Expressing smells in (American) English

What is it about?

The verbalization of smell in (American) English over time

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Why is it important?

From a quantitative analysis of (American) English usage date of the last 200 years, we can learn something useful about how people talk about smells. The data, thoroughly analysed for frequencies and associations between particular constructions and the lexical material involved, exhibit noticeable changes over time. The linguistic expressions found to be salient in smell talk at particular times reflect what is prominent in the then perception and verbal description of smell, also informing about the emergence and disappearance of particular smell descriptors. It can be observed that the technical, industrial and cultural development of a society has an impact on the way smell is talked about in a speech community.