Why is it that language is good at describing certain states of affairs (e.g., how to get to the cinema, or the kinship relation between me and my grandfather), but very limited in others (e.g., describing smells or faces)? Ineffability – the difficulty or impossibility of putting certain experiences into words – is a topic that has been relatively neglected in the linguistic and cognitive sciences. But limits on the ability to express in words sensory and emotional experiences can tell us important things about how the mind works, how different modalities do or do not talk to one another, and how language does, or does not, interact with other mental faculties.

For example, English speakers find it extremely difficult to describe smells so that they can be uniquely identified – try to describe how your grandmother’s house smells... Or describe the taste of a banana so that someone who has never tried it could conjure up the taste sensation. Here we find ourselves at the limit of the descriptive power of language. The Language of perception and Emotions projects investigate issues of ineffability.

Contact persons

Stephen C. Levinson and Asifa Majid