SENSORY METAPHOR IN ENGLISH SLANG PHYTONYMS

Abstract

The present paper offers a cognitive perspective on sensory metaphor in English slang phytonyms, namely denominations of vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Resemblance-based metaphors relying on the mental imagery stemming from the five basic senses, namely vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are found to abound in slang. The linguocognitive evidence collected allows for designing a typology of visual metaphors depending on the mathematical and physical properties of the referents as well as for concluding that English slang is a highly physicalist, anthropocentrist, and somatocentrist construct.