In:Perception Metaphors
Edited by Laura J. Speed, Carolyn O'Meara, Lila San Roque and Asifa Majid
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 19] 2019
► pp. 65–84
Chapter 4Perception metaphor in English
A bird’s-eye view
Published online: 21 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.19.04and
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.19.04and
Abstract
This chapter offers a perspective on perception metaphor based on the evidence of the recorded language history of English. It draws on the analysis carried out by the “Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus” project, which in turn exploits lexicographical evidence representing the English language over a period of more than a millennium. The foundation of the project is the principle that metaphor can be discerned in the lexis shared across semantic fields. The chapter gives an overview of metaphors with either a source or a target in each of the five perception categories and uses examples from the relatively neglected senses, Touch, Taste and Smell, to illustrate the richness and long history of perception metaphors in English.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus
- 2.1Methods
- 2.2Getting to grips with the data
- 2.3The Metaphor Map
- 3.Perception metaphor
- 3.1Overview of perception categories
- 3.2A comparison: Overview of emotion categories
- 3.3Touch: Metaphor over time
- 3.4Smell: Categories and domains
- 3.5Taste: Senses as source and target
- 4.Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References
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