Sensory Studies in Russian Linguistics

What does it mean to be human? We have been called Homo sapiens (the wise human), Homo loquens (the speaking human), and Homo percipiens (the perceiving human). The last term highlights that perception through the senses connects us to the physical world. But it is language that encodes our sensory experience. Sensory linguistics is the field that examines how these experiences are captured and developed through words. This book explores sensory studies in Russian linguistics, mapping key concepts and presenting a roadmap of research trends. Its empirical part draws on the Russian National Corpus to analyze the taste adjectives, showing how they extend beyond food-related meanings to express emotions, relationships, and cultural values. The study offers insights for cross-linguistic comparison, translation studies, and cultural analysis. In the Turkish academic context, it provides the first systematic introduction to Russian sensory linguistics and demonstrates how a corpus-based approach can be applied in sensory studies.