An inquiry into Meaning Extension of Persian Taste Terms in Golestan Saadi:A Cognitive- Semantic Approach

Document Type : Research

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Taste is a complicated mechanism that relies on an intricate network of receptors and nerves (Sturtevant, 1964). The importance of taste and taste terms should not be underestimated in human cognition and language. Since ancient Greek philosophy, the linguistic study of taste terms has been downplayed due to lack of scientific understanding of taste and gustatory language and this can be the reason behind limited range of scientific works in taste compared to other senses such as vision and hearing. The present research is an attempt to study Persian taste terms in Golestan Saadi and to investigate conceptual mechanisms (metaphor and metonymy) along with language-external factors such as culture, use, entrenchment, body structure, and nature of human mind through which figurative meanings are derived from gustatory words. In cognitive semantics, metaphors and metonymies are considered as cognitive mechanisms that lead to semantic change and motivate polysemy of lexical items (Bagli, 2017).  Conceptual metaphors act as a bridge to connect two concepts in two different domains, while metonymies are considered as tip of an ice-berg that leads us to see the rest of the ice-berg under the sea. Metaphor and metonymy are both motivated through our embodied interaction of the physical world (Perez-Sobrino, 2017). The main objectives in this research are to find how conceptual metaphor and metonymy in language, together with other external factors account for construction and derivation of non-literal meanings of taste terms in Golesatan Saadi.

Keywords

References

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