Perspectives on Abstract Concepts

Cognition, language and communication

Editors

Marianna Bolognesi

| University of Oxford

Gerard J. Steen

| University of Amsterdam

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027203182 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027262523 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

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.

[Human Cognitive Processing, 65] 2019. xii, 315 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.65

Table of Contents

List of contributors	ix
Acknowledgments	xi–xii
Introduction Marianna Bolognesi and Gerard J. Steen	1–13
Part I. Abstract concepts in the mind
Chapter 1. The relevance of specific semantic categories in investigating the neural bases of abstract and concrete semantics Felix R. Dreyer and Friedemann Pulvermüller	17–42
Chapter 2. Abstract concepts and the activation of mouth-hand effectors Claudia Mazzuca and Anna Maria Borghi	43–57
Chapter 3. Inferential processing with concrete vs. abstract words and visual cortex Fabrizio Calzavarini	59–74
Chapter 4. Are abstract concepts grounded in bodily mimesis? Anna Jelec	75–99
Chapter 5. Is the acoustic modality relevant for abstract concepts?: A study with the Extrinsic Simon task Elisa Scerrati, Luisa Lugli, Roberto Nicoletti and Anna Maria Borghi	101–118
Part II. Abstract concepts in language
Chapter 6. Determinants of abstractness and concreteness and their persuasive effects Lettica Hustinx and Wilbert Spooren	121–143
Chapter 7. Acceptability properties of abstract senses in copredication Elliot Murphy	145–165
Chapter 8. Different degrees of abstraction from visual cues in processing concrete nouns Francesca Franzon and Chiara Zanini	167–184
Chapter 9. Cognitive and linguistic aspects of composition in German particle verbs Sylvia Springorum, Hans Kamp and Sabine Schulte im Walde	185–214
Chapter 10. Metaphor in action: Action verbs and abstract meaning Alessandro Panunzi and Paola Vernillo	215–237
Part III. Abstract concepts in communication
Chapter 11. Abstract concepts in development: Spontaneous production of complex words in Swedish child language Maria Rosenberg	241–261
Chapter 12. The development of the abstract scientific concept of heat energy in a naturalistic classroom setting Sally Zacharias	263–285
Chapter 13. Time domain matrix modeling in cognitive linguistic research Ievgeniia Bondarenko	287–311
Analytical index	313–315

Erratum

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

No author info given

2020. In Where Words Get their Meaning [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 23],

Bolognesi, Marianna

2020. In Where Words Get their Meaning [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 23],

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Subjects

Linguistics

Psycholinguistics

Cognition and language

Cognitive linguistics

BIC Subject: CFD – Psycholinguistics

BISAC Subject: LAN009040 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019002806 | Marc record