Figures and the senses. Towards a definition of synaesthesia

It is usually taken for granted that synaesthesia (e.g., sweet voice) is a metaphor. However, the fact that partly di erent interpretations have also been proposed suggests that further research is needed. Based on a critical review of the alter- native positions on the topic and on a detailed analysis of relevant data, I argue in this paper that synaesthesia (in both its conventional and living instances) is indeed a metaphor, displaying a con ict between separate sensory concepts that cannot be connected in terms of a consistent conceptual relationship. e clearer and more explicit account of synaesthesia proposed in this paper in turn fosters clearer understanding of (a) the relationship with other gures that can involve the senses, such as metonymy, hypallage, and simile, and (b) the possible role of (multi)sensory perceptual experience in conditioning association preferenc- es in linguistic synaesthesia (e.g., loud colour vs. a less likely to occur coloured loudness).