Senses : The Foundation of Our Metaphorical Conceptual System

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that senses play a central role in shaping human being's conceptual system in becoming metaphorical. I provide synaesthetic metaphors as evidence. These are metaphors which use words in a particular sensory domain semantically, but refer to another sensory domain. This phenomenon is widely utilized in our everyday lives and claims to be universal in all languages (Ullmann 1957; Williams 1976; Day 1995; Callejas 2001; Yu 2003; Takada 2008; Wongthai 2009). I further point out that because our perception of senses is metaphorical, our conceptual system later becomes more sophisticated and expands to conceptualize other domains as well. As pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor does not only reside in language but also in thoughts and actions. However, I further propose that metaphors also reside in our bodily experience.