"Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings? This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses"--.

• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
  • 1. Background
  • 2. Contributions to the volume
  • 3. Conclusions
  • References
• Part I. Abstract concepts in the mind
  • 1. The relevance of specific semantic categories in investigating the neural bases of abstract and concrete semantics
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Disembodied and grounded models of semantics
      • 2.1 Disembodied approaches towards semantics
      • 2.2 Grounded approaches towards language comprehension
      • 2.3 Hebbian learning and neural cell assemblies
    • 3. Semantics in the brain
      • 3.1 Investigations of category specific semantic processing
      • 3.2 Investigations of temporal dynamics of sensorimotor involvement in processing semantics
      • 3.3 Behavioral evidence for an interplay of sensorimotor and conceptual systems
      • 3.4 Neurostimulation evidence
      • 3.5 Patient evidence
        • 3.5.1 Impairments of the motor system
    • 4. The issue of abstract concepts
      • 4.1 Classical accounts to explain differences between abstract and concrete concepts
      • 4.2 Previous investigations on abstract words
    • 5. Identifying different classes of abstract words
      • 5.1 Abstract mathematical terms
      • 5.2 Abstract emotion words
      • 5.3 Abstract mental words
    • 6. Conclusion
    • References
  • 2. Abstract concepts and the activation of mouth-hand effectors
    • 1. Introduction
      • 1.1 The WAT theory on abstract words and previous evidence on mouth activation
    • 2. The present study: An overview
      • 2.1 Participants
      • 2.2 Materials
      • 2.3 Procedure
        • Lexical decision task
        • Recognition task
    • 3. Results
      • Lexical decision
      • Recognition
    • 4. Discussion
      • Concreteness effect
      • The peculiarity of emotional words
      • Abstract words and the engagement of the mouth motor system
    • 5. Conclusion
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 3. Inferential processing with concrete vs. abstract words and visual cortex
    • 1. Lexical inferential competence and visual-related cortex
    • 2. Evidence from neuroimaging studies
    • 3. Evidence from patient studies
    • 4. Conclusions
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 4. Are abstract concepts grounded in bodily mimesis?
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. How do concepts get their meaning?
      • 2.1 Are abstract concepts amodal?
      • 2.2 Mental simulations: Meaning construction inside and outside the body
        • 2.2.1 Concepts and language
        • 2.2.2 Concepts and sensory perception
        • 2.2.3 Concepts and action
        • 2.2.4 Concepts and emotion
      • 2.3 Experiential evidence for mental simulations
    • 3. Are abstract concepts grounded in bodily mimesis?
      • 3.1 Situated cognition – concepts in context
      • 3.2 Bodily mimesis, mimetic schemas and concepts
      • 3.3 Mimesis vs. mental simulation
      • 3.4 Finding mimesis
    • 4. Method
    • 5. Analysis
      • 5.1 Gestures
      • 5.2 Mimetic behavior
    • 6. Results
      • 6.1 To mime or not to mime: Explanations of abstract concepts
        • 6.1.1 Cross-modality
        • 6.1.2 Representation
        • 6.1.3 Volition
        • 6.1.4 Communicative function
      • 6.2 Intersubjectivity
    • 7. Discussion
    • 8. Conclusions
    • References
  • 5. Is the acoustic modality relevant for abstract concepts?
    • 1. Introduction
      • 1.1 Previous findings in line with the WAT theory
      • 1.2 Empirical investigations of WAT predictions
    • 2. The experiment: Overview
    • 3. Method
      • 3.1 Materials
      • 3.2 Participants
      • 3.3 Procedure
    • 4. Results
    • 5. General discussion and conclusions
    • References
• Part II. Abstract concepts in language
  • 6. Determinants of abstractness and concreteness and their persuasive effects
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Study 1: Determinants of concreteness and abstractness
      • 2.1 Method
        • 2.1.1 Word list
        • 2.1.2 Participants and procedure
        • 2.1.3 Results
      • 2.2 Conclusion and discussion
    • 3. Study 2: Effects of concreteness
      • 3.1 Introduction
      • 3.2 Method
        • 3.2.1 Materials
        • 3.2.2 Participants and design
        • 3.2.3 Instruments
        • 3.2.4 Procedure
        • 3.2.5 Statistical analysis
      • 3.3 Results
        • 3.3.1 Text appreciation
        • 3.3.2 Persuasive impact
        • 3.3.3 Comprehensibility
        • 3.3.4 Other measures
      • 3.4 Conclusion and discussion
    • 4. General discussion
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 7. Acceptability properties of abstract senses in copredication
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Experiment 1: Foundations of copredication
      • 2.1 Materials and methods
        • 2.1.1 Participants
        • 2.1.2 Materials
        • 2.1.3 Procedure
      • 2.2 Results
        • 2.2.1 Comprehension question analysis
        • 2.2.2 Acceptability judgment data
      • 2.3 Discussion
    • 3. Experiment 2: Sense order effects
      • 3.1 Materials and methods
        • 3.1.1 Participants
        • 3.1.2 Materials
        • 3.1.3 Procedure
      • 3.2 Results
        • 3.2.1 Comprehension question analysis
        • 3.2.2 Acceptability judgment data
      • 3.3 Discussion
    • 4. Norming studies
      • 4.1 Study 1: Sense frequency and adjective coordination
        • 4.1.1 Methods and materials
        • 4.1.2 Results and discussion: Sense frequency
        • 4.1.3 Results and discussion: Adjective coordination
      • 4.2 Study 2: Adjective co-occurrence and sense relatedness
        • 4.2.1 Methods and materials
        • 4.2.2 Results and discussion
    • 5. Conclusion
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 8. Different degrees of abstraction from visual cues in processing concrete nouns
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. On countability
      • 2.1 The distribution of countability in language use
      • 2.2 The processing of countability in adults
      • 2.3 The processing of countability in acquisition
        • 2.3.1 A study relating countability and abstraction abilities in acquisition
    • 3. The relevance of boundaries in conceiving referential entities
    • 4. Conclusions
    • References
  • 9. Cognitive and linguistic aspects of composition in German particle verbs
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. More data and some hypotheses
      • 2.1 Particles: Core concepts and specific meanings
      • 2.2 Concepts and Domains
      • 2.3 Hypotheses about PV formation
        • 1. P-concept + concrete BV + concrete context → concrete PV
        • 2. P-concept + concrete BV + abstract context → abstract PV
        • 3. P-concept + abstract BV + abstract context → abstract PV
        • 4. P-concept + abstract BV + concrete context → abstract PV
    • 3. Discussing data from the experiment
    • 4. Conclusion
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 10. Metaphor in action
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. IMAGACT: Ontology of actions
      • 2.1 General verbs and their semantic representation in IMAGACT
      • 2.2 Marked variation and starting data
    • 3. Metaphors: Theoretical frameworks
      • 3.1 Conceptual metaphor theory
      • 3.2 Image schema theory
    • 4. Abstraction processes along the vertical axis: Three case studies
      • 4.1 Centrality of the vertical axis
      • 4.2 Common orientational metaphors
      • 4.3 The case of ‘sollevare’: Image schema constraints
      • 4.4 Fictive vs. factive motion
    • 5. Conclusion
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
• Part III. Abstract concepts in communication
  • 11. Abstract concepts in development
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. The grounding of abstract concepts
      • 2.1 Abstract and internal state words in language development
      • 2.2 Embodied conceptual combination in language development
      • 2.3 Word-formation in language development
    • 3. Diary data
    • 4. Analysis
      • 4.1 Abstract complex words reflecting affective and sensorimotor information
      • 4.2 Novel complex words and their relation to perception-based reality
    • 5. Concluding remarks
    • Acknowledgment
    • References
  • 12. The development of the abstract scientific concept of ‘heat energy’ in a naturalistic classroom setting
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Theoretical framework: Text World Theory
    • 3. Methodology
    • 4. Class demonstration of heat transfer
      • 4.1 Adding levels of complexity
      • 4.2 Introduction of heat energy into the discourse: Creating a hypothetical world
      • 4.3 ‘Capturing’ pupils’ mental SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schemas
      • 4.4 Profiling the GOAL part of the schema
    • 5. Group task: Explaining heat transfer
      • 5.1 Stimulated recall with pupils
      • 5.2 Drawing mental images
    • 6. Conclusion
    • References
    • Transcription conventions
  • 13. Time domain matrix modeling in cognitive linguistic research
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Corpora and methods
      • 2.1 Corpus data
      • 2.2 The method of time domain matrix modeling
      • 2.3 Epistemic underpinnings of scientific and nonscientific construals of the world
    • 3. Time domain matrix modeling in British scientific (philosophical) vs. nonscientific (poetic) construals of the world in the seventh to the twentieth century
      • 3.1 Abstractness: Concreteness of the TIME concept in OE construals of the world
      • 3.2 Abstractness: Concreteness of the TIME concept in EME construals of the world
      • 3.3 Abstractness: Concreteness of the TIME concept in LME construals of the world
    • 4. Conclusions
    • References
• Analytical index