How words for sensory experiences become terms

Abstract

Given the double nature of experiencing food as individual as well as shared experience and knowledge, the question is how to connect the observed variability of expressing such a sensory experience with a normalized requirement for developing (food) terminology. On the basis of descriptions of food experiences in actual practices involving the way food is consumed, evaluated and expressed by individuals – experts or not – in all their diversity, we propose to contribute cognitive (psychological and linguistic) expertise to terminology research. We analyze terms as cognitive units, defined within a psychological theory of natural categories as acts of meaning. In tracking the processes of terminological meaning construction in discourse we find intersubjective experience within the complex process of terminologization.