The Understanding of Synaesthetic Metaphors

Abstract

The present study aims to test the understanding of synaesthetic metaphors in Thai. It helps support that the co-occurrence of how primary sense words and secondary sense words appear in a non?random and systematic pattern (Wongthai, 2009). Synaesthetic metaphors used in everyday language and those newly created, but syntactically possible from impossible co-occurrences, were used. The findings also reinforce the claim in the conceptual metaphor theory that human meaning and understanding are grounded in our bodily experiences in the world (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999; Lakoff 2007). Moreover, synaesthetic metaphors also reveal that the perception affects language use.