Synesthesia: Know This Figure of Speech - Examples of Synesthesia

Joining sensations is not just the meaning of the word synesthesia, as well as the function of this figure of speech. It occurs when we mix more than one of the five senses in the same sentence. However, we give them another meaning.

To clarify the meaning of the word, compare: Anesthesia = meaningless. Synesthesia = fusion of senses.

In other words, between sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, you must find more than one meaning in the sentence or meanings exchanged.

As it is a figure of speech classified as a figure of words, it is focused more on the exchange of meanings between terms than on the idea to be conveyed or on the word itself.

We can use these expressions in our daily lives, but they are mostly found in cultural productions.

You will understand better with the examples.

Synesthesia examples

Some of the examples below are used in our daily lives, but most are taken from poems and songs:

• “I smelled you”;
• “Orange has a taste of friendship”;
• “Lime green tastes like avocado green”;
• “Seeing something so beautiful, so smelling and so good is really a very good feeling”;
• “Look at that sour smell”;
• “She was so angry that she gave him a resounding blow to the head”;

There is an advertisement for a car brand with a television station that plays with the senses. The idea of ​​the advertising piece was to make an allusion to the smell of the color that each car represented for consumers. The result was a very creative video using synesthesia.

Advertising has mixed a lot the senses of sight and smell. And yet, he showed the meaning of the word synesthesia in the dictionary as being “spontaneous relationship between different character sensations”.

The television station in question is a reference in scientific productions. The video shows the scientific study of synesthesia with people, using smells to identify the colors of automobiles. The predominance is of vision and smell, but there is also the presence of other senses.

In the advertising piece, called “Kinaesthetics: crossed senses”, people were subjected to a test drive in their cars and then explained the different sensations they had with the experience. In the video, we can find the following sentences uttered by those who underwent the test and by scientists:

• “Yellow has a warm smell”;
• “Higher sounds have lighter colors”;
• “I feel the color blue when I bend forward”;
• “I know synesthesia is coming when I start salivating, like I want to eat that stuff. I've already wanted to eat a chandelier, sofa, car”;
• “Taste of driving”;
• “Driving texture”;
• “Driving color”;
• “Aroma of driving”;
• “Timbre of driving”;

The idea of ​​the advertisement was to show the different sensations that the model of cars manufactured by the company caused in synesthetic people, who are precisely those who claim to have several sensations for the same act. What did they say behind the wheel?

• “The more I accelerate, the redder it gets”;
• “Some yellowish tones”;
• “It's a creamy feeling”;
• “What caused me the most synesthetic experiences were the numbers, inside the car and outside”;

Finally, the company's slogan in this advertisement was to say that the brand was different in every way. The campaign was made for the launch of the car model that would enter the market the following year. A great example in which this figure of speech was well worked and that was worth using to illustrate this text.

See too: This or This?

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Synesthesia: know this figure of speech

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