Sensory Linguistics: Language, perception and metaphor
Bodo Winter
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 20] 2019. xiv, 289 pp.
Bodo Winter
List of John Benjamins publications for which Bodo Winter plays a role.
Title
Subjects Cognition and language | Cognitive linguistics | Psycholinguistics | Theoretical linguistics
Articles
2023 Chapter 5. Indexing social distance through bodily visual practices in two languages Multimodal Im/politeness: Signed, spoken, written, Jucker, Andreas H., Iris Hübscher and Lucien Brown (eds.), pp. 131–161 | Chapter
This paper explores the multimodal indexing of social distance in two unrelated languages/cultures: Korean and Catalan. Participants performed several tasks: once with a status superior (“socially distant” condition) and once with a friend (“socially close”). Catalan speakers exhibited more body… read more
2023 Semantic distance predicts metaphoricity and creativity judgments in synesthetic metaphors Current challenges in metaphor research, Julich-Warpakowski, Nina and Paula Pérez Sobrino (eds.), pp. 59–80 | Article
This paper discusses a way of operationalizing metaphoricity quantitatively using a numerical measure of the semantic distance between two domains. We demonstrate the construct validity of this measure with respect to metaphoricity and creativity judgments in the domain of English synesthetic… read more
2022 Gestures are modulated by social context: A study of multimodal politeness across two cultures Gesture 21:2/3, pp. 167–200 | Article
This paper investigates gesture as a resource for marking politeness-related meanings. We asked 14 Korean and 14 Catalan participants to retell a cartoon, once to an unknown superior and once to a close friend. Participants in both languages curtail gestures when interacting with a socially… read more
2019 Chapter 6. Synaesthetic metaphors are neither synaesthetic nor metaphorical Perception Metaphors, Speed, Laura J., Carolyn O'Meara, Lila San Roque and Asifa Majid (eds.), pp. 105–126 | Chapter
Speakers often use metaphor when talking about the contents of perception. For example, a word such as sweet can be used to talk metaphorically about sensory impressions that are not directly related to taste, as in so-called “synaesthetic metaphors” such as sweet fragrance and sweet melody. In… read more
2018 Metaphor-enriched social cognition and spatial bias in the courtroom Metaphor and the Social World 8:1, pp. 81–99 | Article
It is known that courtroom decisions can be influenced by subtle psychological biases, such as asking leading questions. Informed by metaphor research on the connection between spatial proximity and intimacy (e.g., ‘we are close’, ‘their views are far apart’), this paper reports four experiments… read more
2017 Which words are most iconic? Iconicity in English sensory words Interaction and Iconicity in the Evolution of Language, Hartmann, Stefan, Michael Pleyer, James Winters and Jordan Zlatev (eds.), pp. 443–464 | Article
Some spoken words are iconic, exhibiting a resemblance between form and meaning. We used native speaker ratings to assess the iconicity of 3001 English words, analyzing their iconicity in relation to part-of-speech differences and differences between the sensory domain they relate to (sight,… read more
2016 Producing and perceiving gestures conveying height or shape Gesture 15:3, pp. 404–424 | Article
In this paper, we analyze single-handed hold gestures that convey either the height or the shape of an object. The analyses include (1) differentiating which parts of the hands are profiled in each gesture, (2) considering whether these parts are occluded by other fingers, and (3) deriving… read more
2013 Using space to talk and gesture about numbers: Evidence from the TV News Archive Where do nouns come from?, Haviland, John B. (ed.), pp. 377–408 | Article
This paper examines naturally occurring gestures produced in descriptions of numbers and quantities in television newscasts. The results of our analysis show that gestures reveal the metaphorical and spatial nature of numerical thinking. That is, speakers’ hands mimic known spatial mappings… read more