Metaphor inside the wine cellar

On the Ubiquity of Personification Schemas in Winespeak

Résumé

Because there is no single lexicon with the expressive potential to cover all the range of sensorial impressions, the intellectualization of sensory experience is inextricably linked to the figurative uses of language. When technical discourse is under scrutiny the inherent subjectivity of sensory experience represents innumerable difficulties. Anthropomorphic metaphors help conceptualize wines as something more concrete and manageable than a mystical beverage with impossibly picturesque jargon. Winespeak relies on different kinds of metaphor, which can be classified according to the experiential domains the lexis is sourced from. In the case of Sherry the predominance of anatomical schemas seems to be even higher than with other wines.