Derived Embodiment in Abstract Language
Derived Embodiment in Abstract Language

Author: Theresa Schilhab

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-12

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 3319560565

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How does knowledge of phenomena and events we have no direct experiences of emerge? Having a brain that learns from being in the world, how can we conceive of prehistoric dinosaurs, Atlantis, unicorns or even ‘desire’? This book is about how abstract knowledge becomes anchored in direct experiences through well-formed conversations. Within the framework of evolutionary biology and through the lens of contemporary studies in cognitive science, the neurosciences, sociology and anthropology, this book traces topics such as our inborn sensitivity to the environment, bottom-up and top-down processes in knowledge formation and the importance of language when we learn to categorise the world. A major objective of this monograph is to identify the key determinants of the specific interactivity mechanisms that control the cognitive processes while we are linguistically immersed. The emphasis is on real-life interactions in conversations. While the concrete word-object paradigm depends relatively more on direct experiences, the successful acquisition of abstract knowledge depends on the emphatic skills of the interlocutor. He or she must remain sensitive to the level and quality of the imagination of the child while making mental tableaus that are believed to elicit images to which the child associates the concept. Derived embodiment in abstract thought is a landmark synthesis that operationalizes contemporary neuroscience studies of acquisition of knowledge in the real life conversational context. The result is an exciting biology-based contribution to theories of knowledge acquisition and thinking in sociology, cognitive robotics, anthropology and not at least, pedagogy.

The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics

Author: Barbara Dancygier

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 1427

ISBN-13: 1108146139

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The best survey of cognitive linguistics available, this Handbook provides a thorough explanation of its rich methodology, key results, and interdisciplinary context. With in-depth coverage of the research questions, basic concepts, and various theoretical approaches, the Handbook addresses newly emerging subfields and shows their contribution to the discipline. The Handbook introduces fields of study that have become central to cognitive linguistics, such as conceptual mappings and construction grammar. It explains all the main areas of linguistic analysis traditionally expected in a full linguistics framework, and includes fields of study such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics, diachronic studies, and corpus linguistics. Setting linguistic facts within the context of many other disciplines, the Handbook will be welcomed by researchers and students in a broad range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, gesture studies, computational linguistics, and multimodal studies.

Embodiment in Cross-linguistic Studies
Embodiment in Cross-linguistic Studies

Author: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk

Publisher: Brill's Studies in Language, C

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9789004392403

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Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The 'Head'edited by Iwona Kraska-Szlenk adds to linguistic studies on embodied cognition and conceptualization while focusing on one body part term from a comparative perspective. The 'head' is investigated as a source domain for extending multiple concepts in various target domains accessed via metaphor or metonymy. The contributions in the volume provide comparative and case studies based on analyses of the first-hand data from languages representing all continents and diversified linguistic groups, including endangered languages of Africa, Australia and Americas. The book offers new reflections on the relationship between embodiment, cultural situatedness and universal tendencies of semantic change. The findings contribute to general research on metaphor, metonymy, and polysemy within a paradigm of cognitive linguistics.

Words as Social Tools: An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts
Words as Social Tools: An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts

Author: Anna M. Borghi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2014-03-13

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 1461495393

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How are abstract concepts and words represented in the brain? That is the central question addressed by the authors of “Words as Social Tools: An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts”. First, they focus on the difficulties in defining what abstract concepts and words are, and what they mean in psycholinguistic research. Then the authors go on to describe and critically discuss the main theories on this topic with a special emphasis on the different embodied and grounded theories proposed in cognitive psychology within the last ten years, highlighting the advantages and limitations of each of these theories. The core of this Brief consists of the presentation of a new theory developed by the authors, the WAT (Words As social Tools) view, according to which both sensorimotor (such as perception, action, emotional experiences) and linguistic experiences are at the basis of abstract concepts and of abstract word representation, processing and use. This theory assigns a major role to acquisition: one of the assumptions the authors make is that the different ways in which concrete and abstract words are acquired constrain their brain representation and their use. This view will be compared with the main existing theories on abstractness, from the theory of conceptual metaphors to the theories on multiple representation. Finally, the volume illustrates recent evidence from different areas (developmental, behavioral, cross-cultural, neuropsychological and neural) which converge with and support the authors' theory, leading to the conclusion that in order to account for representation and processing of abstract concepts and words, an extension of embodied and grounded theories is necessary.

Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society

Author: Morton Ann Gernsbacher

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-05-16

Total Pages: 1305

ISBN-13: 131770844X

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This volume features the complete text of the material presented at the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. As in previous years, the symposium included an interesting mixture of papers on many topics from researchers with diverse backgrounds and different goals, presenting a multifaceted view of cognitive science. This volume contains papers, posters, and summaries of symposia presented at the leading conference that brings cognitive scientists together to discuss issues of theoretical and applied concern. Submitted presentations are represented in these proceedings as "long papers" (those presented as spoken presentations and "full posters" at the conference) and "short papers" (those presented as "abstract posters" by members of the Cognitive Science Society).

What is Social and Embodied About Situated Embodied Social Cognition? Current Issues and Perspectives
What is Social and Embodied About Situated Embodied Social Cognition? Current Issues and Perspectives

Author: Lionel Brunel

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2020-09-11

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 2889455769

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This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

Mental Models across Languages
Mental Models across Languages

Author: Pawel Sickinger

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2018-12-15

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 902726323X

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This book presents a study that triangulates the meanings of expressions across English, German and Japanese via their perception-based conceptual representations. In an online experiment, native speakers of the three languages were asked to design visual representations of expressions referring to baldness phenomena. These sets of visualizations are used to determine conceptual overlap or distance between expressions in the three languages, resulting in lexical-conceptual 'maps' for MALE BALDNESS. The study is discussed against the background of an embodied, perceptual symbol-based understanding of linguistic meaning. A section of the book further applies this perspective to the issue of translation, developing a process model of translation based on the concept of cognitive equivalence. The book presents a novel approach to lexical semantics from a cognitive linguistic perspective, tested through a methodologically innovative experiment. It is a compelling read to scholars in cognitive semantics, contrastive semantics, embodied cognition and cognitive translation studies.

The Third Wave in Science and Technology Studies
The Third Wave in Science and Technology Studies

Author: David S. Caudill

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 303014335X

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This book analyzes future directions in the study of expertise and experience with the aim of engendering more critical discourse on the general discipline of science and technology studies. In 2002, Collins and Evans published an article entitled “The Third Wave of Science Studies,” suggesting that the future of science and technology studies would be to engage in “Studies in Expertise and Experience.” In their view, scientific expertise in legal and policy settings should reflect a consensus of formally-trained scientists and citizens with experience in the relevant field (but not “ordinary” citizens). The Third Wave has garnered attention in journals and in international workshops, where scholars delivered papers explicating the theoretical foundations and practical applications of the Third Wave. This book arose out of those workshops, and is the next step in the popularization of the Third Wave. The chapters address the novel concept of interactional experts, the use of imitation games, appropriating scientific expertise in law and policy settings, and recent theoretical developments in the Third Wave.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion
The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion

Author: Anne Koch

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-09-05

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1350066729

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Bridging the gap between cognition and culture, this handbook explores both social scientific and humanities approaches to understanding the physical processes of religious life, tradition, practice, and belief. It reflects the cultural turn within the study of religion and puts theory to the fore, moving beyond traditional theological, philosophical, and ethnographic understandings of the aesthetics of religion. Editors Anne Koch and Katharina Wilkens bring together research in cultural studies, cognitive studies, material religion, religion and the arts, and epistemology. Questions of identity, gender, ethnicity, and postcolonialism are discussed throughout. Key topics include materiality, embodiment, performance, popular/vernacular art and space to move beyond a sensory understanding of aesthetics. Emerging areas of research are covered, including secular aesthetics and the aesthetic of spirits. This is an important contribution to theory and method in the study of religion, and is grounded in research that has been taking place in Europe over the past 20 years. Case studies are drawn from around the world with contributions from scholars based in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The book is illustrated with over 40 color images and features a foreword from Birgit Meyer.

Interfaces Between Language And Cognition
Interfaces Between Language And Cognition

Author: Yury Y. Shtyrov

Publisher: Frontiers E-books

Published: 2013-06-28

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 2889191478

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Cognitive mechanisms underlying linguistic communication do not only rely upon retrieval and processing of linguistic information; they also involve constant updating and organizing of this linguistic information in relation with other, more general, cognitive mechanisms. Some existing theoretical models assume such a tight interactive link between domain-general and domain-specific sources of information in the cognitive organization of the linguistic faculty and during language use. Domain-specific constraints may include, for example, grammatical as well as lexical and pragmatic knowledge. Domain-general constraints comprise processing limitations imposed by the cognitive mechanisms of memory, attention, learning, and social interaction. However, much of the existing research tends to focus on one or the other of the aforementioned areas, while integrative accounts are still rather sparse at present. Therefore, the aim of this Research Topic of Frontiers in Cognition is to bring together researchers who, with in their respective research fields and by using different methodologies, represent integrative approaches to the study of language. We invite submissions from a wide range of interrelated areas of research: cognitive architectures of language, aspects of language processing, linguistic development, bilingualism, language embodiment, neuropsychology of linguistic function, among others. We would like to solicit original research contributions discussing behavioral, neurophysiological, and computational evidence as well as papers on methodological and/or theoretical aspects of the interplay between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive processes.