MINGLING THE SENSES: BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND PERCEPTION

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MINGLING THE SENSES BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND
PERCEPTION YESHAYAHU SHEN TEL AVIV
UNIVERSITY METAPHOR OF PERCEPTION
WORKSHOP VIENNA, February 2009
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• Cross modal similarity in perception and language
• Complex perceptual experiences
• Perceiving correspondences between the visual
  information and music in films
• Perception of correspondences between movement
  and music
• Matching projected colors and musical notes
• Assigning various sensory (e.g., auditory)
  associations
• to visual features (e.g., color).
• Language verbal metaphors of perceptual stimuli
• Pitch height metaphors low and high pitches
• Pitch texture metaphors soft voices, hard
  voices
• Color temperature metaphors warm and cold
  colors

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SYNAESTHESIA
STRONG
WEAK
IN PERCEPTION
IN LANGUAGE METAPHORS OF PERCEPTION
BASIS OF ASSOCIATION
DIRECTIONALITY
UNIVERSALITY
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• Strong synaesthesia
• Phenomenal experiences in which stimuli that are
  normally considered appropriate to one modality
  arouse not only the sensory and perceptual of
  that modality but also regularly and reliably
  arouse the sensory qualities of another (Marks,
  1999)

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Letters                                         
                                                  
                                                  
    
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(No Transcript)
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Weak Synaesthesia The ability to observe cross
modal similarity

• Cross modal similary in perception
• - Sneezing is brighter than coughing
• - Higher pitches are matched with lighter colors
  (low pitched tones are shaded darkly, in somber,
  black colors, and high-pitched tones are shaded
  lightly , in white, pale colors (Marks The unity
  of the Senses, p. 50-75).)
• - Louder sounds are matched with brighter lights
  (Marks The unity of the Senses, p. 50-75).

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MALUMA
TAKETE
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WEAK SYNAESTHESIA IN LANGUAGE
Agreements among Navajo, Americans, Japanese and
Mexicans (Osgood, 1959) Heavy dark Light
(weight) bright Fast bright Energetic
colorful Quite horizontal Lazy - blunt
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Metaphors for high and low pitch Western music
high and low Old Greece sharp vs. heavy Bali and
Java small vs. large Suya (Amazonas) young and
old An African tribe Crocodile vs. the one that
follows the crocodile Experimental findings
show that people from other cultures can
correctly apply foreign metaphors to high and
low pitches (Eitan 2008).
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MALUMA
TAKETE
(Lindauer, 1990)
Noisy, fast, heavy, sharp
Quite, slow, Light, blunt
Sensory metaphors
Peaceful, friendly, relaxed, weak, tender
Aggressive, Unfriendly, tense, strong, tough
Affective metaphors
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Directionality in synaesthetic metaphors
TARGET SOUND
SOURCE TASTE
HIGHER MODLAITIES SIGHT, SOUND
sweet silence
TARGET IS HIGHER THAN SOURCE
LOWER MODALITIES TOUCH, TASTE, SMELL
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TARGET TASTE
SOURCE SOUND
HIGHER MODLAITIES SIGHT, SOUND
silent sweetness
TARGET IS LOWER THAN SOURCE
LOWER MODALITIES TOUCH, TASTE, SMELL
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The main finding (Shen, 1997, 2008, 2009) The
TARGET IS HIGHER structure is universally more
frequently used.
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Conclusion Synaesthetic (cross-modal) similarity

• Applies to all modalities
• Universal
• Early development (innate?)
• Based on basic meaning dimensions
• Appears in perception and language
• Directional (in language)