From perception to meaning

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The 1987 publications by G. Lakoff and M. Johnson established image schema as a key concept in the experientialist paradigm of Cognitive Linguistics, which rejects the mind-body dichotomy and emphasizes the embodied nature of meaning, imagination, and language. Image schemas are conceived as pre-linguistic, dynamic gestalts emerging from motor movement, object manipulation, and perceptual interaction, anchoring abstract reasoning to sensory-motor patterns in metaphorical theory. Building on earlier crosslinguistic research by L. Talmy, R. Langacker, and others regarding semantic primitives in spatial relations, the concept has spurred extensive research and debate on language meaning, structure, and acquisition, as well as the nature of the embodied mind. This survey of current image-schema theory features original essays from leading scholars who have contributed to the field. It addresses major issues in recent research, including the definition and linguistic formalization of image schemas, their psychological status and neural grounding, and their role as semantic universals and primitives in language acquisition. This collection will appeal to cognitive linguists and is also relevant to philosophers, psychologists, and anthropologists interested in language and the embodied mind.