Speaking of Colors and Odors (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research)

Description

How to speak of colors and odors? In many cases, we have to think about an adequate description of a perceived odor or shade of color. Words are not fluently available. The contributions discuss color and odor perception and its linguistic representation from different disciplinary angles: from neurobiology, neuropsychology, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics and philosophy. They show that linguistic representation of colors and odors depends highly on cultures of communication. Experts are skilled in discerning finer differences between their sense impressions and have at their disposal a special language which non-experts do not master. The color and odor vocabulary is rare, if there is no cultural habit to communicate the very sense impression. In cases where individuals have to speak of their sensory experiences more precisely they often turn to metaphors. The contributions discuss the lack of inter-individual conventions of naming and describing odors - compared to the more expanded linguistic representation of colors.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Speaking of colors and odorsJ. Benjamins Pub. Co.2007-01-01
• Speaking of Colors and Odors (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research)HardcoverJohn Benjamins Pub.2007-07-26
• Speaking of Colors and OdorsBenjamins Publishing Company, John2007-01-01