taste

[bingfu]

Dear Frans,
	Thanks very much for your informative message and
keep me informed of your study!

	By 'basic word', I mean of more frequency of use
in daily life than etymological.

	For example, Chinese 'se4' and its English
counterpart 'puckery/astrigent' are not basic because
they are rarely used in food time.

	Best
	Bingfu

On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Frans Plank wrote:

> Dear Bingfu,
>
> the English taste adjective SALTY is not basic;  it's transparently derived
> from the noun SALT.
>
> Arguably STALE is a basic taste term in English.
>
> My associates and I have been working on taste and other perceptual
> terminology for the last three or so years;  we'll keep you informed about
> our findings when they are in publishable form.  Much has already been
> written on this subject, though rarely from a serious crosslinguistic
> perspective.
>
> Frans Plank
>