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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. 85–104

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Chapter 5
Metaphors and perception in the lexicon

A diachronic perspective

 | University of Pisa
 | University of Pisa
Published online: 21 February 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.19.05str
Abstract
Polysemy patterns in the sensory lexicon have been the subject of many studies, mostly synchronically oriented. This paper investigates whether the regularities observed for the intrafield and transfield polysemy of sensory lexemes can also be noted in the semantic changes that the lexemes undergo over time. Based on lexicographic resources, we analyse the sense(s) of Classical Latin sensory adjectives and “follow” them until Contemporary Italian. Our findings indicate that semantic shifts that occurred over time largely conform to the patterns that emerge from synchronic analyses: if some change in meaning occurs, the semantic shift tends to go from a “lower” to a “higher” sensory modality, or from perceptual to cognitive or abstract senses.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Our data
  • 3.Annotation
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Changes in the primary sense
    • 4.2Intrafield changes (and persistence)
      • 4.2.1No intrafield changes
      • 4.2.2Directional intrafield changes
      • 4.2.3Non-directional intrafield changes
    • 4.3Transfield changes (and persistence)
      • 4.3.1No transfield change
      • 4.3.2Directional transfield change
      • 4.3.3Non-directional transfield change
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Dictionaries and corpora
  • Appendix
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2022. Linguistic synesthesia is metaphorical: a lexical-conceptual account. Cognitive Linguistics 33:3 ► pp. 553 ff. DOI logo
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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