Multisensory perception of exotic fruits and flavour conveyability in English

Abstract

The article highlights the dynamics of multisensorу perception of exotic fruits and flavour language in English. Sensory perception of eatables has always been a part of world cognition. The Age of geographical discoveries when the Old World collided with the New World, its nature, climate, peoples, their lifestyle, edibles and eating habits marks the breakthrough in European sensual frameworks. Accessibility of exotic fruits and broadening of English vocabulary lessened sensory lacuna between the Old and the New World. The plants and edible fruits Europeans encountered on other continents received their names in English on the basis of their shape similarity with the fruits known to Englishmen. In bi-nominal names the names of familiar fruits (apple, pear, plum, melon) functioned as generic terms and semantic anchors. The exotic fruits flavours were described via source-based strategy when gustatory characteristics of well-known fruits functioned as gustatory primitives. These naming and cognitive practices are reflected and exemplified in the English dictionaries and reveal gradual evolution of multisensoriality and extension of sensory vocabulary in English. Source-based strategy of conveying sensory sensations remains the simplest semiotic strategy and looks natural in terms of expressability though sensorial perceptions are highly subjective and may vary enormously, and, thus, pose questions about efficient codability and communicative accuracy. Exotic fruits flavor is often described via basic taste adjectives (sweet, sour, bitter) and non-basic ones (tart, sharp, acidic, tangy, pungent, sharp, intense, citrusy). The lack of taste words in English that might be used to describe exotic fruits flavours – weak ineffability – can be regarded both a drawback and an example of the law of least effort. Comparative analysis of modern dictionaries proves the increasing importance of sensorial component in definitions of exotic fruits, multisensoriality and decreasing ineffability in flavour description. Olfactory modality is specified for exotic fruits with the strong smell. Gustation and olfaction intermingle rarely despite the claims that they are inseparable in food perception. Conflation of gustatory and tactile sensations is quite stable. Emotional words, semanic superlatives, intensifiers, interjections, prosody, emoji are used on social media platforms to convey great pleasure or utter disgust while tasting exotic fruits.