Attitudes

Folk aesthetics is an area that has attracted limited scholarly attention. By folk aesthetics I understand the conceptualisation of aesthetics embedded in language and shared by speakers of that language (cf. Apresjan 1992). Aesthetics reflects norms about what is ‘beautiful’ and applies to numerous aspects of life – what people see, do, how they move, speak, what they eat. Overall, aesthetics is about identifying pleasing aspects of living.

The ideals of aesthetics vary from culture to culture, from epoch from epoch and from language to language. People with an interest in history might be aware that the ideals of beauty have changed across time and countries. Yet the knowledge about variation in language regarding the ideals of ‘beauty’ are not … ↪