230282 The linguistics of perception (S) (WiSe 2025/2026)

In this course, we examine linguistic communication about perceptual experiences; in other words, how people talk about what they see, hear, smell, taste and feel. We will start with a very brief overview of psychophysics: the relation, and crucially the distinction, between (objective) physical stimuli and (subjective) psychological sensations. We will then introduce the key concept of (in)effability: the degree to which subjective experiences can be encoded or expressed in (different) languages. The bulk of the course will consist of readings and discussions of both classic and recent studies, exploring interrelated issues such as:

i) Synchronic and diachronic associations, extensions and mappings between the senses.
ii) Polysemy, affectivity, iconicity and metaphoricity in the perceptual lexicon.
iii) Pragmatic inferences of (in)direct perception, (un)certainty and personal opinion.

In addition to reading the references and participating in the discussions, students will be encouraged to keep a “perception journal”, as a way of examining how they think and talk about their own perceptual experiences.