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Perception Metaphors
Edited by Laura J. Speed, Carolyn O'Meara, Lila San Roque and Asifa Majid
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 19] 2019
► pp. 209–230

Chapter 11
Grounding mental metaphors in touch

A corpus-based study of English and Polish

This study aims to describe how experiences of tactile properties of physical objects give rise to metaphorical conceptualisations of mind and thought in English and Polish based on linguistic data from the British National Corpus and the National Corpus of Polish. This issue is approached from the perspective of corpus-based cognitive linguistics by combining the Theory of Objectification framework and the methodological tools of corpus linguistics. By analysing a wide range of tactile properties ascribed to the selected mental phenomena in light of the Theory of Objectification, the study aims to demonstrate how active, exploratory, tactile experiences of physical objects’ qualities ground our talk about impalpable cognitive phenomena.
Keywords: Theory of Objectification, English, Polish, corpus-based linguistics, conceptualisation, touch, mind, thought, conceptual metaphor, metaphor
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Touch
  • 3.Theory of Objectification
  • 4.Tactile properties and conceptualisations of mental phenomena
  • 5.Methodological framework
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Mind
      • 6.1.1Size (physical dimensions)
      • 6.1.2Shape
      • 6.1.3Containment
      • 6.1.4Liquidity
    • 6.2Thought
      • 6.2.1Density (firmness)
      • 6.2.2Weight
      • 6.2.3Temperature
      • 6.2.4Size (physical dimensions)
      • 6.2.5Shape
      • 6.2.6Containment
      • 6.2.7Liquidity
      • 6.2.8Manipulability
  • 7.Results summary
  • 8.Conclusions and further research
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.19.11tro
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