The Role(s) of Metaphor in Olfactory Language: A Corpus-Led Semantic Analysis

直接嗅觉词汇在英语词汇中受到严重限制，因此说话者必须使用语言中其他领域的词汇来准确描述他们的感官体验(如丰富、绿色、甜蜜、响亮、成熟等)。本博士将研究说英语的人如何交流这些经历，尤其是隐喻的使用。从本质上讲，它解决了英语中嗅觉经验领域的词汇和语义结构是什么。从语义学的角度对此进行了深入的分析，有助于更全面地理解意义是如何在语言中表达的，以及说话者是如何寻求交流感觉体验的，而感觉体验不能直接分享，必须由语言来中介。这分成三个相互关联的子问题：哪些语义域是与气味有关的感觉隐喻的主要来源，以及它们在什么语境中使用？说话人对隐喻领域的选择使我们能够了解他们的文化优先顺序，而这些隐喻使用的语境揭示了说话人对这些领域的态度。这些隐喻在语篇中的使用有哪些明显的模式？我将研究语境如何改变说话者可能做出的隐喻选择--例如，日常对话和更专业的用法(如商业广告)在隐喻使用上是否存在差异？通过理解这些模式，我们可以描绘出人们如何根据交流背后的原因和动机，通过物理和时间距离来交流他们的感觉体验。这些模式随着时间的推移而改变了吗？我们今天使用的感觉隐喻与过去使用的有什么不同？研究这个问题将使我们能够理解说话者的优先顺序是如何随着他们寻求不同的类比而发生变化的，以及对各种语义域的态度是如何随着时间的推移而改变的。

Direct olfactory vocabulary is severely limited in the English lexicon, so speakers must use words from other areas of the language to accurately describe their sensory experiences (such as rich, green, sweet, loud, mature, etc). This PhD will investigate how English speakers communicate these experiences, with a particular focus on the use of metaphor. At heart, it addresses what the lexical and semantic structure is in English of the domain of olfactive experience. This is understudied from a semantic perspective, and a thorough analysis as proposed here would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how the senses are expressed in language and how speakers seek to communicate sensory experiences, which cannot be directly shared and must be mediated by language. This breaks down into three linked sub-questions:Which semantic domains are the major sources of sensory metaphors relating to smell, and in what contexts are they used? Speakers' choice of metaphorical domain allows us to understand their cultural priorities, and the context in which those metaphors are used reveals speakers' attitudes towards those domains. What patterns are visible in how these metaphors are used in discourse? I will investigate how context changes the choice of metaphor a speaker might make- for example, is there a difference in metaphor use between everyday conversation and more 'professional' uses, like commercial advertisement? By understanding these patterns, we can build a picture of how people communicate their sensory experiences through physical and temporal distance according to the reasons and motivations behind their communication.Have these patterns changed over time, and how are the sensory metaphors we use today different compared to those used in the past? Investigating this question will allow us to understand how speakers' priorities have changed as they reach for different analogies, and how attitudes towards various semantic domains have changed over time.