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Smell Is Coded in Grammar and Frequent in Discourse: Cha'palaa Olfactory Language in Cross‐Linguistic Perspective

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: It has long been claimed that there is no lexical field of smell, and that smell is of too little validity to be expressed in grammar. We demonstrate both claims are false. The Cha'palaa language (Ecuador) has at least 15 abstract smell terms, each of which is formed using a type of classifier previously thought not to exist. Moreover, using conversational corpora we show that Cha'palaa speakers also talk about smell more than Imbabura Quechua and English speakers. Together, this shows how language and social interaction may jointly reflect distinct cultural orientations towards sensory experience in general and olfaction in particular.

Source: Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

DOI: 10.1111/jola.12190

Authors: Simeon Floyd, Lila San Roque, Asifa Majid

Institutions: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Radboud University Nijmegen, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Language: English

Topic: Categorization, perception, and language

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, FP7 Ideas: European Research Council

Awards: G345205909, G5886028913