Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Explanatory interviews to study synesthetic phenomena and shed light on the dynamics of language

Résumé

While synaesthesia has been studied mainly from the medical, psychological and neuroscientific points of view, our research in the Language Sciences focuses on the study of synaesthesia from a linguistic point of view. The major difficulty in studying synaesthesia is the subjective nature of the phenomenon, since the experience is unique to the individual. However, research also points to universals that invite us to study synaesthesia as a tool to improve our knowledge of how languages work. Before envisaging large-scale studies on the contribution of synaesthesia to language understanding, Language Science researchers need to be able to access this subjective experience to build up a corpus. Some tools are already available to researchers, but they do not capture the dynamics of the lived experience, being limited to asking synesthetes which colour is associated with which grapheme, whereas the testimonies of synesthetes all point to the importance of the linguistic context on chromatization. Our project therefore aims to access the reality of synesthetes' lived experience using the method of micro-phenomenological interviews developed by Pierre Vermersch (2012) and Claire Petitmengin (2014). This method involves placing the subject in a state of evocation to enable him or her to relive a singular lived moment of experience (Petitmengin et al., 2018). The focused attention elicited by dialogic accompaniment enables pre-conscious states and feelings to be brought to consciousness. The subject is then able to put into words, to verbalize with precision, information that was previously inaccessible because it was present in passive memory. Our experimental protocol involves first exposing the synesthete subject to a linguistic stimulus (visual or auditory) to provoke a synaesthetic experience, and then using interviews to talk in detail about the multisensoriality of this subjective experience. The aim is to highlight the relationship between language and cognition. Based on transcribed micro-phenomenological interviews with colour-grapheme synesthetes, we will present findings on the language dynamics (semantic and phonological influence) at work in chromatization and open up new avenues in applied linguistics. Our contribution will also enrich our knowledge of the methodological perspectives for studying the mechanisms involved in synaesthesia.

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Dates et versions

hal-05317910 , version 1 (16-10-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05317910 , version 1

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Émilie Magnat, Emmanuelle Prak-Derrington, Matthieu Quignard, Lorraine Ménière. Explanatory interviews to study synesthetic phenomena and shed light on the dynamics of language. VIII International Conference "Synesthesia: Science and Art", Oct 2025, Alcala la Real, Spain. ⟨hal-05317910⟩
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