Taste as the source domain in the strong and weak synesthetic

metaphors in PolishDr hab. Magdalena Zawisławska

University of Warsaw

Table of contents

1.Introduction2.Literature review3.Synamet – the corpus of synesthetic metaphors4.Physiology of taste5.The scope of the presentation6.Results7.Conclusion8.Literature

Introduction

The lexical filed of taste in Polish is not as developed and diverse as fields of vision or hearing. Nevertheless, the taste serves quite often as a source domain in various strong and weak synesthetic metaphors, e.g. słodka woń rezedy ‘sweet aroma of reseda’, słodkie dźwięki skrzypiec ‘sweet sounds of violin’, słodki kolor ‘sweet color’, słodkie wspomnienia ‘sweet memories’, słodkie życie ‘sweet life’. The main objective of my presentation is to investigate following problems: 1) what target domains of the sensory perception use lexemes from the taste domain (strong synesthetic metaphors); 2) what other target domains are described in terms of taste (weak synesthetic metaphors); 3) are there any difference between productivity of metaphor by different lexemes that primary mean the gustatory perception; 4) is the real synesthesia a basis for the linguistics synesthetic metaphors?

Literature review

D. Buttler (1978: 115) defines synesthetic metaphor as “using one name for various types of sensory perception.” In psychology, synesthesia pertains to “co-occurrence of sensations coming from various pathways while stimulating one pathway, e.g. hearing given tones when looking at given colors, and vice versa” (Rogowska 2007: 18). In some approaches, synaesthetic metaphor embraces all the expressions containing any word primarily denoting a perceptual domain, i.e. either phrases such as jasny dźwięk (‘bright sound’), słodki zapach (‘sweet smell’), or constructions jasny umysł (‘clear mind’), ciemna sprawa (‘shady business’).

Synaesthetic metaphors appear to be universal for all natural languages. S. Ullman (1962: 861) proposed the following model of synaesthesia: smell/taste – hearing/vision – touch, which means that we usually speak of gustatory and olfactory sensations in terms of hearing and seeing, while auditory and visual sensations are conceived of in terms denoting tactile experiences. C. Classens (1993) likewise elaborated a (supposedly universal) schema of synaesthetic metaphors: hearing – vision – smell – taste – touch.

It follows from the model that auditory sensations are as a rule expressed in terms of visual perception, visual ones—in terms of olfactory perception, olfactory ones—in terms of gustatory perception, and gustatory ones—in terms of tactile perception. However, studies carried out by Wering, Fleischhauer and Beşeoğlu (2006) have plainly shown that models put forward by Ullman and Classens are by no means universal, and that they need to be constructed separately for each language.

Synaesthesia in the Polish language was studied, from a diachronic point of view, by Irmina Judycka (1963). Other authors also undertook studies of this topic, suffice it to mention B. Mitrenga, Zmysł smaku (2014), E. Badyda’s monograph „Upadły anioł zmysłów”? Metaforyka zapachu i percepcji węchowej we współczesnej polszczyźnie (2013).

Synaesthetic metaphor in various discourse types has also been the subject-matter of several papers, e.g. K. Termińska (1992), M. Witucka (1998), A. Rosińska (2007), E. Biłas-Pleszak (2007), A. Najdecka (2013), A. Prochowicz (2013).

SYNAMET – the corpus of synestetic metaphor

My research on the taste metaphors and the synethetic metaphors in general is conducted as part of the project called SYNAMET – Microcorpus of Synaesthetic Metaphors. Towards a Formal Description and Efficient Methods of Analysis of Metaphors in Discourse. UMO/2014/15/B/HS2/00182, financed by the Polish National Science Centre.

Physiology of tasteTaste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds. The taste buds themselves are contained in goblet-shaped papillae. The gustatory system uses a form of chemoreception that allows the human body feel specific tastes. The taste cells are located in entire mouth, but are most highly concentrated on the tongue, the major sensory organ of the gustatory system.Humans have about 2000 taste buds. The gustatoty perception is in fact a mixture of several sensations: not only taste, but also temperaturę, texture, and smell. The taste sensation is analyzed in the gustatoty area located in cortex of a brain and also in the limbic system that is resposible for emotions. Therefore, the taste sensation is very subjective and can evoke certain feelings and memories. e.g.:

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea. (Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time)

1. What tastes do we feel?2. How fast do we feel specific tastes?

What tastes do we feel? The basic tastes that we can feel are: • salty (the standard substance – table salt);• sour (the standard substance – tartaric acid or citric acid);• sweet (the standard substance – saccharin);• bitter (the standard substance – caffeine, quinine);• umami (taste of meat: the standard substance –

monosodium glutamate);• fatty (the standard substance – fatty acides). (Skolik 2011, 21-24)

The taste is the oldest and the most universal sense in the whole universe of vertebrates (Miternga 2014: 26). http://www.dreamstime.com

How fast do we feel specific tastes?

The gustatory perception is a dynamic one. Our taste buds react with different speed to various tastes. The fastest reaction is to the salty taste, than sweet, sour and the slowest reaction is to the bitter taste. (Skolik 2011: 21)

SALT

Y

SWEE

T

SOU

R

BITT

ER

The scope of the presentation

1. The lexical field of taste in Polish2. Classification of the taste adjectives

in Polish

• Quality of a gustatory perception• Type of the sensation is static• Type of the sensation is dynamic

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The lexical field of taste in Polish

The lexical field of taste in Polish is much smaller than fields of a visual or auditory perception. It contains narrow group of verbs that can mean: 1) tasting, e.g. kosztować (to taste), posmakować (to taste), degustować (to sample); 2) subject’s approval or a disapproval of a taste sensation, e.g. smakować2 jakoś (to taste somehow), zasmakować (to develop a taste); 3) a change of taste in the object of perception, e.g. jełczeć (to go rancid), kisić się (to marinate), gorzknieć (to turn bitter). Most nouns from the taste fields are gerunds, e.g. gorycz (bitterness), słodycz (sweetness), kwaśność (acidity). Apart from that, taste field contain nouns refering in general to: 1) neutral gustatory sensation: smak (taste), posmak (aftertaste) or 2) negative gustatory sensation: absmak (distaste), niesmak (bad taste). There are also nouns mening high tastiness of the object of perception, e.g. pyszności (delicious things), przysmak (delicacy), rarytas (rarity) or specific taste of the object of perception, e.g. słodycze (sweets), łakocie (sweet things), kwasek (citric acid). In my presentation I concentrate only on the adjectives of taste. The main reason is that the adjcetives are the most representative for the discussed lexical field and they have the highest productivity of metaphoric senses.

Classification of the taste adjcetives in Polish

I divide the taste adjectives into two main gropus: the semantic structure of the adjectives in the first group includes information about a quality of a taste sensation, e.g. pyszny (delicious), niesmaczny (tasteless). The second group contains names of a type of a taste sensation.Futrtherome, the taste sensation can be pictured as a static one, e.g. słodki (sweet), kwaśny (sour) or as a dynamic one, e.g. skwaśnieć (become sour). A taste sensation can be felt by a subject as strong, clear one, e.g. słony (slaty) or as weak, vague, e.g. słonawy (slightly salty).

Eval

uati

on o

f a t

aste

se

nsat

ion

Quality of a sensation

Good

Bad

Type of a sensation

Static

No information

about intensity

Weak intensity

Dynamic

Quality of a gustatory sensationThe adjectives clustered in the first semantic group mean good or bad quality of a taste sensation from the perspective of the subject. The adjectives’ semantic structure can be expressed in the following way:

1)Subject eats or drink something,

2)Subject likes or doesn’t like the gustatory sensation.

Qual

ity o

f a ta

ste

sens

atio

n

is good

apetyczny [appetizing]smaczny

[tasty]smakowity

[savory]pyszny

[delicious]

is bad

nieapetyczny

[unappetizing] niesmaczny

[tasteless]

Type of a taste sensation is a static oneThe next group of the adjectives describes a type of a gustatory sensation that is static, that is – it doesn’t change during time. Some of the adjectives just name a specific taste, e.g. słodki (sweet), gorzki (bitter), słony (salty), some of them contain also information about an intensity of the taste, e.g. słodkawy (slightly sweet), gorzkawy (somewhat bitter), słonawy (slightly salty). The adjective mdły (bland) means not only that taste is weak but also that a subject of perception doesn’t like it.

No information about intensity of a taste sensation

cierpki [tart]

gorzki [bitter]

kwaśny [sour]

pikantny [spicy]

słodki [sweet]

słony [salty]

Weak intensity of a taste sensation

cierpkawy [tartish]

gorzkawy [somewhat bitter]

kwaśnawy [slightly sour]

mdły [bland]

słodkawy [slightly sweet]

słonawy [slightly salty]

Type of a taste sensation is a dynamic one

The last group of adjectives describe a taste sensation that chages during the time. Sometimes the change is desired by the subject (for example in case of ghurken or wine), sometimes it menas that food is spoiled and tastes bad.

Taste changes

skisły [spoiled]skiśnięty [become sour]skwaśniały [become sour]zakisły [become ensiled]zgorzkniały [become bitter]zjełczały [rancid]sfermentowany [fermented]

Results

1. Frequency of the taste adjectives in NCP2. Taste adjectives with high frequency

in NCP3. Frequency and metaphorical productivity4. Metaphorical productivity of the taste

adjectives5. Taste metaphors

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Frequency of the taste adjectives in NCPIn my research I use the balanced subcorpus of the National Corpus of Polish. It is obvious that the taste adjectives differ in frequency. Some are very common, e.g. słodki (sweet), gorzki (bitter)( more information on the next page); some are exceptionally rare, e.g. ciarpkawy (tartish) has only 6 appearances and skiśnięty (become sour) – only 3.

High freguency (<1000)•gorzki (bitter)•kwaśny (sour)•pyszny (delicious)•słodki (sweet)•smaczny (tasty)

Average frequency (>1000-200)•apetyczny (appetizing)

•cierpki (tart)•mdły (bland)•niesmaczny (tasteless)

•pikantny (spicy)•słodkawy (slightly sweet)

•słony (salty)•smakowity (savory)•zgorzkniały (become bitter)

Low frequency (>200-50)•gorzkawy (somewhat bitter)

•nieapetyczny (unappetizing)

•słonawy (slightly salty)

•sfermentowany (fermented)

•zjełczały (rancid)

Very low frequency (>50-10)•skisły (spoiled)•skwaśniały (become sour)

•zakisły (become ensiled)

Extremely low frequency (>10)•cierpkawy (tartish)•kwaśnawy (slighty sour)

•skiśnięty (become sour)

Taste adjectives with highest frequency in NCP

Following adjectives have the highest frequency in the National Corpus of Polish:

1.słodki (sweet)2.gorzki (bitter),3.smaczny (tasty),4.pyszny (delicious),5.kwaśny (sour).

The most frequent is adjective słodki (sweet).

Frequency0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

gorzki (bitter); 3,423

kwaśny (sour); 1162pyszny (delicious);

1586

słodki (sweet); 6029

smaczny (tasty); 2726

Frequency and the productivity of metaphor senses

High frequency doesn’t necessarily mean that the same adjective is as often used figuratively. For example the most frequent adjective słodki (sweet) has only 59% of metaphorical usages in the corpus, and in the case of the less frequent word gorzki (bitter) as much as 85% of its usages are metaphors. On the next page I present a drawing that shows the percent of figurative usages of all the taste adjectives in NCP. sło

dki (sw

eet)

gorzk

i (bitte

r)

smacz

ny (ta

sty)

pyszny

(delic

ious)

kwaśn

y (sou

r)0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

41.00%

15.00%

44.00%

91.00%

41.00%

59.00%

85.00%

36.00%

9.00%

59.00%

Literal Metaphorical

apety

czny (

appe

tizing

)

cierpk

awy (

tartish

)

cierpk

i (tart

)

gorzk

awy (

somew

hat b

itter)

gorzk

i (bitte

r)

kwaśn

awy (

slightl

y sou

r)

kwaśn

y (sou

r)

mdły (b

land)

nieap

etyczn

y (un

appe

tizing

)

niesm

aczny

(taste

less)

pikan

tny (sp

icy)

pyszny

(delic

ious)

sferm

entow

any (

fermen

ted)

skisły

(spoile

d)

skiśni

ęty (b

ecome s

our)

skwaśn

iały (b

ecome s

our)

słodka

wy (slig

htly s

weet)

słodki

(swee

t)

słona

wy (slig

htly s

alty)

słony

(salty)

smacz

ny (ta

sty)

smako

wity (sa

vory)

zakisły

(beco

me ensi

led)

zgorzk

niały (

becom

e bitte

r)

zjełcz

ały (ra

ncid)

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

120.00%

Productivity of the metaphoric senses

Literal Metaphorical

Taste metaphors

1. Target domains in the taste metaphors2. Oflactory perceptions as a target domain3. Auditory perception as a target domain4. Visual perception as a target domain5. Tactile perception as a target domain6. Weak synesthetic metaphors

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Target domains in taste metaphorsAlhough the lexial field of taste perception in Polish is not extended, it is used quite often as a source domain in various strong and weak synethetic metaphors. According to Wering et al. (2006), a metaphor is synesthetic only when its source domain pertains to perception (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, or gustatory). If the target domain does not evoke perception, we can talk of a weak synaesthetic metaphor. If both the source and the target domain evoke perception, we deal with a strong synesthetic metaphor (Werning, Fleischhauer, Beşeoğlu 2006).

The adjcetives of taste can be used in strong as well as in weak synesthetic metaphors. On the next page I present my detailed classification of the target domains in taste metaphors.

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Taste metaphors

STRONG

OFLACTORY PERCEPTION

AUDITORY PERCEPTION

VISUAL PERCPETION

TACTILE PERCEPTION

WEAK

Man

His body and body parts

His feelings and their

expression

His personality

His mental acts

Actions and states Content Time Money

OFLACTORY PERCEPTIONAS A TARGET DOMAIN

Almost all taste adjectives are used for description of smell sensation. The only adjectives that never connects with words from the filed of the oflactory perception is zgorzkniały (become bitter). But there are some differences in collocations of the taste adjectives. The most productive collocates are with noun zapach (smell). Only three adjectives never appeare in combination with this noun in the NCP: niesmaczny (tasteless), pikantny (spicy) and zgorzkniały (become bitter).

Next adjective – aromat (aroma) doesn’t have so broad collocations as smell. It never collocates with 1) some adjectives that evaluate quality of taste: nieapetyczny (unappetazing), niesmaczny (tasteless), pyszny (delicous), smaczny (deilicous); 2) some adjectives that name a specific taste: cierpkawy (tartish), mdły (bland), słonawy (slightly salty), słony (salty); 3) all adjectives from the group that describes gustatory sensation as dynamic one. The noun aromat (aroma) menas in Polish «nice smell». The adjectives from the last group mostly name tastes which are unpleasent for humans. On the other hand, the taste gorzki (bitter) is ususally valued as unpleasant, but there are

two examples with the noun aromat in National Corpus of Polish, cf:

• Gorzki aromat espresso (NCP) [Bitter aroma of espresso.]• Od ziemi buchał gorzki aromat igliwia i wysuszonych

mchów. (NCP) [Bitter aroma of litter of needles and dried moss bleached from the soil.]

It is possible that noun aromat (aroma) can be used in those contexts because espresso and needles smell nice.

The noun woń (~fragrance) is quite close synonym of the word zapach (smell). It differs only in style – in the Universal Dictionary of Polish Language woń (~fragrance) has a label formal. The noun woń (~fragrance) has less collocations with taste adjectives in comparison with the noun zapach (smell). The word woń (~fragrance) doesn’t collocate with: 1) adjectives nieapetyczny (unappetizing), niesmaczny (tasteless), pyszny (delicious), smaczny (tasty); 2) adjectives cierpkawy (tartish), kwaśnawy (slightly sour), pikantny (spicy), słonawy (slightly salty), słony (salty); 3) all adjectives that describe taste as a dymanic experience.

The noun smród (stench) means in Polish «very strong, unpleasant smell». It is not suprising that this word never collocates with the following adjectives: apetyczny (appetizing), pyszny (tasty), smaczny (tasty), smakowity (savory), but strangely enough, it also never appears in phrases with the adjectives that mean a negavive evaluation of a gustatoty sensation, i.e. nieapetyczny (unappetizing), niesmaczny (tasteless). The noun smród (stench) can’t be found in phrases with the adjectives desribing taste as a dynamic sensation. The only exeption is word skisły (sour, spoiled), cf.:

• Z półotwartych, zsiniałych warg magistra Ambrożego zionie skisły smród wódy! (NCP) [Breath coming from the partly open mouth of Ambroży, MA, smelled of spoiled, sour vodka.]

Surprisingly, the noun smród (stench) also doesn’t collocate with adjectives that usually mean not very pleasant tastes: cierpkawy (tartish), gorzki (bitter), gorzkawy (sligtly bitter), kwaśnawy (slightly sour). It also never appears in collocations with adjectives: pikantny (spicy), słony (salty), słonawy (slightly salty).

On the other hand, it is quite often used in phrases with adjectives słodki (sweet) and słodkawy (slightly sweet), cf.:

• W powietrzu unosił się słodkawy smród menażerii. (NCP) [In the air drifted slightly sweet stench of menagerie.]

• Słodki smród ścierwa. (NCP) [Sweet stench of carcass.]

The sweet stench is associated usually with corpse or carion.

The last noun – odór (odour) also means in Polish «very strong, bad smell». Similarly to the noun smród (stench) it never appears in phrases with adjectives apetyczny (appetizing), pyszny (tasty), smaczny (tasty), smakowity (savory), nieapetyczny (unappetizing), niesmaczny (tasteless). The noun odór (odour) never collocates with adjectives mening weak intensity of the sensation - the only exeption is słodkawy (slightly sweet). It also can’t be found in phrases with the adjectives from the group that describes taste as a dynamic sensation. At the same time, it does collocate with adjectives słodki (sweet) and słodkawy (sligtly sweet), cf.:

• Bucha we mnie słodki odór trupi. (NCP) [Sweet, carcass odour bleaches towards me.]

• Ohydny, słodkawy odór pozbawiał oddechu. (NCP) [Atrocious, slightly sweet odour was taking away his breath.]

Most typical collocations with the noun zapach (smell)

słodki (sweet)słodkawy (slightly sweet)

smakowity (savory)mdły (bland)cierpki (tart)

kwaśny (sour)gorzki (bitter)

gorzkawy (somewhat bitter)apetyczny (appetizing)

słony (salty)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 9077

44

42

40

36

27

18

16

9

8

ZAPACH (SMELL)

Number of collocates

Most typical collocations with the noun aromat (aroma)

słodki (sweet)

słodkawy (slightly sweet)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

10

5

AROMAT (AROMA)

Number of collocates

Most typical collocations with the noun woń (~fragrance)

słodka (sweet)

cierpka (tartish)

słodkawa (slightly sweet)

kwaśna (sour)

smakowita (tasty)

0 5 10 15 20 25

20

17

13

10

5

WOŃ (~FRAGRANCE)

Number of collocates

Most typical collocations with the noun odór (odour)*

kwaśny)

mdły (bland)

słodkawy (slightly sweet)

0 5 10 15 20 25

22

7

5

ODÓR (ODOUR)

Number of collocates

*The PELCRA collocator hasn’t found any significant number of the taste adjectives and the noun smród (stench) collocations.

Auditory perception as a target domain

Only a few taste adjectives can be used to decribe auditory perception. The word słodki (sweet) can be found in phrases with such nouns as: muzyka (music), melodia (melody), dźwięk (sound), trel (trill), głos (voice), śpiew (singing).

The adjective nieapetyczny (unappetizing) describes unplesant, sickening auditory sensation, for example mlaskanie (slurping).

Noun ton (tone of voice) can be found in phrases with adjectives słodki (sweet), gorzki (bitter) or kwaśny (sour).

Apart from that, adjective gorzki (bitter) is used regularly in phrases with nouns meaning speach, e.g.: zarzut (accusation), uwaga (remark), sarkazm (sarcasm), ironia (irony), pytanie (question).

Visual perception as a target domain

Only a very few taste adjectives are used in synesthetic metaphors with the visual perception as the target domain. The word słodki (sweet) describes kolor (color), especially the noun róż (pink).

The adjective mdły (bland) is used frequently in phrases with such words as światło (light), światełko (small light), blask (light, glitter), and it means «barely visible, dim».

I also rate here such usages as zakisła woda (bad lookig, sour, old water) or zakisłe bagno (bad looking, sour, old bog).

Tactile perception as a target domain

The only taste adjective used with reference to tactile perception is słodki (sweet). It means physical contacts between humans with a sensual overtone, e.g. słodkie pocałunki (sweet kisses), słodkie objęcia (sweet embrace), słodkie pieszczoty (sweet caress) słodkie uściski (sweet hugs).

Weak synesthetic metaphors

1. Human body2. Feelings3. Expression of feelings4. Personality5. Mental acts6. States and actions7. Content8. Time9. Money

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Human body

Human body and its parts are quite often presented as food. Usually such characterization has sexual innuendo. Young, good looking women or their body, breasts, bottoms can be described as apetyczne (appealing). On the other hand, someone not very attractive is nieapetyczny (unappealing).

The adjective słodki (sweet) is used with nouns: twarz (face), usta (lips), oczy (eyes) and means «nice, beautiful».

The adjective gorzki (bitter) describes only such elements of human body that show hardships of life, e.g.: gorzkie fałdy przy ustach (NCP) [bitter jowls near the lips].

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FeelingsNames of emotions and feelings quite often collocate with two taste adjectives: słodki (sweet) and gorzki (bitter). It is suprising that the adjective słodki (sweet) doesn’t necessary appear only in phrases with nouns meaning good emotions, like słodka miłość (sweet love) or słodka radość (sweet joy). There are also some examples in NCP of such collocations as słodki smutek (sweet sadness), słodki ból (sweet pain), słodka melancholia (sweet melancholy). It seems that the adjective słodki (sweet) can as well describe moderate, negative emotions, but with some nice, positive shades.

On the other hand, the adjective gorzki (bitter) is usually used with names of strong, bad feelings, like zawód (letdown), rozczarowanie (disappointment). R. Bronikowska (2002: 49-51) notices that it means a sense of damage, humiliation, helplessness triggered by other people. The adjective can be also found in collocations with names of good emotions, e.g.: gorzka miłość (bitter love), gorzka radość (bitter joy), gorzkie szczęście (bitter happiness). It means that those typically positive feelings are pervaded with pain and disappointment.

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Expression of feelings

Names of facial expression (like face, grimace, smile), that are connected with certain emotions, have much broader collocations with the taste adjectives than the names of feelings. They appear in NCP examples with words: słodki (sweet), słodkawy (slightly sweet), gorzki (bitter), gorzkawy (slightly bittter), zgorzkniały (embittered), cierpki (tart), cierpkawy (tartish), kwaśny (sour), mdły (bland), e.g.: słodka minka (tenderly about a sweet face), gorzki uśmiech (bitter smile), mdły uśmiech (bland smile), kwaśna mina (sour face), cierpki grymas (tart grimace).

słodki (sweet) gorzki (bitter) kwaśny (sour) cierpki (tart)0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

The most frequent collocations in NCP

Personality

In Polish a personality of a man is sometimes described by some taste adjectives. The most specialized adjective in this scope is zgorzkniały (embittered) – in the NCP balanced subcorpus all examples with that word are in fact metaphorical. The adjective means in such context «someone dissatisfied with life, disheartened, apathetic».

Another adjective, that is used quite often with reference to man’s personality, is skwaśniały (become sour) in a sense: «someone in bad mood, gloomy, eccentric».

The adjective mdły (bland) can describe of a man whose character is dull and lacking expression.

grimace

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Mental actsSome mental act are sometimes presented in Polish as if they had taste. Ususally the acts that are a result of reasoning and let a man get to the facts are referred to as gorzkie (bitter), e.g.: gorzka refleksja (bitter reflection), gorzka konkluzja (bitter conclusion). Memories can be either sweet or bitter. However, adjective słodki (sweet) typically collocate with nouns meaning «beeing out of touch with reality» or «someting unreal, false», e.g.: słodka iluzja (sweet ilusion), słodkie złudzenia (sweet delusions), słodkie kłamstwa (sweet lies), słodka ułuda (sweet delusion), słodkie marzenia (sweet dreams). By contrast, the adjective gorzki (bitter) is used in phrases such as: gorzka prawda (bittter truth), gorzka wiedza (bitter knowledge), gorzka świadomość (bitter awareness), gorzka rzeczywistość (bitter reality) (cf. Bronikowska 2002).

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States and actionsAdjectives słodki (sweet) and gorzki (bitter) refer very often to exactly the same states and actions. In such cases they act like antonyms, e.g. słodki los (sweet fortune) vs gorzki los (bitter fate), słodkie życie (sweet life) – «easy, nice», vs gorzkie życie (bitter life) – «hard and sad».

The adjective gorzki (bitter) ususally can be found in collocations with nouns that mean acquiring knowledge, e.g. gorzka lekcja, nauka, edukacja (bitter lesson, learning, education). The adjective can also describe a sudden return to consciousness, e.g. gorzkie przebudzenie (bitter awakening), unpleasant, tragic actions or states, e.g. gorzka porażka, samotność (bitter defeat, loneliness), gorzki koniec (bitter end), gorzka śmierć (bitter death).

On the other hand, the adjective słodki collocates with nouns that mean a nice rest, doing nothing, e.g. słodki sen (sweet sleep), słodka drzemka (sweet nap), słodkie lenistwo (sweet idleness).

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Content

By content I understand various kinds of works (cf. Apresjan 200: 125). It is quite common in Polish to describe such nouns like żart, dowcip by adjectives niesmaczny (tasteless) or pikantny (spicy). The last one is also very common in collocates like pikantna historia, anegdota, plotka (spicy story, anecdote, gossip), and it means in such contexts «witty, wicked, suggestive».

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Time

Both adjectives słodki (sweet) and gorzki (bitter) collocate with nouns czasy (times), chwile (moments), dnie (days). In such contexts the adjectives have antonymous meanings: phrase słodkie czasy (sweet times) means a nice and easy period while phrase gorzkie czasy (bitter times) refers to the times full of hardships and suffering. https://pixabay.com/pl/zegar-czas-presj%C4%85-czasu-daty-276747/

Money

The only taste adjective, that can refer to money in Polish, is słony (salty). Phrases like słona cena (steep price), słona opłata (steep charge), słony rachunek (steep bill), słona grzywna (steep fine) mean that one has to pay a lot of money. It is not surprsing – those idioms are remains of times when salt was very valuable.

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ConclusionTaste as a source domain for strong

and weak synethetic metaphors

1. Metaphorical system in the taste lexical field

The taste adjectives differ in their productivity of the metaphorical senses. The most productive are names of two basic tastes: słodki (sweet) i gorzki (bitter). The adjectives słodki and gorzki are used as antonyms not only in their literal meaning but also in most of their metaphorical senses (emotions, mental acts, time, states and actions). Two other names of basic tastes – kwaśny (sour) and słony (salty) – fall way behind.

The most common target domain in the taste metaphors is smell – almost all adjectives can form collocates with nouns from the lexical field of the oflactory perception. That fact is not very surprising because smell and taste are very close senses from the physiological point of view. We all know very well that we can’t properly feel tastes without cooperation of smell. Much less common are synesthetic metaphors with auditory perception and visual perception as the target domains.

It is worth to notice that only few taste adjectives can be used in weak synethetic metaphors. The adjective mdły (bland) has more general meaning «vague». The adjectives form the „quality group” can mean 1) that something or someone (especially a woman) is approved or not by the speaker: apetyczny (appealing)/ nieapetyczny (unappealing), smakowity (tasty); 2) that something (e.g. a story, joke) arouses speaker’s aversion: niesmaczny (tasteless). The adjective pikantny (spicy) is also used in more general sense «obscene, suggestive».

Four basic tastes and their productivity of metaphoric senses

SMELL

słodki (sweet

)gorzki (bitter

)

kwaśny

(sour)

Słony (salty)

HEARING

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (sweet

)

TOUCH

słodki (sweet

)

VISION

słodki (sweet

)

Facial expressi

on

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (bitter

)

kwaśny

(sour)

Emotions

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (bitter

)

Mental acts

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (bitter

)

States and

actions

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (bitter

)

Time

słodki (sweet

)

gorzki (bitter

)

Money

słony (salty)

2. Is the real synesthesia a basis for the synesthetic metaphors?

Some researchers propose a thesis that synesthetic metaphors in language are in fact a result of real, psychological phenomenon called synesthesia. Cristina Cacciari writes: „most perceptually bused metaphorical expressions (e.g. a cold silence, a stony flavor) are motivated and rooted in the structure of perceptual experiences and sensory system. Metaphors do not reflect an abstract-amodal combination of word senses, but rather constitute the linguistic expression of the neural endowment necessary for the treating sensory information” (Cacciari 2008: 426). Of course it is unarguable that some synesthetic metaphors are embodied and motivated by our biology – for example the taste metaphors with smell as traget domain. But on the other hand, some lingustics data challenge Cacciari’s theory. Why only two basic tastes (sweet and bitter) have so broad collocations? Why two other basic tastes: sour and last but not least – salty have only few metaphorical senses?

Especially the low metaphoric productivity of adjective słony (salty) is very strange. The salty taste is very important for our organisms (it indicates a presence of vital minerals in our food) and have only one, very distinctive vehicle – salt. However, the adjective słony (salty) has in Polish only two metaphorical senses. It is hard to agree with Cacciari’s theory also form the psychological point of view. Synesthesia as a psychological phenomenon unites simple perceptual sensations on a very basic level of information processing, whereas synaesthetic metaphors connect much more complex mental images. While synaesthesia is an involuntary and automatic experience, synaesthetic metaphors are basically created in a conscious and intentional way. Also, synaesthetic percepts do not change over time and are independent of various outside factors, whereas synaesthetic metaphors significantly evolve with time and are evidently dependent on culture, emotions, context, knowledge of the world. Synaesthetes are unable to explain why they have such associations, and the author of a synaesthetic metaphor is aware of the metaphor’s origin (cf. Rogowska 2007: 25).

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