Cargando…
The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis
One of the most important challenges for embodied and grounded theories of cognition concerns the representation of abstract concepts, such as “freedom.” Many embodied theories of abstract concepts have been proposed. Some proposals stress the similarities between concrete and abstract concepts show...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114187/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25120515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00811 |
_version_ | 1782328400727244800 |
---|---|
author | Borghi, Anna M. Capirci, Olga Gianfreda, Gabriele Volterra, Virginia |
author_facet | Borghi, Anna M. Capirci, Olga Gianfreda, Gabriele Volterra, Virginia |
author_sort | Borghi, Anna M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | One of the most important challenges for embodied and grounded theories of cognition concerns the representation of abstract concepts, such as “freedom.” Many embodied theories of abstract concepts have been proposed. Some proposals stress the similarities between concrete and abstract concepts showing that they are both grounded in perception and action system while other emphasize their difference favoring a multiple representation view. An influential view proposes that abstract concepts are mapped to concrete ones through metaphors. Furthermore, some theories underline the fact that abstract concepts are grounded in specific contents, as situations, introspective states, emotions. These approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive, since it is possible that they can account for different subsets of abstract concepts and words. One novel and fruitful way to understand the way in which abstract concepts are represented is to analyze how sign languages encode concepts into signs. In the present paper we will discuss these theoretical issues mostly relying on examples taken from Italian Sign Language (LIS, Lingua dei Segni Italiana), the visual-gestural language used within the Italian Deaf community. We will verify whether and to what extent LIS signs provide evidence favoring the different theories of abstract concepts. In analyzing signs we will distinguish between direct forms of involvement of the body and forms in which concepts are grounded differently, for example relying on linguistic experience. In dealing with the LIS evidence, we will consider the possibility that different abstract concepts are represented using different levels of embodiment. The collected evidence will help us to discuss whether a unitary embodied theory of abstract concepts is possible or whether the different theoretical proposals can account for different aspects of their representation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4114187 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41141872014-08-12 The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis Borghi, Anna M. Capirci, Olga Gianfreda, Gabriele Volterra, Virginia Front Psychol Psychology One of the most important challenges for embodied and grounded theories of cognition concerns the representation of abstract concepts, such as “freedom.” Many embodied theories of abstract concepts have been proposed. Some proposals stress the similarities between concrete and abstract concepts showing that they are both grounded in perception and action system while other emphasize their difference favoring a multiple representation view. An influential view proposes that abstract concepts are mapped to concrete ones through metaphors. Furthermore, some theories underline the fact that abstract concepts are grounded in specific contents, as situations, introspective states, emotions. These approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive, since it is possible that they can account for different subsets of abstract concepts and words. One novel and fruitful way to understand the way in which abstract concepts are represented is to analyze how sign languages encode concepts into signs. In the present paper we will discuss these theoretical issues mostly relying on examples taken from Italian Sign Language (LIS, Lingua dei Segni Italiana), the visual-gestural language used within the Italian Deaf community. We will verify whether and to what extent LIS signs provide evidence favoring the different theories of abstract concepts. In analyzing signs we will distinguish between direct forms of involvement of the body and forms in which concepts are grounded differently, for example relying on linguistic experience. In dealing with the LIS evidence, we will consider the possibility that different abstract concepts are represented using different levels of embodiment. The collected evidence will help us to discuss whether a unitary embodied theory of abstract concepts is possible or whether the different theoretical proposals can account for different aspects of their representation. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-07-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4114187/ /pubmed/25120515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00811 Text en Copyright © 2014 Borghi, Capirci, Gianfreda and Volterra. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Borghi, Anna M. Capirci, Olga Gianfreda, Gabriele Volterra, Virginia The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title | The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title_full | The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title_fullStr | The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title_full_unstemmed | The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title_short | The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
title_sort | body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114187/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25120515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00811 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT borghiannam thebodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT capirciolga thebodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT gianfredagabriele thebodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT volterravirginia thebodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT borghiannam bodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT capirciolga bodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT gianfredagabriele bodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis AT volterravirginia bodyandthefadingawayofabstractconceptsandwordsasignlanguageanalysis |