Abstract

This paper investigates the evolution of the semantic domain of the sense of taste in English, by looking at the data produced by the Mapping Metaphor Project (MMP) at the University of Glasgow. Although, for centuries, the sense of taste has been ranked as the lowest sense and received scant attention, recent studies in cognitive science and philosophy advocate a reconsideration of its importance in language and cognition. With the help of the linguistic data of the MMP, I propose an account of the role of the sense of taste in English. To do so, I identify and classify various conceptual metaphors that motivate semantic change in which the sense of taste is either Source domain or Target domain. Results show that the domain of Taste may serve alternatively as Source domain (e.g. PLEASURE IS SWEET), but also as Target (TASTE IS THE QUALITY OF A PERSON).