10. From psychophysics to semiophysics
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Danièle Dubois
Abstract
Exploring categories of odors from free sorting tasks and their representations in language by means of numerous different linguistic devices invited us to reconsider the cognitive model elaborated from the analysis of lexical forms and visual (and particularly color) categories. The diversity of linguistic resources available to ‘name’ and describe categories in olfaction and in audition as well, allows to clarify the relations between subjective and individual representations (psychology) vs. collective or shared lexical meaning (linguistics). It entails the elaboration of a semiotic conception of categories, accounting for individual and collective experiences and practices (including linguistic practices) for the different senses, shifting apart from the cognitivist conception of categorization as information processing.
Abstract
Exploring categories of odors from free sorting tasks and their representations in language by means of numerous different linguistic devices invited us to reconsider the cognitive model elaborated from the analysis of lexical forms and visual (and particularly color) categories. The diversity of linguistic resources available to ‘name’ and describe categories in olfaction and in audition as well, allows to clarify the relations between subjective and individual representations (psychology) vs. collective or shared lexical meaning (linguistics). It entails the elaboration of a semiotic conception of categories, accounting for individual and collective experiences and practices (including linguistic practices) for the different senses, shifting apart from the cognitivist conception of categorization as information processing.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- 1. Speaking of colors and odors 1
- 2. Color smell, and language: The semiotic nature of perception and language 19
- 3. How can language cope with color? Functional aspects of the nervous system 35
- 4. Color perception, color description and metaphor 61
- 5. Attractiveness and adornment 85
- 6. Color terms between elegance and beauty. The verbalization of color with textiles and cosmetics 113
- 7. Color names and dynamic imagery 129
- 8. From blue stockings to blue movies: Color metonymies in English 141
- 9. Odor memory 155
- 10. From psychophysics to semiophysics 167
- 11. Cognition, olfaction and linguistic creativity: Linguistic synesthesia as poetic device in cologne advertisement 185
- 12. Understanding synesthetic expressions 203
- 13. Olfactory and visual processing and verbalization 227
- Contributors 239
- Index 241
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- 1. Speaking of colors and odors 1
- 2. Color smell, and language: The semiotic nature of perception and language 19
- 3. How can language cope with color? Functional aspects of the nervous system 35
- 4. Color perception, color description and metaphor 61
- 5. Attractiveness and adornment 85
- 6. Color terms between elegance and beauty. The verbalization of color with textiles and cosmetics 113
- 7. Color names and dynamic imagery 129
- 8. From blue stockings to blue movies: Color metonymies in English 141
- 9. Odor memory 155
- 10. From psychophysics to semiophysics 167
- 11. Cognition, olfaction and linguistic creativity: Linguistic synesthesia as poetic device in cologne advertisement 185
- 12. Understanding synesthetic expressions 203
- 13. Olfactory and visual processing and verbalization 227
- Contributors 239
- Index 241
