In this concluding chapter we relate the findings of our study of Japanese taste terms to some of the general questions raised earlier concerning taste and taste vocabularies (7.1). In 7.2 we consider some directions in which the work of this study might be extended.

Review of findings

Firstly, the linguistic evidence from Japanese speaks clearly in favour of those psychologists and others who have protested that gustatory qualities alone constitute an unduly narrow framework within which to study the workings of the sense of taste in everyday life (cf. 1.1). The lexical semantic structure of Japanese does not support the primacy of the four ‘basic’ tastes: rather, this study has shown that the domain of the field of AJI in Japanese ranges over the parameters of gustation, the tongue sensations of pungency, astringency and harshness, and olfaction; while linguistic subdivisions are made within this range, it is clear that the gustatory qualities do not constitute a separate linguistic domain, but fall together with pungency and astringency under AJI I. If a division can be established, it is rather between ‘tongue-tastes’ (covered by AJI I and AJI II, and subsumed under the range of AJI in the narrower sense) and olfactory qualities (AJI III) (cf. 6.3). At the same time it is important to note that other dimensions of the taste experience in the broadest sense, such as texture, consistency, shape and temperature, are clearly excluded from the domain of AJI.