A multimodal approach to polysemy: the senses of taste and smell

Abstract This study explored whether co-speech gestures and linguistic markers help distinguish between the literal and figurative meanings of taste and smell, building on prior findings related to the verb touch. To determine whether patterns found for touch generalize to additional verbs, we aimed to (1) compare gestures associated with taste and smell, (2) examine the motivation behind frequent gestures associated with taste and smell, and (3) describe the relation between spoken words and the meanings of taste and smell. Gesture analysis showed that while gestures help differentiate the meanings of touch, they do not exhibit distinct patterns between literal and figurative meanings of taste and smell. Linguistic analysis showed that only object quantifiers were frequent when conveying literal meanings of taste and smell. Although negation and verb modifiers were key in distinguishing the meanings of touch, they were not commonly used with either taste or smell.