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Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 15:1 (2017) ► pp.83–101

Figures and the senses

Towards a definition of synaesthesia

| University of Genova

It is usually taken for granted that synaesthesia (e.g., sweet voice) is a metaphor. However, the fact that partly different interpretations have also been proposed suggests that further research is needed. Based on a critical review of the alternative positions on the topic and on a detailed analysis of relevant data, I argue in this paper that synaesthesia (in both its conventional and living instances) is indeed a metaphor, displaying a conflict between separate sensory concepts that cannot be connected in terms of a consistent conceptual relationship. The clearer and more explicit account of synaesthesia proposed in this paper in turn fosters clearer understanding of (a) the relationship with other figures that can involve the senses, such as metonymy, hypallage, and simile, and (b) the possible role of (multi)sensory perceptual experience in conditioning association preferences in linguistic synaesthesia (e.g., loud colour vs. a less likely to occur coloured loudness).

Keywords: synaesthesia, perception, metaphor, metonymy, hypallage, simile
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphor and metonymy from the perspective of conceptual conflict
  • 3.The “default” view: Synaesthesia as metaphor
  • 4.Other views: Synaesthesia, metonymy, and experience
    • 4.1Synaesthesia as metonymically motivated metaphor (Barcelona, 2000b, 2008)
    • 4.2The role of experiential contiguity (Dirven, 1985)
    • 4.3The monosemy view (Rakova, 2003; Paradis & Eeg-Olofsson, 2013)
  • 5.Synaesthesia and its interaction with other figures
    • 5.1Metonymy
    • 5.2Hypallage
    • 5.3Simile
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.15.1.04str
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