Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:06:37.200Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lexical categories and conceptualization of olfaction in Amis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2014

AMY PEI-JUNG LEE
AMY PEI-JUNG LEE*
Affiliation:
National Dong Hwa University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As one of the Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan, Amis exhibits abundant lexical items for describing odors. This paper investigates the lexical representations of olfaction across the Amis dialects, showing that Amis possesses more than a dozen abstract odor terms, and uses the proclitic hala=/hali=/ha= plus reduplication of a noun as the source-oriented construction for manifesting olfactory perception. This study also incorporates controlled elicitation by using the booklet of ‘The Smell Identification Test™’ to elicit spontaneous descriptions for the perceived odors. The methodology provides further information to shed light on the categories of verbal responses for odors and the degree of perceptual consistency based on culturally dependent experiences.

Keywords

olfactionlexical categoryconceptualizationAmisAustronesian language
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 321 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

references

Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1969). Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Blust, R. (1988). Austronesian root theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Blust, R. (1999). Subgrouping, circularity and extinction: some issues in Austronesian comparative linguistics. In Zeitoun, E. & Li, P. J. (Eds.), Selected papers from the eighth international conference on Austronesian linguistics (pp. 31–94). Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Blust, R. (2006). Supertemplatic reduplication and beyond. In Chang, H. Y., Huang, L. M., & Ho, D. (Eds.), Streams converging into an ocean: festschrift in honor of Professor Paul Jen-kuei Li on his 70th birthday (pp. 439−460). Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Burenhult, N., & Majid, A. (2011). Olfaction in Aslian ideology and language. Senses & Society, 6(1), 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, W. S. (1979). To know with the nose: keys to odor identification. Science, 203, 467–470.Google Scholar
Cain, W. S. (1982). Odor identification by males and females: predictions vs. performance. Chemical Senses, 7(2), 129–142.Google Scholar
Chernigovskaya, T. V., & Arshavsky, V. A. (2007). Olfactory and visual processing and verbalization. In Plümacher, M. & Holz, P. (Eds.), Speaking of colors and odors (pp. 227–238). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Chrea, C., Ferdenzi, C., Valentin, D., & Abdi, H. (2007). Revisiting the relation between language and cognition: a cross-cultural study with odors. Current Psychology Letters, online: <http://cpl.revues.org/document2532.html>..>Google Scholar
Chrea, C., Valentin, D., Sulmont-Rossé, C., Nguyen, D. H., & Abdi, H. (2005). Semantic, typicality and odor representation: a cross-cultural study. Chemical Senses, 30, 37−49.Google Scholar
Classen, C. (1993). Worlds of sense. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Classen, C. (2005). McLuhan in the rainforest: the sensory worlds of oral cultures. In Howes, D. (Ed.), Empire of the senses (pp. 147–163). Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Classen, C., Howes, D., & Synnott, A. (1994). Aroma: the cultural history of smell. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Doty, R. L. (2001). The Brief Smell Identification TestTM administration manual. New Jersey: Sensonics, Inc.Google Scholar
Dubois, D. (2007). From psychophysics to semiophysics: categories as acts of meaning. In Plümacher, M. & Holz, P. (Eds.), Speaking of colors and odors (pp. 167–184). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Edmondson, J. A., Esling, J. H., Harris, J. G., & Huang, T. (2005). A laryngoscopic study of glottal and epiglottal/pharyngeal stop and continuant articulations in Amis—an Austronesian language of Taiwan. Language and Linguistics, 6(3), 381–396.Google Scholar
Engen, T. (1987). Remembering odors and their names. American Scientist, 75, 497–503.Google Scholar
Fey, V. (1986). Amis dictionary. Taipei: The Bible Society in R.O.C. [In English−Chinese].Google Scholar
Herz, R. S., & Engen, T. (1996). Odor memory: review and analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(3), 300–313.Google Scholar
Holz, P. (2007). Cognition, olfaction and linguistic creativity: linguistic synesthesia as poetic device in cologne advertising. In Plümacher, M. & Holz, P. (Eds.), Speaking of colors and odors (pp. 185–202). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, A. P. (2010a). Reduplication and odor in four Formosan languages. Language and Linguistics, 11(1), 99–126.Google Scholar
Lee, A. P. (2010b). Describing odors in Formosan languages: grammatical strategies and cognition. Paper presented at The Second Conference in Linguistics within the Birgit Rausing Language Program: Humanities of the Lesser-Known, 10–11 September, Lund University, Sweden. <http://konferens.ht.lu.se/hlk-2010>>Google Scholar
Li, P. J. (1991). Orthographic systems for Formosan languages. Taipei: Ministry of Education.Google Scholar
Li, P. J. (1999). History of Formosan natives: a linguistic perspective. Nantou: Taiwan Literature Committee [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Lin, M. H. (1995). Two Amis suffixes: -ay and -an. Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 21, 159−173.Google Scholar
Liu, D. T. (1999). Cleft constructions in Amis. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Taiwan University.Google Scholar
Majid, A., & Burenhult, N. (2014). Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language. Cognition, 130, 266–270.Google Scholar
Majid, A., Senft, G., & Levinson, S. C. (2007). The language of olfaction. In Majid, A. (Ed.), Field manual, vol. 10 (pp. 36–41). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.Google Scholar
Pandya, V. (1987/1993). Above the forest: a study of Andamanese ethnoamenology, cosmology, and the power of ritual. Bombay: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Plümacher, M., & Holz, P. (Eds.) (2007). Speaking of colors and odors. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Tsuchida, S. (1982). Subclassification of Amis dialects. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Tufvesson, S. (2011). Analogy-making in the Semai sensory world. Senses & Society, 6(1), 86–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voeltz, F. K. E., & Kilian-Hatz, C. (Eds.) (2001). Ideophones. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Wu, J. J. (1995). Complex sentences in Amis. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Wu, J. J. (2002). The suffix -ay in Amis revisited. Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics (9-ICAL), 8–11 January, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.Google Scholar
Wu, J. J. (2003). Clausal modifier in Amis. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 29(2), 58–81.Google Scholar
Wu, J. J. (2007). ‘Voice’ markers in Amis: a Role and Reference Grammar analysis. Language and Linguistics, 8(1), 95–142.Google Scholar
Wu, J. J. (2014). A study of say verbs in Amis. Paper presented at The Third Workshop on A Typological Study of Austronesian Languages in Taiwan and their Revitalization, 4–5 October, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Yeh, S. (2003). Syllabification and reduplication in Amis. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Tsing Hua University.Google Scholar
Zucco, G. M., & Tressoldi, P. (1989). Hemispheric differences in odour recognition. Cortex, 25, 607–615.Google Scholar