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%M Sense, sensation, and symbols: English in the realm of the senses Introduction In thi s chapte r I will first discus s som e relationship s betwee n perception , culture, and languag e i n Japan. Thi s in itself is hardly original. Semioticians , whether Asian specialists or not, have long been intereste d i n this country. As we have seen i n Chapter 7 , this so-called 'empir e o f signs', as one o f the mos t famous Frenc h scholar s (Barthes , 1982 ) calle d th e islands , i s supposedl y fraught wit h marauding signifiers o f every kind, and th e humblest of gestures is vested with arcane meaning and Easter n mystery. Much has been sai d abou t Japan's infatuatio n wit h th e West , bu t th e West has bee n equall y fascinate d with Japan, whethe r i t b e th e marvel s o f a cultur e i n miniatur e o r th e quaintness of old temples juxtaposed betwee n moder n skyscraper s and bulle t trains. Linguists and anthropologist s hav e also found Japan t o be an interestin g place. Often, Japanese i s chosen t o demonstrate differen t facet s o f the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis , wher e som e peculiarit y o f a languag e i s though t t o influence behaviour , cognition, and indeed perception itself.1 I have also made such argument s mysel f (Stanlaw , 1987a ; 1997a) . However , whil e Japan i s unique i n man y ways, it is important no t t o carry thi s notio n to o fa r (Dale , 1986). Sometimes , a s I hop e t o sho w here , Japan ca n actuall y b e see n a s representative o f some processe s that , I suspect, occu r in man y other places , albeit in modified an d specifi c forms . In this chapter, which is an extrapolation o f the previous chapters in some ways, I argue that there is a relationship between th e senses and man y English loanwords foun d i n Japanese. I will mak e tw o claim s regardin g th e way s perception influences language . First, it appears that every language or culture has some 'basic ' sensation s which see m especiall y prominent. Tha t is, things like certai n colours , flavours, smells , or tone s see m mor e salient , an d mor e easily identified , tha n others . Thes e ma y b e (1 ) highl y biologica l o r physiological (a s with th e universa l colour categorie s described b y Berlin an d 238 Japanes e English: Language and culture contact Kay [1969], and in Chapter 9); (2) highly cultural (a s with the acquired palat e of some culture' s cuisine , o r th e appreciatio n o f the sound s o f some musi c system); or (3 ) a n indeterminat e mixtur e o f both (a s in tactil e sensations) . Second, I claim tha t language s hav e a number o f cognitive o r linguisti c devices, such a s invention, analogy , an d makin g metonymi c connections , t o handle th e mor e vague , non-predominant , sensations . I n Japanese, on e common techniqu e i s the extensiv e us e o f English loanwords . For example , when aske d t o name unusua l o r ambiguous colours , Japanese speaker s ofte n create English name s like 'gre y purple'. In another instance, a food package r used th e Englis h loanwor d dorai aisu ('dr y ice' ) t o name thei r unusua l frui t candy tha t consist s o f a hard outsid e shel l fo r freshnes s enclosin g a dry ic e powder. I will present othe r simila r case s from th e realm s o f sight (colour) , taste (food) , hearin g (music) , and touc h (sex) . Thus, this chapter examine s one particula r mechanism , o r device , of thi s innovation i n ligh t o f curren t linguistic an d anthropologica l thinkin g on classification . I will present in more detail the 'modal sensation hypothesis', and describ e a mechanis m b y whic h Japanes...

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