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Part of
Language Endangerment: Disappearing metaphors and shifting conceptualizations
Edited by Elisabeth Piirainen and Ari Sherris
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 7] 2015
► pp. 37–64

3. Papua New Guinean sweet talk

Metaphors from the domain of taste

People often use conceptual metaphors to understand abstract domains in terms of more directly perceptual domains, as in the English metaphor understanding is seeing. The sensory domain of taste is more complex and culturally conditioned than other senses. This article investigates how the taste domain is structured in several languages in Papua New Guinea (Dawawa, Gadsup, Gwahatike, Guhu Samane, Kamano Kafe and Tairuma) and explores how these language communities use this domain to metaphorically conceptualize more abstract experiences, particularly those of speech and interpersonal relationships. The article also compares these metaphors with those in English and Tok Pisin, the two main languages of wider communication.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, language, body and culture, Papua New Guinea, taste perception, Tok Pisin, universality and variation
Published online: 14 October 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.7.02kin
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Kosecki, Krzysztof
2020. On Patterns of Conceptual Construal in Tok Pisin. In Cultural Conceptualizations in Language and Communication [Second Language Learning and Teaching, ], ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Kosecki, Krzysztof
2020. English Straight and Tok Pisin Stret: A Case Study from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 61:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
San Roque, Lila & Bambi B. Schieffelin
2019. Chapter 17. Perception verbs in context. In Perception Metaphors [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 19], ► pp. 347 ff. DOI logo

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