Olfactory Language: Context Is Everything

• Published in: Trends in cognitive sciences 2021-06, Vol.25 (6), p.419-420
• Main Authors: Olofsson, Jonas K., Pierzchajlo, Stephen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Humans; Language; learning; Letter; memory; olfaction; Olfactory Perception; Psychology; psykologi; sensation; Smell
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.004

The sense of smell, olfaction, is currently in the spotlight. Although often a neglected sense, smell loss and smell distortions due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased public awareness of olfaction and its role in health, well-being, and nutrition. In this unusual context, Majid provides a timely, well written, and thought-provoking review of olfaction and its cognitive aspects. Majid focuses on how smells are expressed in languages around the world, yet the review covers a vast literature that includes also experimental, cognitive, and biological fields. The thrust of the argument is directed against a perceived dogma; that ‘there is no language of smell and humans are bad at naming odors’. Majid argues that this dogma is refuted by cross-cultural research and concludes that ‘rather than focusing on constrained experimental tasks’, olfactory language should be studied in terms of ‘how people across the globe use, manipulate and talk about odors in their day-to-day contexts’. Later, we show how empirical and theoretical considerations lead us to partly different conclusions. Empirically, we believe that odor naming remains poorer than naming in other senses and that careful laboratory experiments will remain critical for understanding olfactory-based language and cognition. Toward this goal, we emphasize the distinction between multisensory and unisensory olfaction, which is not highlighted in Majid's review but which we believe is of theoretical importance.