Tracing the Dynamic Contour of Sourness

In the modern Chinese language the word sour (酸) is used to describe a
wide variety of sensations. This paper shows that the cross-modality of
sourness is based on a schematic of pointing upward or shrinking to a point
from a flat plane. Thus Chinese experience sour not only as a taste but also as
the sourness of sensitive teeth, sore muscles or ear-piercing sounds. From the
idea of dynamic contour, this paper argues that sour should not be viewed as a
simple and rudimentary sense category but rather can be further analyzed in
terms of its schematic contour. Moreover, sourness is not to be identified
through comparison and negation from other taste categories. Instead, it is by
tracing the outline of the dynamic contour that Chinese identify sourness. This
leads to a criticism of the idea of contextuality which dissolves the meaning of a
thing to its relationship with other things. By tracing the dynamic contour of our
sensations, we experience the world through the flow of time. This stands in
sharp contrast to contextual paradigm that freezes time and identifies a thing
by its relation to others things in a synchronic system. This paper also argues
that dynamic contour may be a key to empathy, i.e., we grasp what others feel
through mapping the dynamic contour of their senses. And the cross-modality
in dynamic contour provides reference points for verification.