; Vergallito et al., 2020), and so their validity and utility are well attested.…”

“…To illustrate, a concept like rainbow is strongly related to visual but not olfactory information; whereas stairs conjure motor movements of the legs, but not mouth. Sensory, motor, and emotion ratings explain language use (Winter, 2019; Winter, Perlman, & Majid, 2018), and can predict behavioral responses to words (e.g., Connell & Lynott, 2014; Kuperman, Estes, Brysbaert, & Warriner, 2014; Lynott, Connell, Brysbaert, Brand, & Carney, 2020; Lynott & Connell, 2009; Speed, Papies, & Majid, 2023; Speed & Majid, 2017, 2020; Vergallito, Petilli, & Marelli, 2020). In the current study, we ask whether terms referring to waterbodies have different sensory, motor, and emotional associations in English and German individually and as a domain.…”

Linguistic Synaesthesia in Turkish: A Corpus-Based Study of Cross-Modal Directionality

“…It is tempting to speculate about linguistic universals based on the available cross-linguistic evidence of synaesthesia. However, it is equally important to consider the terminological and methodological differences between the abovementioned studies such as the very definition of synaesthesia (see Winter, 2019b), perceptual lexemes identified to extract instances, perceptual taxonomy, corpus size and type, size of the synaesthetic sample, and data analysis. Most importantly, perceptual taxonomy requires further clarification across studies.…”

Mental simulation across sensory modalities predicts attractiveness of food concepts.

“…By rating experience on a 5-point scale, a fine-grained measure of a concept’s multimodal representation can be obtained. Sensorimotor ratings can tell us about the role of sensory modalities in word meaning (Strik Lievers & Winter, 2018; Winter, 2016, 2019; Winter et al, 2018), predict behavioral responses to words (Connell & Lynott, 2014; Lynott & Connell, 2009; Lynott et al, 2020; Speed & Brysbaert, 2020; Speed & Majid, 2017; Vergallito et al, 2020), and explain language use (Winter, 2016, 2019; Winter et al, 2018) and are therefore a valid methodological tool with which to explore mental simulation.…”