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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.

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