The Representation of Perception in Phraseological Units

Abstract

People share knowledge through perception and express it using language. As modern cultural linguistic studies have not extensively explored sensory linguistics, specifically sensory language in phraseology, this research aims to give a part of the perceptual code of English culture through continuous sampling, semantic analysis, and elements of statistical methods of phraseological units (PhUs) from seven explanatory English dictionaries. 796 sensory phraseological units were gained and classified into six distinct groups according to the components they contain: perceptual process, sensory organ, perceptual sensation, subjectivity, quality, and perceptual ability. Such classification is based on each mode's components, similar to the other modes. It is shown that, of all the sensory modes, tactile perception is the most presentable and is most frequently expressed verbally in language, and olfaction is the least expressed. Semantic analysis distinguishes the direct and indirect meanings of sensory PhUs, in which metaphorical changes often strip these units of their perceptive components. The results proved that through phraseology, unpleasant sensory experiences are dominantly expressed in English to understand how sensory modes are verbalized in language, thus shedding light on the fundamental ways in which we construct our understanding of reality and highlighting the critical role of sensory processing in human cognition.