Synaesthesia is a
rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
or
figure of speech
A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...
where one
sense is described in terms of another.
This may often take the form of a simile.
One can distinguish the literary joining of terms derived from the vocabularies of sensory domains from
synaesthesia
Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who rep ...
as a
neuropsychological
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of ...
phenomenon.
Panchronistic tendencies
It has been suggested that, in the tradition of Romantic poetry, the sensory transfer consisting in the synaesthesic metaphor tends to be from a lower (less differentiated) sense to a higher sense. In this respect, the sequence of senses from low to high is generally taken to be touch, taste, smell, sound, then sight.
This observation was named a panchronistic tendency by
Stephen Ullmann since he saw the lowest levels of sense having the poorest vocabulary.
Upwards transfers are thought to have strong emotional effects, but downwards transfers generally witty effects.
Rhetorical synaesthesia as simile
Examples of synaesthesic
simile:
* "his words cut the air like a dagger" (
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
, ''
The Picture of Dorian Gray'')
* "thy voice is like wine to me" (Oscar Wilde, ''
Salome
Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...
'')
Rhetorical synaesthesia as transmodal modification
When a
modifier which would normally apply to one sense is used
collocating a
noun evocative of another sense, this is known as transmodal modification.
Examples include:
* "mauve Hungarian music" (Oscar Wilde, ''
An Ideal Husband
''An Ideal Husband'' is a four-act play by Oscar Wilde that revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. It was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London in 1895 and ran for ...
'')
Rhetorical synaesthesia as transmodal predication
When a noun evoking one sense is linked with a
predicate evoking another, this is known as transmodal predication.
Examples include:
* "My nostrils see her breath burn like a bush." (
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...
, ''When all my Five and Country Senses See'')
* "the silence that dwells in the forest is not so black" (Oscar Wilde, ''Salome'')
Synaesthetic polysemy
When a linkage of two senses depends upon a pun, this is known as synaesthetic polysemy.
Examples include:
References
Figures of speech
Rhetorical techniques
Literary terminology
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