The Senses in Language and Culture
نویسندگان
چکیده
Multiple social science disciplines have converged on the senses in recent years, where formerly the domain of perception was the preserve of psychology. Linguistics, or Language, however, seems to have an ambivalent role in this undertaking. On the one hand, Language with a capital L (language as a general human capacity) is part of the problem. It was the prior focus on language (text) that led to the disregard of the senses. On the other hand, it is language (with a small “l,” a particular tongue) that offers key insights into how other peoples conceptualize the senses. In this article, we argue that a systematic cross-cultural approach can reveal fundamental truths about the precise connections between language and the senses. recurring failures to adequately describe the sensorium across specific languages reveal the intrinsic limits of Asifa Majid is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. She studies semantic categories, combining standardized experimental methods, in-depth linguistic analysis, and ethnographically informed description. [email protected] Stephen C. Levinson is Co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Professor of Comparative Linguistics, Radboud University. His research focuses on language diversity and its implications for human cognition. [email protected] S en se s & S oc ie ty 6 Asifa Majid and Stephen C. Levinson + Language. but the converse does not hold. Failures of expressibility in one language need not hold any implications for the Language faculty per se, and indeed can enlighten us about the possible experiential worlds available to human experience.
منابع مشابه
Sociological and Aesthetic Senses of Culture Represented in Global and Localized ELT Textbooks
The relationship between language and culture has become a rich source of inquiry in the context of English language teaching. Learning materials can depict cultural content in different cultural senses, namely aesthetic, sociological, semantic, and pragmatic. The present study aimed to investigate the way cultural aspects are represented in the reading and dialog sections of global (American E...
متن کاملSensory Perceptions in Language, Embodiment and Epistemology, Annalisa Baicchi, Rémi Digonnet, & Jodi L. Sandford (Eds.) (2018), Springer, ISBN 978-3-319-91276-9
متن کامل
Conceptualizing Sensory Relativism in Light of Emotioncy: A Movement beyond Linguistic Relativism
Given the significance of relativism in molding our worldview and uncovering the nature of truth, this study using the newly-developed concept of emotioncy, attempted to introduce sensory relativism as a new perspective based on which senses can relativize our understanding of the world. To espouse the theory, 24 individuals were interviewed on their experiences...
متن کاملFrom EFL Classroom into the Mainstream: A Socio-Cultural Investigation of Speaking Anxiety among Female EFL Learners
The study was conducted with the aim of examining the rate of foreign language anxiety in male and female language learners. FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) was administered to two groups of male and female learners. The mean scores of FLCAS indicated a significant difference with females having considerably higher levels of anxiety than males. From 38 female learners,...
متن کاملA Sound Symbolic Study of Translation of Onomatopoeia in Children's Literature: The Case of '' Tintin''
As onomatopoeic words or expressions are attractive, the users of languages in the fields of religion, literature, music, education, linguistics, trade, and so forth wish to utilize them in their utterances. They are more effective and imaginative than the simple words. Onomatopoeic words or expressions attach us to the real nature and to our inner senses. This study aims at familiarity with on...
متن کاملEmotioncy-Based Language Instruction: A Key to Enhancing EFL Learners' Vocabulary Retention
Given the vital role that vocabulary plays in learning a language along with the fact that sense-induced emotions are noteworthy due to their influence on cognition, this study examined the impact of emotioncy-based language instruction on the long-term memory (LTM) vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 32 participants were selected based on their level of trait/state anxie...
متن کامل