What's in a schema? Bodily mimesis and the grounding of language
Author
Summary, in English
The chapter defines mimetic schemas as dynamic, concrete and preverbal representations, involving the body image, which are accessible to consciousness, and pre-reflectively shared in a community. Mimetic schemas derive from a uniquely human capacity for bodily mimesis (Donald 1991; Zlatev, Persson and Gardenfors 2005) and are argued to play a key role in language acquisition, language evolution and the linking of phenomenal experience and shared meaning. In this sense they are suggested to provide a "grounding" of language which is more adequate than that of image schemas. By comparing the two concepts along six different dimensions: representation, accessibility to consciousness, level of abstractness, dynamicity, sensory modality and (inter) subjectivity the term "image schema" is shown to be highly polysemous, which is problematic for a concept that purports to be foundational within Cognitive Linguistics.
Department/s
Publishing year
2005
Language
English
Pages
313-342
Publication/Series
From Perception To Meaning: Image Schemas In Cognitive Linguistics
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
De Gruyter
Topic
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Keywords
- bodily mimesis
- consciousness
- "grounding"
- intersubjectivity
- mimetic schemas
- representation
- language acquisition
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-3-11-019753-2