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Food and terminology: Expressing sensory experience in several languages
Edited by Rita Temmerman and Danièle Dubois
[Terminology 23:1] 2017
► pp. 9–37

How words for sensory experiences become terms

A cognitive approach

| Université Pierre et Marie Curie |

Given the double nature of experiencing food as individual as well as shared experience and knowledge, the question is how to connect the observed variability of expressing such a sensory experience with a normalized requirement for developing (food) terminology. On the basis of descriptions of food experiences in actual practices involving the way food is consumed, evaluated and expressed by individuals – experts or not – in all their diversity, we propose to contribute cognitive (psychological and linguistic) expertise to terminology research. We analyze terms as cognitive units, defined within a psychological theory of natural categories as acts of meaning. In tracking the processes of terminological meaning construction in discourse we find intersubjective experience within the complex process of terminologization.

Keywords: sensory experience, situated cognition, lexical resources, cognitive categories, word meaning constitution
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Positioning
    • 2.1From food to taste as sensory experience of food
    • 2.2Experiencing food: Knowledges and discourses
    • 2.3Experiencing food, linguistics and terminology
    • 2.4Terminology and cognitive sciences
    • 2.5Terminology and sensory sciences
  • 3.Empirical contributions
    • 3.1Language resources for taste and other senses
      • 3.1.1Colors vs smell
      • 3.1.2Goût or Saveur ? Taste or flavor?
    • 3.2Sensory experiences and knowledges in wine descriptions
    • 3.3Terms: Word meaning constitution in discourse
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/term.23.1.01dub
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