Olfactory language

Olfactory language refers to language associated with the sense of smell. It involves the naming and categorisation of odours by humans according to each odour's perceived source or attributes. The study of olfactory language is part of the field of linguistics and is distinct from the study of semiochemical communication, which involves communication between organisms using chemical substances detected through olfaction.

Olfactory language refers to language associated with the sense of smell. It involves the naming and categorisation of odours by humans according to each odour's perceived source or attributes. The study of olfactory language is part of the field of linguistics and is distinct from the study of semiochemical communication, which involves communication between organisms using chemical substances detected through olfaction.

Cross-linguistic variation

Olfactory metaphor

Cross-linguistically, olfactory metaphor is traditionally thought to be the least important of all the senses, especially when compared to visual or auditory metaphors, although emerging research suggests the phenomenon is more common than previously thought. In English, olfactory metaphors with negative connotations are often used to describe bad character ("he's a stinker") or the detection of bad qualities ("I smell something fishy about this deal"). In the Seri language, olfactory metaphor and metonymy are salient features. One example is the expression hiisax cheemt iha ("I am angry"), literally 'my.spirit stinks (Declarative)'.

Clinical applications

In a clinical setting, patients may undergo olfactory tests to aid in the diagnosis of mental disorders. A common test involves the use of "Sniffin' Sticks", a set of marker pens imbued with different scents at varying dilutions. Sniffin' Sticks are used both for diagnosis and for research into olfaction, including olfactory language. Due to linguistic variation across speech communities, the Sniffin' Sticks test must be validated for each country in which medical professionals wish to use it for diagnosis. Rather than using a literal translation of scent descriptors, researchers validating the test in a new country may need to change the translated descriptors to more culturally-appropriate terms for the speech community in question. For example, researchers validating the Sniffin' Sticks test for the Portuguese population changed the original translation of the grapefruit scent descriptor, toranja, to the Portuguese word for orange, laranja. This is because grapefruits are not commonly eaten in Portugal, which resulted in participant familiarity falling below the benchmark of 75%. Altering lesser known descriptors such as "grapefruit" to less literal but more culturally-relevant translations increased familiarity to within the range expected for healthy populations. This validated the Sniffin' Sticks test for the Portuguese population without requiring the scents themselves to be altered.

References

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372788809 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.