taste

[Frans Plank]

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