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Part of
The Language of Food in Japanese: Cognitive perspectives and beyond
Edited by Kiyoko Toratani
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 25] 2022
► pp. 231–260

Chapter 8
A frame-semantic approach to Japanese taste terms

| Tohoku Gakuin University

This chapter offers a frame-semantic account of the meanings of Japanese taste terms, analyzing 5,620 instances of collocations, consisting of an adjectival taste term and a noun, such as shibui kao ‘lit. astringent face’. It first defines the literal sense of the taste terms, identifying what frame is evoked by not only using but also adjusting the definitions and set of arguments from FrameNet (an English resource) to fit the case of Japanese. It then considers the sense extensions. The findings include the following: both the literal and the extended senses can imply (un)desirability; the semantic change can be accounted for by identifying frames of both literal and figurative uses that prop up the lexical meanings.

Keywords: taste terms, adjectives, frame semantics, metaphor, pejoration
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
  • 3.Framework: What does it mean to take a frame-semantic approach?
    • 3.1Two types of frame: Cognitive and linguistic
    • 3.2Components of frames
    • 3.3Words-frames-meanings relation and frame-to-frame relation
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1A frame for taste terms
      • 4.1.1Literal usage
      • 4.1.2Delicious face and delicious restaurant?
    • 4.2Implicit (un)desirability of taste terms
    • 4.3Preservation of (un)desirability in figurative usages
    • 4.4A case of semantic pejoration
    • 4.5A case of melioration
  • 5.Figurative usage of taste terms and patterns of semantic extension: Listing the frames for the figurative meanings of Japanese taste adjectives
    • 5.1Oishī ‘delicious’
    • 5.2Amai ‘sweet’
    • 5.3Shibui ‘astringent’
    • 5.4Suppai ‘sour’, nigai ‘bitter’ and shoppai ‘salty’
  • 6.The pattern of semantic extension and conceptual metaphor
    • 6.1Simplified summary of the patterns of semantic extension
    • 6.2Conceptual metaphors of Japanese taste terms
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 9 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.25.08sak
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