Taste in Spanish idioms: foundations from the phraseology of the senses

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical and methodological proposal for the study of Spanish idioms related to the sense of taste, based on the articulation between Phraseology and Sensory Linguistics (SL). In a context where the sensory turn has brought the perceptual dimension of human experience to the forefront, it becomes necessary to explore how the senses—particularly taste—are manifested and linguistically encoded in phraseological units (PUs). Despite the growing interest in sensory studies, the integration of SL into phraseological analysis remains incipient, especially regarding taste, a sense historically relegated within the hierarchy of the senses. The theoretical framework integrates contributions from Sensory Anthropology, SL, and Cognitive Linguistics to show that taste is not limited to a physiological function but is deeply intertwined with cultural, social, and evaluative factors. Idioms, as fixed and culturally loaded expressions, provide a privileged field for observing these sensory projections. Based on a selection of expressions drawn from phraseological dictionaries—such as the Diccionario fraseológico documentado del español actual—an initial corpus of taste-related idioms is constructed. The proposed analytical model is organized around three dimensions: formal (grammatical structure and variability), semantic-cognitive (type of evoked perception and figurative mechanisms), and sociocultural (values associated with taste in specific contexts). This tool aims to capture how the domain of taste is projected metaphorically and transmodally onto other domains, and how such projections condense cultural and affective evaluations. The study concludes that idioms related to taste not only encode sensory experiences but also function as vehicles for conceptualization and social judgment. This research seeks to lay the groundwork for a Phraseology of the Senses and to open new lines of inquiry that integrate cognitive, sensory, and cultural perspectives in the study of PUs. Additionally, it outlines potential applications in areas such as language teaching, translation, and lexicography, where understanding the cognitive and cultural motivations of these structures can enhance approaches to linguistic and cultural variation.