Linguistic Synesthesia A Meta-analysis
Linguistic Synesthesia A Meta-analysis by Bodo Winter, published by Cambridge University Press on July 3, 2025, offers an in-depth exploration of how different senses are combined in language. This 84-page book presents a comprehensive examination of linguistic synesthesias, illustrating how expressions can map lower senses like touch, taste, and smell onto higher senses such as sound and sight. The work draws on nearly a century of research and provides a critical analysis of existing theories regarding the hierarchical ordering of the senses.
In this edition, readers will find a detailed meta-analysis that synthesizes data from thirty-eight datasets across fourteen languages. The findings reveal clear patterns in linguistic synesthesia, challenging the traditional view of a linear hierarchy among the senses. This book encourages a reevaluation of the theoretical frameworks used to understand the asymmetries between senses in linguistic contexts, making it a significant contribution to the fields of linguistics and grammar.
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Linguistic synesthesias combine different senses, as in English smooth melody (touch→sound). For nearly a century, researchers have gathered data that has been interpreted as supporting the notion of a hierarchical ordering of the senses. According to this proposal, expressions map the presumed-to-be ‘lower’ senses of touch, taste, and smell onto the presumed-to-be ‘higher’ senses of sound and sight. Here, this proposal is tested in the first-ever meta-analysis of linguistic synesthesias, combining thirty-eight datasets from fourteen different languages. The authors demonstrate that clear patterns emerge from the data, but many such patterns are inconsistent with the notion of a linear hierarchical order or a simple lower/higher divide of the senses. This calls for a shift in what theories are considered to be viable for explaining asymmetries between the senses in linguistic synesthesia.
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