The 9th International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language (FTL9) continues the tradition of regular forums for the discussion of links between figurative thought and language established in Thessaloniki (2014), Pavia (2015), Osijek (2017), Braga (2018), Sofia (2020), Poznań (2022), Genoa (2023), and Klagenfurt (2025). FTL9 will focus on the theme Blending Minds and Machines: Figurative Language, Creativity, AI, and Computational Linguistics. This edition aims to explore how figur

Linguistic synesthesias combine different senses, as in English smooth melody (touch→sound). For nearly a century, researchers have gathered data that has been interpreted as supporting the notion of a hierarchical ordering of the senses. According to this proposal, expressions map the presumed-to-be 'lower' senses of touch, taste, and smell onto the presumed-to-be 'higher' senses of sound and sight. Here, this proposal is tested in the first-ever meta-analysis of linguistic synesthesias, combin