This congress series outlines an interdisciplinary approach to verbal representation of sensory perception.
Linguists, semioticians, philosophers, theorists of art, psychologists and neurophysiologists will have a share in it. We expect results on the following issues:

• What does it mean that language emanates from sensory perception?
• How are pre- and non-linguistic categories transformed into linguistic categories? What are the basic problems of these transformation processes?
• What strategies do we follow in order to solve them with linguistic means?
• How does language affect or even manipulate sensory perception (non-linguistic categorisation) and, vice versa, how do non-linguistic categorisation processes influence linguistic differentiation?
• Does language play a role in knowledge acquisition and in the stabilization of memory?
• How do emotion and aesthetic perception influence categorisation processes?

The series will focus on sensory perception, which is to a great extent organised non-linguistically. Linguistic representations bear
fundamental problems: speakers are often uncertain whether the words they use will be understood in an appropriate way. There are obviously cases in which linguistic conventions are not explicitly shaped and only poorly elaborated.

The relation between cognitive categorisation processes and social communication is fundamental for epistemology and
semantics/pragmatics. This question has been disputed since the Greeks (Plato). The sensualism of Condillac (based on Locke) gave a radical answer, constructivism and idealism gave another. Whereas the historical dimension will not be ignored, the prime target of the congress series is the discussion of recent contributions of the cognitive sciences (neurobiology, psychology) and linguistics (cognitive linguistics).
So, the interrelations between non-linguistic cognition (perception, motion, emo-tion, memory) and language (lexicon, syntax, textual organization) will be the major concern.

The problematic relations exist between:

• a fine grained topology of distinctions in sensation vs. a coarse classification in language,
• variable and dynamic patterns/flows in perception vs. their stabilization by more general schemata in language, adaptation of schemata and their instantiation in varying contexts.
• Finally we care for the procedures and syntactic devices, which have a sequen-tial pattern, recovering categorical information lost in coarse classification (cf. above).

However, the transformational mapping is not only applied to sensory and motion patterns in speaking and in the continual shaping of spoken language. Languages specify preferred patterns of perception and action and thus shape lower cognitive levels in a feed back process.
The self-referentiality of linguistic cognition requires specific model structures and mathematical tools related to dynamic system theory and chaos theory.

Since one of the characteristics of the congresses is the interdisciplinarity of the discussion, the topic "sense and sensibility" must be subdivided, in order to specify the subject matter and to offer solutions to detailed problems.
In the second congress the areas of motion and emotion and their verbal representation will be the central topic.

2. International Congress

Motion and Emotion - The bodily dynamics of meaning in language and cognition

(date not yet fixed)


Here we focus on human locomotion, control of objects, actions of animated beings, social interaction and their reflection in the lexicon (of verbs) and syntax (basically sentences) of natural languages.
In the cognitive sciences and linguistics the emotional dimension has been underestimated. Current results of research in the field of emotion will be brought together and reflected philosophically. Their effects on aesthetics in general and literature and the fine arts will be evaluated.

(More detailed information coming soon)

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Registration

Registration via e-mail: wildgen@uni-bremen.de
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wildgen - University Bremen - Studies in Semiotics (SIS)

A participation fee of 25,- Euro will be raised (Students: 10,- Euro).

Please use the following bank account:

"Wolfgang Wildgen/SAS"
Sparda-Bank Hannover
Bank code: 250 905 00
Account No.: 300 953 490

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Accommodation

For hotels please contact

Bremer Touristik Zentrale
Phone: ++49 / 1805 / 10 10 30

For cheaper options contact

Bed-and-Breakfast-Vermittlung
Phone: ++49 / 421 / 53 60 771
E-mail: bremen@bed-and-breakfast.de

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Location

There is a tramway - LINE 6 - from the Airport Bremen via the Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) to the University. It takes about 25 minutes.
Your stop which will be announced is "Universität/Naturwissenschaften 1 - Universum Science Center". From there on, the last 300 meters signs will lead you to the building, named "SFG" (Enrique-Schmidt-Straße). The congress will be in the 1. floor, left wing, rooms 1040 and 1060.
(The hotels "Atlantic" and "Munte" are only 500 resp. 900 metres away - we'll show you then.)

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List of speakers

1. Prof. Dr. Liliana Albertazzi, University of Trento/I, Department of Sociology, liliana.albertazzi@soc.unitn.it

2. Prof. Dr. Per-Aage Brandt, University of Aarhus/DK, Center for Semiotic Research, pabrandt@inet.uni2.dk

3. Prof. Dr. Jacques Fontanille, University of Limoges (F) and Séminaire Intersémiotique de Paris, fontanil@pop.unilim.fr

4. Prof. Dr. Nico H. Frijda, University of Amsterdam/NL, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, frijda@macmail.psy.uva.nl

5.Andrea Graumann (M.A.), University of Bremen, Studies in Semiotics, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, graumann@uni-bremen.de

6. Prof. Dr. Zoltán Kövecses, University of Budapest/HU, Department of American Studies, kovecses@isis.elte.hu

8. Prof. Dr. Jean Petitot-Cocorda, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris/F, petitot@poly.polytechnique.fr

9. PD Dr. Martina Plümacher, University of Bremen, Studies in Semiotics, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, pluemach@uni-bremen.de

10. Joanna Raczaszek, University of Warswa, Warschau/PL, raczasze@engram.psych.uw.edu.pl

11. Prof. Dr. Michael Stadler, University of Bremen, Institut für Psychologie und Kognitionsforschung, stadlerm@uni-bremen.de

12. Dr. Christel Stolz, University of Bremen, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, cstolz@uni-bremen.de

13. Prof. Leonard Talmy, Department of Linguistics, University of Buffalo/USA, talmy@ascu.buffalo.edu

14. Dr. Barend van Heusden, University of Groningen/NL, B.P.van.Heusden@let.rug.nl

15. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wildgen, University of Bremen, Studies in Semiotics, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, wildgen@uni-bremen.de

Schedule

(to be completed)

Motion

9.00 - 9.30 Check in

9.30 - 9.45 Welcome:Elisabeth Lienert (Head of Department)
9.45 - 10.15 Introduction: Wolfgang Wildgen
10.15 - 11.00 Michael Stadler

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee

11.30 - 12.15 Liliana Albertazzi
12.15 - 13.00 Jean Petitot

13.00 - 14.30 Lunch break

14.30 - 15.15 Leonard Talmy
15.15 - 16.00 Sotaro Kita

16.00 - 16.30 Coffee

16.30 - 17.15 Andrea Graumann
17.15 - 18.00 Christel Stolz
18.00 - 19.00 Gitta Barthel: Dance Performance

19.00 - x Talk and dinner

Emotion

9.30 - 10.15
10.15 - 11.00 Nico Freijda

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee

11.30 - 12.15 Martina Plümacher
12.15 - 13.00 Barend van Heusden

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch break

14.00 - 14.45 Zoltan Kövecses
14.45 - 15.30 Joanna Raczaszek

15.30 - 16.00 Coffee

16.00 - 16.45 Jacques Fontanille
16.45 - 17.30 Per-Aage Brandt

17.00 - 18.00 Check out and chill out

Abstracts

(Coming soon)

(Former activities)

1. International Congress

How can language cope with colour and smell ?

26th to 28th September 2002
University of Bremen

How can sensory phenomena like smell or colour be grasped by linguistic categories, if these phenomena are to a great deal subjected to independent cognitive (non-linguistic) categorisation processes? What transformations (distortions), what gain or loss does the heterogeneity of different levels of categorisation imply?

The first congress deals with the problematic correlation between the quasi-continuous organisation of colour and smell perception and the discrete, strongly combinatory structure of language.

The scientific background is given particularly by cognitive linguistics and by current trends in the cognitive sciences in general, insofar they deal with questions of language.

The classical Sapir-Whorf-hypothesis is broken down to a parallel analysis of perceptual and memory processes and their reflection in linguistic categorisation. Can language cope with the cognitive complexity and diversity of cognitive categorisations and organisations (order types)? The transformation of cognitive categories and schematisations into linguistic ones affects the grid of categorisation, which is dramatically simplified and can only be (partially) compensated by the relational architecture of language. Parallel use of different semiotic channels may ensure a realistic mapping of experience into language.

An interdisciplinary discourse between linguists, semioticians, neurobiologists, psychologists, philosophers and theorists of art may hopefully be able to show a way, how comparative studies on this topic may proceed terminologically and methodologically.

• Prof. Dr. Per-Aage Brandt, University of Aarhus/DK, Center for Semiotisk Forskning
• Prof. Dr. Tatiana Chernigovskaya, St. Peterburg State University/RUS, Department of General Linguistics
• Dr. Dr. Danièle Dubois, Directeur de Recherche au Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques, Paris/F
• Prof. Dr. Manfred Fahle, University of Bremen/GER, Human Neurobiology
• Prof. Walter Freeman (M.D.), University of California at Berkeley/USA, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
• Dr. Dietfried Gerhardus, University of the Saarland/GER, Institute of Philosophy
• Andrea Graumann (M.A.), University of Bremen/GER, Studies in Semiotics
• Peter Holz (M.A.), University of Bremen/GER, Studies in Semiotics
• Dr. Anne Holzapfel, Japan centre Marburg/GER
• Dr. Susanne Niemeier, University of Bremen/GER, Department of Languages and Literature
• PD Dr. Martina Plümacher, University of Bremen/GER, Studies in Semiotics
• Prof. Dr. Michael Stadler, University of Bremen/GER, Institute for Psychology and Cognitive Research
• Prof. Dr. Siegfried Wyler, University of St. Gallen/CH, Department of Cultural Studies
• Yoshikata Shibuya (M.A.), University of Manchester /GB, Department of Linguistics
• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wildgen, University of Bremen/GER, Studies in Semiotics
• Prof. Dr. Gesualdo Zucco, University of Padua/I, General Psychology

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Wolfgang Wildgen (Bremen): Color, smell and language: Introduction to the topic

Between the senses, their sensibility and language different gaps, gulfs exist. Sensation is much more universal, much less culturally shaped than language is; it is manifested individually, often with a wide range of individual variations depending on disposition and context, whereas language is a social fact ("fait social" in Saussure's terms) and thus more stable, more independent from context. Last but not least sensations are more differentiated, i.e., the number of possible distinctions approaches continuity, whereas language is much more discrete, uses a rather coarse grid of distinctions. Between sensation and language other cognitive capacities intervene: memory, imagination, social cognition, etc. To compare and relate sensation and language could seem to be a categorical mistake or a relapse into some crude sensationalism attributed, e.g., to Condillac (but he has only proposed an abstract sensationalism, cf. his sculpture endowed progressively with cognitive faculties). The reason, why the comparison of sense/sensibility and language makes sense and is promising, has to do with the steady transitions between experience (based on sensation and memory) and communication/thinking. Every speech-act insofar it refers to the "real" or experienced world operates a "translation" between not yet linguistically organized experiences grounded in sensations and verbal/written utterances. Although the hearer who understands a linguistic expression may not always have a vivid (sensual) experience linked to it, she/he often imagines something which lies in between sensation and language.
Thus semiotics, linguistics on one side, cognitive science on the other have to question the transition between our senses (memory, imagination of sensual experience) and linguistic expressions. Possibly a tertium comparationis, a medium which links both exists or one must assume a process (a network of processes) which organize and shape the transition. The scientific investigation of this transition involves several disciples. In the center stand:
cognitive science (cognitive psychology and neuro-science),
linguistics (rather cognitive semantics than modular syntax-centered linguistics),
sciences of art (e.g., figural art, literature, music).
In the arts, the transition between sensitivity and expression is felt as a problem, which has to be solved and is difficult to solve, whereas normally sensation and linguistic expression are so automatic or ritualized that the experience of a problematic transition between them is lost or unconscious to most perceiving humans and speakers/hearers.
The general framework is discussed in philosophy, e.g., in philosophy of the mind, in neurophilosophy, in philosophy of language, and in philosophy of symbolic forms.
Bibliography:
Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2001. Die Versprachlichung der kognitiven Kodierung von Bewegung, Geruch und Gefühl, series of preprints of the : Zentrum Philosophische Grundlagen der Wissenschaften, Bremen: 2001/1.
---, 1999. Hand und Auge. Eine Studie zur Repräsentation und Selbstrepräsentation (kognitive und semantische Aspekte), series of the: Zentrum Philosophische Grundlagen der Wissenschaften, vol. 21, University Press, Bremen.

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Walter Freeman (Berkeley): Neurophysiological representation of odors

The architecture and dynamics of the olfactory system has evolved to solve the major problems in management of olfactory information. The problems stem from the requirement for an immense number of receptor cells in the nose needed to capture odorant molecules in low concentration and unpredictable variety.
The local dynamic operations include normalization and dynamic range compression of input; generalization of output over equivalent receptor cells; selective amplification of foreground odors against complex chemical backgrounds; compression and storage of information that defines classes of behaviorally relevant odors; fast, unbiased access to any class on any inhalation in time frames on the order of 0.1 sec; construction of a signal for transmission into the brain to denote the presence or absence of an identified odor; enhancement of the signal; noise ratio upon central transmission; and modification and up-dating of the selectivity to form new classes by habituation and associative learning.
Operations that solve these problems are simulated in a model of olfaction derived from experimental recordings and expressed in coupled nonlinear differential equations. The model is evaluated by simulation of spatiotemporal olfactory electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns with chaotic dynamics, and by devising neural network models for pattern classification that operate in noisy, high-dimensional, rapidly time-varying environments.

The olfactory system is one of an array of sensory modules deployed by the limbic system, including visual, auditory and somatic, all of which have the same dynamics that address the same problems. The problems stem from the necessity to interface the finite brain with the infinite and unbounded complexity of the environment.
Cooperatively these components use chaotic dynamics to create and test hypotheses about the environment, which are evaluated by sense data, which are then discarded. All that brains can know is constructed within the forebrain through landscapes of chaotic attractors created by the neurodynamics of intentionality.

Freeman WJ (1999) "Il sistemo olfattivo: rilevamento e classificazione degli odori", Vol. III, Parte Seconda: Organizzazioni di systemi intelligenti, Sezzione III: Parti del Cervello e Funzioni Intelligenti, pp. 477-494. Frontiere della Vita. Roma, Italia: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Fondata da Giovanni Treccani.

Freeman WJ (2001) The olfactory system: odor detection and classification. Chapter in: Frontiers in Biology, Volume 3.

Intelligent Systems. Part II Brain Components as Elements of Intelligent Function. Pages 509-526. New York: Academic Press.

Freeman WJ (2000) Mesoscopic neurodynamics. From neuron to brain.
Journal of Physiology (Paris) 94: 303-322.

Freeman WJ (2001) How Brains Make Up Their Minds. New York: Columbia University Press.

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Siegfried Wyler (St. Gallen): Colour names between beauty and elegance

Discussing the colour designations of textiles and cosmetics implies fundamental difference from discussing colour names of ordinary everyday language. Whereas colour names in everyday speech have a long history and have arisen from so-called 'natural colours in objects' (such as plants, flowers, fruits) the colours of textiles and cosmetics are the result of man-made dying processes. Moreover such dying processes are undertaken with specific intentions. It will be the objective of this contribution to the Workshop on "Sense and Sensibility" to analyse and, if possible, to categorise the underlying principles of selecting pigments and dyes, the resulting naming and the semantic and semiotic implications. Also it will be shown that these processes make use of inherent properties of colour terms in general, as there are the faculty of 'natural and constructed naming' (Harrison), to act as distinguishers, as valuators, to have descriptive, associative or suggestive functions, to mention just a few of the properties which come into play with textiles and cosmetics. Further it must be considered that textiles and cosmetics are objects of economic activities. This implies principles, methods and strategies of marketing, which in turn imply human behaviour in general in such areas as advertising, selling and buying. Also it must be considered that textiles and cosmetics are fundamental elements of the culture and the lifestyle of human communities, thus beside designation, semantic implications, psychology and marketing, cultural factors add to the complexity of colour naming of textiles and cosmetics.

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Gesualdo M. Zucco (Padua): Odour memory - the unique nature of a memory system

Odours represent powerful cues able to remind us of sometimes very distant memories. Such memories are often characterized by unusually strong emotive connotations. This is due to the direct anatomical links between the primary olfactory cortex and some structures in the limbic system. Visual and verbal sensory systems do not share similar peculiarities. Olfactory memory, however, has some other important distinguishing characteristics which may suggest its uniqueness in cognition.

Evidence to support this hypothesis is the following:
a) odour memory is only slightly affected by the length of the retention intervals;
b) it is very resistent to retroactive interference, (i.e., to forgetting produced by subsequent learning experiences);
c) odour memory presents a lower initial acquisition level compared to visual and verbal material (this led some authors to assume that odours are represented in memory as distinctive events and are learned in an all-or-none fashion);
d) the relationship between odours and words seems to be very weak;
e) no differences appear in recognition tasks for odours learned intentionally or incidentally;
f) neither strategies nor interferences seem to affect recognition memory for odours.

Such peculiarities of odour memory will be discussed and tentatively integrated in a single model. The main assumption is that people lack a conscious representation for odours, which are stored in memory at an implicit - unconscious - level of knowledge.

Zucco G. (2002, in press), Anomalies in cognition: olfactory memory.
European Psychologist.

Richardson J., Zucco G. (1989), Cognition and olfaction: a review.
Psychological Bulletin, 105, 3, 352-360

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Manfred Fahle (Bremen): Functional aspects of the visual system

The visual system, with more than one million fibres running in the optic nerve, is by far the most information-rich of our 'distance'-senses. The auditory, gustatory and olfactory nerves each contain an order of magnitude fewer fibres. As a consequence, a large proportion of the human cortex - probably as much as one third - is involved in analysing different aspects of visual scenes, such as the distribution of luminances, colours, and contours, and with analysing depth, motion, and the form of objects. Sensitivity of the visual system for each of these features can be measured by behavioural methods and quantified by psychophysics.

Today, we gain further insight into the function of sensory systems by using sum-potential recordings (EEG) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in humans, as well as single cell recordings and modern anatomical methods in animals. From this research, a view of the information processing in the human brain is slowly evolving that is characterised, in my personal view, especially by six principles:
- parallel processing of signals simultaneously for different stimulus attributes, an important one being spatial location
- functional specialisation of cortex, corresponding to parallel processing
- highly organised and ordered functional representations: similar features are usually processed and stored at nearby cortical locations
- lateral interactions between different cortical 'processors'
- vertical interactions between cortical areas dealing with different levels of abstraction (including massive feedback signals)
- functional plasticity that shapes cortical mechanisms during development.

In the presentation, I will give a short overview over transduction from light to action potentials in the retina, the flow of signal towards the visual cortex, and some of the mechanisms that analyse the visual stimuli, including colour perception. An important conclusion will be that sense information is (often) not sufficient to create a precise model of the outer world and that perception, rather than being purely analytical, is synthetic, too, more often than not.

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Susanne Niemeier (Bremen): From blue stockings to blue movies - colour metonymies in english

My contribution will focus on that part of the conference's subtitle that asks how language can cope with colour. I will not discuss general aspects related to colour terms but outline the use of colour metonymy in English with respect to the colour "blue".

Colours can be considered - and have been considered - as concepts that are relatively easy to describe, at least within a specific culture. According to Brown & Lenneberg (1954), 7.5 million minimal colour differences can be discriminated by the human eye according to hue, luminosity, and saturation. However, in this three-dimensional continuum, no discrete colour categories can be distinguished. Are the discrete categories that are used by people then the product of their cultures and languages (cf. Lucy 1992:185 ff.)? In this case, we should be able to discover culture-specific colour expressions, for example in metonymies. Colour can be regarded as a concept widely internalised and widely shared within a language community and therefore as firmly rooted in our minds, prone to give rise to numerous meaning extensions in diverse types of metonymy.

More than 30 years after the Chomskyan generative revolution, Cognitive Linguistics enables us to show that the so-called semantic emptiness of "colourless green ideas" is not empty at all, but part of our everyday conceptual strategies (cf. also Niemeier 1998). I will present a network of the different meanings of "blue" in English and discuss its relevance from various perspectives, such as the extension of the lexicon, the perspective of culture-dependence, the language acquisition perspective, and the perspective of linguistic relativity. Thus, it should become evident why concepts such as "bluestocking" and "blue movies" - which, on the surface, seem to contradict each other (blue for prudishness vs. blue for pornography) - are related via a common core meaning.

References:

Brown, R. & E. Lenneberg. 1954. "A study in language and cognition". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 49: 454-462.
Lucy, J.A.. 1992. Language Diversity and Thought. A Reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Cambridge: CUP.
Niemeier, S.. 1998. "Colourless green ideas metonymise furiously". In: F. Ungerer (ed.). Kognitive Lexikologie und Syntax. Rostock: Universität Rostock: 119-146.

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Michael Stadler (Bremen):
How many senses are there, how much information about the world do they give us, and what are they useful for?


Starting from the classical 5 Aristotelian senses, a proper account is made for human channels of information. Differences in number and quality of sensory systems of other animals are discussed. The selection of physical processes, that may be stimuli to sensory systems, causes the different "Merkwelten" of the different species. The question is rised how the physical world really looked like if we had sensory information about all physico-chemical processes.
In the second part of the lecture the quality systems of color vision, pitch audition, taste and odor are compared. The main categories are relativity, non-linearization and semantic influence. Finally the biological function of the transposition of physical processes to sensory qualities is discussed.


References:
Gniech, G. & Stadler, M.: Die Farbe. Bremen 2000.
Stadler, M., Seeger, F. & Raeithel, A.: Psychologie der Wahrnehmung. München
2nd ed.1977.
Uexküll, J.v. & Kriszat, G.: Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und
Menschen. Berlin 1934.

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Per Aage Brandt (Aarhus):
Toward a Semiotics of the Senses - Pour une sémiotique des sens

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Tatiana Chernigovskaya (St. Petersburg):
Olfactory and visual processing and verbalization: Cross-cultural and neurosemiotic dimensions

Studies of cerebral hemispheric patterns for sensory and cognitive functions indicate that differential processing strategies influence the perception of all kinds of stimuli. In apparent contrast to numerous research in other sensory modalities the role of the hemispheric functions in chemoreception, evaluation and verbalization of odors is scantily known. However the influence of odors on human behavior is evident and culturally dependent. This paper describes investigations of: (i) memory, associations and verbalization of odors in subjects representing different cultures and languages ii)reactions to fragrances - their rejection or preferences - presented to the right- and the left hemispheric (RH/LH) normal adults, professional tasters included; (iii) preferences, classifications and verbalization of colors and complex visual images in normal adults and in patients with focal left- or righthemispheric lesions.
Olfactory information is known to be complex, uncertain (fuzzy) and extremely difficult to verbalize. Special attention in neurolinguistic part of the paper was paid to social, cultural, educational and professional characteristics of the subjects. It should be emphasized that we face difficulty of 'translating' olfactory Gestalt messages into a discrete language. Theoretically similar are the difficulties with verbalization of colors, but the list of descriptors is much more developed in all the languages.
Subjects with RH type of reactions show reliable RH brain-activity when stimulated by preferable for them odors. Individuals of the LH type demonstrate corresponding cerebral activation when stimulated by the odors rejected. The data correlate with Lusher color testing of the same subjects. Classification and verbalization of colors show significant difference in the types of strategies used by RH vs. LH subjects.
Normal adults tested for lateralities and cognitive styles were accessed for voluntary free associations concerning individual memory for odors. Associations were later evaluated by the subjects as neutral, negative or positive and classified according to different semantic fields.
The data suggest that most RH individuals demonstrate specific memory and verbalization of odors and that most professional tasters of odors appear to be RH personalities. It also shows the important role of social and cultural as well as of national language background. Right hemispheric visual and olfactory processing seems to correlate with adoptive behavior in general. Our data evidently show synesthetic nature of olfactory lexicon: transfer of descriptors used for other sensory modalities.

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Yoshikata Shibuya, Hajime Nozawa, Toshiyuki Kanamaru (Manchester):
Understanding Synaesthetic Expressions: Vision and Olfaction with the physiological=psychological model

The objective of our paper is to introduce to the linguistic circle a new model based on the findings of brain physiology and anatomical studies, and show how the so-called synaesthetic expressions are to be explained with such a model.
Synaesthetic expressions are figurative expressions that involve mapping from one sense modality onto another one. For example, in warm breeze and warm color, the former is not classified as a synaesthetic expression, since the sense modality expressed by warm and breeze are in accord with each other. On the other hand, warm color is a synaesthetic expression, since it involves the mapping from tactile sense onto visual sense.
Synaesthetic expressions are well acknowledged in linguistics, and have been explored by various researchers (e.g., Ullmann 1951, Williams 1976, Yamanashi 1988, among others). The traditionally dominant approach to synaesthesia is a semantic analysis based on the analyzer's and/or subject's introspection. This introspection-based semantic approach reflects the dominant view taken in this field by various approaches such as generative grammar, generative semantics, and cognitive linguistics.
In this paper, we propose a model called the "physiological=psychological" (PP) model based on the findings of brain physiology and anatomical studies. The PP model differs radically from the traditional linguistic model of semantics in its fundamental view of meaning. It takes meaning as "reactions in the brain that can be externally observable against linguistic stimulus", and hence in this model constraints of linguistic phenomena can be ascribed to physiological properties. Consequently, with this model, we suggest that apprehension of synaesthetic expressions concerning visual sense and olfactory sense is achieved through physiological reactions of a particular domain in the brain caused by a particular linguistic stimulus (e.g., linguistic sound or letter).
As is well acknowledged, synaesthetic expressions are found cross-linguistically (e.g., Osgood 1963). The cross-linguistic ubiquity is ascribed to the physiological function of the brain involved in apprehension and production of such expressions. In this paper, we mainly discuss synaesthetic expressions in English and Japanese.
We argue, with the PP model, that synaesthetic expressions are processed through activation based on the interpreter's knowledge which is constituted with associative relations between particular linguistic sounds and particular senses, and among co-occurring senses. For example, we suggest that in such an expression as warm color (atatakai iro in Japanese), where two different senses (tactile sense and visual sense) are involved, synthesis of successive reactions caused by the linguistic inputs color and warm enables a particular activation of visual sense about redness. The "mismatch" of sense modalities of vision and tactility denoted by each lexical component of this expression is successfully solved by the co-occurring associative relation between them.
On the other hand, in a synaesthetic expression concerning olfactory sense such as fragrant music (kaguwashii ongaku in Japanese), we suggest that the interpretation of this expression is achieved in a different fashion from the former through a series of physiological reactions, including emotion. That is, interpretation of this expression is achieved by synthesis of pleasant feeling which is caused by fragrant and a particular pattern of auditory reaction caused by the input of music.
We show that the PP model provides a new perspective for issues on synaesthetic expressions. By not appealing to the analyzer's and/or the subject's introspection about meaning of a given expression, but developing a model based on brain physiology, we propose a new way of linguistic accounts that link the gap between language and brain function.

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Anne Holzapfel (Marburg):
Fact vs. event readings ofpPerception verb complements - case study from Japanese colour perception

In this talk it will be argued that nominalization is a preferred strategy to indicate direct or abstract perception as the source of knowledge.
Perception verbs basically have two different readings. On the one hand they represent direct physical perception, on the other hand they represent an abstract notion of knowledge. Similar to colour expressions perception verbs tend to adopt abstract meanings along a lexicalization hierarchy: seeing -> hearing -> feeling -> taste and smell. The same way languages do not have colour expressions for brown or orange without showing those of red, there are no languages with abstract expressions for taste but not for vision.
A syntactic parallel to the notion of direct and indirect perception can be shown. Perception verb predicates for immediate or direct physical perception embed bare infinitives and -ing complements (2a,b). In their abstract reading they take that-clauses and infinitives with to (2c,d). According to Vendler (1979), Mönnich (1992,1999), Hamm (2000) i.e. (1a) and (1b) describe perception acts that refer to events. (1c) and (1d) refer to propositions or facts.

(1a) He saw a dog run down the street.
(1b) He saw a dog running down the street.
(1c) He saw that the problem was very difficult. (Caplan 1973)
(1d) From what Sue told me about her meeting with Fred, I feel him to be growing rather hostile.
(Kirsner & Thompson 1976)

This behaviour is not an idiosyncrasy of English (Hamm, Schüle, Holzapfel 1988, Holzapfel 2002). In Japanese the same distinction between event (2a,b) and fact interpretations (2c) is observed. The complements nominalized by no and tokoro are perfect nominals, that is to say, the represent the event of the lights being red at a certain moment. The other example (2c) illustrates an imperfect - fact denoting - nominal. The source of the information that the traffic light had been red is not necessarily a direct (auditory or visual) stimulus. The speaker might as well have read about it in the newspaper.

(2a) Mary wa shingou ga akai no o mita.
TOP signal SUBJ be red NOM ACC saw
Mary saw the signal be red.
(2b) Shingou ga aka ni kawatta tokoro o mita.
signal SUBJ have become red NOM ACC saw
I saw the signal (right at the moment) when it had changed to red.
(2c) Shingou ga gofun goto ni aka ni kawaru koto o kiita/kansatsu shita.
signal SUBJ every five minutes become red NOM ACC heard/observed
I heard/observed that the signal changes to red every five minutes.
(2d) Kono bara no aka o mite, kirei da to itta.
This rose GEN red ACC looking at is beautiful she said
Seeing the red of this rose she said that it was beautiful.

Not only is the epistemic source and the opposition between direct vs. abstract perception relevant for embedding under perception verbs, it is also relevant for evidential marking in the matrix sentence. The same nominalizers that were used as a complementizers in (2a, 2c) can be used as nominal predicates in the matrix sentence. no then adopts an evidential meaning, koto expresses surprise or disgust. Among the evidential markers in Japanese at least two other nominalizations can be found. In this talk the spectrum of the Japanese evidential field with lexical evidentials on the one side and their perception verb counterparts on the other side will be illustrated by examples of colour perception. The notion of direct/indirect perception is shown to be a relevant category for both linguistic phenomena.

Caplan, David (1973): A Note on the Abstract Readings of Verbs of Perception. Cognition 213,
269-277.
Hamm, Fritz & Holzapfel, Anne & Schüle, Susanne (1998): Nominalisierungen im Akatek
Maya und im Japanischen. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 51.3, 228-255.
Hamm, Fritz (2000): Modelltheoretische Untersuchungen zur Semantik von Nominalisierungen.
Habilitationsschrift. Universität Tübingen: SfS-Report-01-00.
Holzapfel, Anne (2002): Evidentialität im Japanischen. Promotionsschrift, Universität Tübingen.
Kirsner, Robert & Thompson, Sandra (1976): The Role of Pragmatic Inference in Semantics: A
Study of Sensory Verb Complements in English. Glossa 10, 200-240.
Martin, Samuel E. (1975): A Reference Grammar of Japanese. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press.
Mönnich, Uwe (1992): Ereignisse und Gedanken: Syntax und Semantik von Perzeptionsverbkomplementen. Ms.
Mönnich, Uwe (1999): Sprachtypologische Überlegungen zu Perzeptionskonstruktionen. ms.
Vendler, Zeno (1979): Vicarious Experience. Revue de Métaphysique et Morale 2, 161-173.

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Peter Holz (Bremen): "Smells like teen spirit" - Why we can't actually talk about smells and how we do it nonetheless

Within the vocabulary of odor perception we can observe a lot of peculiarities and ambiguities concerning the expressions used to characterize olfactive qualities.
What does a dynamic or a breezy odor perfume like? (How) can some perfume smell warm, elegant or wild ?
My starting point is the working hypothesis that a direct linguistic access to odor perception is impossible. I will present empirical evidence that the 'lexicon of olfaction' is basically and - this is the point in question: necessarily constituted by means of synaesthetic linguistic processes as one divice of metaphorical use of language.

My talk is aiming toward three points:

1. A corpus-based description of adjectives used in the 'discourse of perfume' to characterize odors with respect to their metaphorical origins.

2. Suggestions, why an adequate verbal communication on smell is impossible and what cognitive strategies we follow to talk about smells nontheless. I will mainly consider arguments from the domain of neurophysiology and cognitive linguistics.

3. A possible discussion about cognitive and linguistic categorization in which I will argue that olfactive perception and the verbalisation of odors cannot be categorized in terms of classical logical semantics or in terms of linguistic features of lexemes. Olfaction should rather be regarded as a prototypically structured mental space of perception. My proposal: Smells and smell descriptions can be described and classified more adequately from a prototype theoretical perspective.

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Andrea Graumann (Bremen): Color Names and Dynamic Imagery

The gap between the 7.5 million colors that the human eye can distinguish according to hue, saturation and lightness (cf. Brown & Lenneberg, 1954) and the 11 basic colors or color terms by which we categorize the color continuum (cf. Berlin & Kay, 1969) is striking.

There is no doubt that human language doesn't have sufficient means to name all the perceptable colors and it actually seems as if we not only categorize the color spectrum according to the 11 basic colors but furthermore primarily use the 11 color terms in everyday conversations when we have to name the color of an object. So by naming a perceived color we usually choose focal or prototypical examples of a color category or use adjectives to modify these (eg. dark red or bright green).

Having to describe a color more specifically or having to distinguish different colors within one of the 11 color categories is linguistically and mentally a different task. Although different psychological tests show that people associate certain psychological and physiological sensations with a color (cf. Lüscher, 1969), these sensations are not evoked or at least don't play a salient role in ordinary communication. That is, saying that an apple is red or a car is green doesn't evoke a dynamic or a calm sensation, but rather enables the listener to imagine a red apple or a green car and to understand what is meant.

This is quite different when complex color names are considered. While we are not creating dynamic images when decoding the basic color names, complex color names (eg. tomato red or pine green) or cryptic color denotations (eg. tornado red or cyber green) create mental images, in which different parts of the mental lexicon are involved and must be involved in order to mentally visualize and comprehend a mentioned color.

In advertisement and product design mental images evoked by complex color names are used to support the overall concept of a product, that by itself is targeting at a certain group of consumers. Especially in this context (as in others) the color names cannot be arbitrary but must be semantically motivated. This motivation results (in general) out of different cognitive capacities (imagination, lexical and encyclopedic knowledge, social and cultural context, etc.) that are drawn upon when expressing and understanding a special complex color name.

My contribution is aiming at:
1. Showing that certain cognitive features must be considered when applying a certain complex color name (besides the basic color terms and obvious derivations or modifications) to one of the 7.5 million perceptable colors. So what modifications are possible, in order to name a color correctly and in order to evoke mental images that do for example fit an intended product design?
and
2. Presenting a analysis of color names used in the car-industry (i.e. Volkswagen) from a linguistic point of view. Do the applied color names make sense on a stand-alone basis and do they make the intended sense to create different dynamic images?

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Martina Plümacher (Bremen): Color perception and metaphor

Speaking about perceptual experiences needs indicators that give us the basis for an intersubjective adjustment of the individual application or coinage of words. In the area of color, we are provided with some basic color terms, but each of them refers to an extensive color range. To express ourselves precisely we turn to the names of wellknown things - for instance to describe something as lemon-colored, olive-colored, pitch-black or jet-black, as violet, orange etc. In former times colors were named with reference to the substances by which they were produced. The establishment of a relational order of colors in form of a color-circle and a color-sphere was a great improvement, because it constitues a general color scheme which could be learned. It represents the knowledge of mixing tints and of artistic and psychological color effects like the complementary color, saturation and brightness. Nowadays we are familar to the circle and sphere of colors and therefore provided with a conceptual color space, a topological structure of color dimensions (complementary colors, saturation and brightness), by which we are able to name a specific hue relative precisely without using names of things.

But there is a problem left: speaking about color combinations, for instance about a color composition of modern art, implies to determine several kinds of psychological color effects, the effects of the interaction of colors during our color perception, of luminosity, contrast, regrouping of colors, 'rhythms' and hierarchical orders of the 'weight' of colors etc. This is the point where we turn to metaphors. I will show in my presentation how psychological knowlegde about color perception (e.g. gestaltian laws) contributes to a foundation of metaphors like 'rhythm' and 'weight' of color.

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Danièle Dubois (Paris): Categories as acts of meaning: from olfaction and audition back to colors

After exploring categorization and "naming" of color and other visual objects (Dubois, 1991), we recently investigated cognitive categories and naming within other senses (Dubois, 1997). The research conducted on olfaction and audition has suggested that the conception of categorization grounded on visual objects was, to some extent, "modality specific". If the relevance of the concepts of categories and typicality has been confirmed, the shift to olfaction and audition has challenged several conceptualizations that may in the end be relevant only to categories of visual objects. The diversity of the criteria allowed by the free sorting tasks induced different "sorts" of categories: categories of objects, events, or effects, or categories defined by shared properties (among which the hedonic dimension). Going back to the study of colors and their naming in different practices (Dubois & Grinevald, 1999; 2000), it can be shown that a large diversity (and subject centered) principles of categorization can give common interpretations to visual, olfactory and auditory categories as well, considering categories as "acts of meaning" (Dubois 2000). This issue correlates with the observed diversity of linguistic categories (nouns, adjectives, lexical constructions) and devices (complex phrasing), when enlarging the observations in "natural" every day settings and practices.

Our results from categorization across senses diversely represented in the French language pointed to the diversity of (French) language resources as constraints on categorization. Numerous linguistic studies now begin to stress the diversity of linguistics forms to express cognitive categories across languages, in the same way that we observed a diversity of linguistic forms across senses within the French language.

These results raise the general issue of the relations between cognition and sensibility and of what can be still called "categories". There is no straightforward answer. It depends precisely on "where" the categories are believed to be defined. Either categories are conceived as being "somewhere", their meaning being referentially defined and the subject's answers more or less adjusted to these pre-existing entities. Or it is the subject's (behavioral and linguistic) answers that establish the limits of what s/he considers as belonging to the same categories. This is ultimately a philosophical issue that we shall not discuss as such but as it entails methodological consequences on experimental designs (see Dubois, 1996; Dubois & Resche-Rigon, 1997; Dubois & al. 1997).

A more precise analysis of both the cognitive processes involved in the construction of the sensory invariants relevant for human activities, and of the psycholinguistic processes at work in finding a "fit" (a map) with some linguistic form is thus necessary to fill the theoretical "gap" between linguistic and cognitive categories when running experiments which involve "words" and "things" as both "obviously" given. Some "missing links" between language and cognition are to be worked on through a more precise analysis of the diversity of psychological principles of categorization on one hand, and the identification of the diversity of linguistic devices for naming those categories on the other.

Experimental investigations have therefore to account for the fact that our culture has diversely lexicalized the different senses (and other cultures even more differently). If we always perceive "something", through the diversity of senses, languages diversely objectivize and stabilize our individual cognitive representations of the world through a large variety of shared linguistic forms. These forms may constrain the "ontology" attributed to different entities " in between" the traditional dualism of a subject facing the objects of the world: complex phrasing expressing the effects of something from the world on a subject, whereas simple "basic names" giving the illusion that things are standing out in the world "crying out to be named".

Dubois, D. (1991) Les catégories sémantiques et naturelles : prototype et typicalité, in D. Dubois (éd.), Sémantique et Cognition, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 16-27.
Dubois, D. (1996) Matériels et consignes : un type de questionnement social dans la recherche expérimentale en psycholinguistique, in J. Richard-Zappella (éd.): Le questionnement social, numéro spécial des Cahiers de Linguistique Sociale, 89-98.
Dubois, D., Resche-Rigon, P., Tenin, A. (1997) Des couleurs et des formes : catégories perceptives ou constructions cognitives, in Dubois, D. (éd.) Catégorisation et cognition, Paris, Kimé, 7-40.
Dubois, D., Grinevald, C. (1999) Pratiques de la couleur et dénominations, Faits de langues, 14, 12-25.
Dubois, D. (2000) Categories as acts of meaning : the case of categories in olfaction and audition, Cognitive Science Quaterly, 2000, 1, 35-68.
Dubois, D., Grinevald, C. (2000) Denominations of colors in practices. in A.K.Melby & A.R. Lommel (Eds.) LACUS Forum XXVI, The Lexicon, 237-246.

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Outlook on the forthcoming congresses

2. Congress (26th and 27th September 2003):
Motion and Emotion - The bodily dynamics of meaning in languag and cognition
Here we focus on human locomotion, control of objects, actions of animated beings, social interaction and their reflection in the lexicon (of verbs) and syntax (basically sentences) of natural languages.
In the cognitive sciences and linguistics the emotional dimension has been underestimated. Current results of research in the field of emotion will be brought together and reflected philosophically. Their effects on aesthetics in general and literature and the fine arts will be evaluated.

3. Congress (2005):
Body Awareness and Body Communication
The experience of our own body and of the bodily relationship between children and parents are crucial for cognitive and linguistic developments. Gesture and mimic are deeply linked to the organisation of language in its phonetic, metric and syntactic shape.

4. Congress (2006):
Language on Art and Language as Art
The final congress will highlight the aesthetic dimensions of the problem of verbal access to non-linguistic art. We will discuss the (im)possibility of an adequate linguistic description and explanation of non-linguistic human artistic expressions like architecture, painting, music and dance.

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