  In this study, we explore how language captures the meaning of words, in
particular meaning related to sensory experiences learned from statistical
distributions across texts. We focus on the most frequent perception verbs of
English analyzed from an and Agentive vs. Experiential distinction across the
five basic sensory modalities: Visual (to look vs. to see), Auditory (to listen
vs. to hear), Tactile (to touch vs. to feel), Olfactory (to smell), and
Gustatory (to taste). In this study we report on a data-driven approach based
on distributional-semantic word embeddings and clustering models to identify
and uncover the descriptor sensory spaces of the perception verbs. In the
analysis, we identified differences and similarities of the generated
descriptors based on qualitative and quantitative differences of the perceptual
experience they denote. For instance, our results show that while the
perceptual spaces of the experiential verbs like to see, to hear show a more
detached, logical way of knowing and learning, their agentive counterparts (to
look, listen) provide a more intentional as well as more intimate and intuitive
way of discovering and interacting with the world around us. We believe that
such an approach has a high potential to expand our understanding and the
applicability of such sensory spaces to different fields of social and cultural
analysis. Research on the semantic organization of sensory spaces for various
applications might benefit from an the Agentive/Experiential account to address
the complexity of multiple senses wired with each other in still unexplored
ways.
