Linguistic Synaesthesia

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingChapter in an edited book (as author)Academic researchpeer-review

Abstract

Synaesthesia in language consists in the combination of linguistic expressions referring to different sensory modalities, as in bitter voice. In this chapter, we first address the debate on the definition of synaesthesia, arguing that it is a type of metaphor. Next, we review research on preferences in synaesthetic sensory combinations; for instance, many studies show that in several languages hearing is very frequently a target of synaesthetic transfers (as in bitter voice) but rarely a source. Finally, we suggest that such strong cross-linguistic preferences as well as minor language-specific differences may be accounted for by a combination of perceptual, cultural, and linguistic factors.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
EditorsWen Xu, John R. Taylor
PublisherTaylor and Francis Ltd.
Chapter22
Pages372-383
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781351034692
ISBN (Print)9781138490710
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jun 2021

Publication series

NameRoutledge Handbooks in Linguistics
PublisherRoutledge

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

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