Re: [microsound] synaesthesia

[charles thorley <charlesthump@xxxxxxxxx>]

hi all.  i'm new to the list, and i've been watching
this particular thread the last couple of days with a
fair amount of interest.  thought i'd pop in, say hi,
and contribute my $.02.

language is determined by use, and is a fluid medium
like none other.  standardizing references like
dictionaries are useful, but ultimately they're
snapshots of a moment that has long since past by the
time they get to press, regardless of whether they
still offer a relatively meaningful likeness of the
original subject.

from the oed:

----------
synaesthesia

1. Psychol.    a. A sensation in one part of the body
produced by a stimulus applied to another part.    b.
Agreement of the feelings or emotions of different
individuals, as a stage in the development of
sympathy.    c. Production, from a sense-impression of
one kind, of an associated mental image of a
sense-impression of another kind.

2. Lit. The use of metaphors in which terms relating
to one kind of sense-impression are used to describe
sense-impressions of other kinds; the production of
synæsthetic effect in writing or an instance of this.

3. Linguistics.    a. The expression of more than one
kind of sense-impression in the same word.    b. The
transfer of the meaning of a word from one kind of
sensory experience to another.    c. The relationship
between speech sounds and the sensory experiences that
they represent.
----------

yes, there is a strict psychological definition of the
term synaesthesia.  whether or not that definition
deserves primacy because it is perhaps the oldest is
purely and simply a matter of opinion.  noone has
"misused" the word so far in this discussion, as far
as i can tell, according to the oxford english
dictionary.  perhaps some peoples experiences, as
related, made more use of literary of linguistic
modalities than psychological.

i know that for me, when i see letters and numbers in
my mind, they always have colors associated with them,
and those colors, for the most part, do not change. 
taste is augmented by shape, and sounds most
definitely have shapes when i hear them (one of the
things that makes listening to exquisitely produced
audio such a rich and gratifying experience for me). 
i can think of no better word to describe these
experiences than synaesthetic.

glad to be on the list.  hope this wasn't too
long-winded.

regards,

charles


		
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