Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:53:41.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Different Varieties of Abstract Concepts

from Part II - Abstractness and Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2023

Anna M. Borghi
Anna M. Borghi
Affiliation:
University of Rome
Get access

Summary

Chapter 5 is the first chapter of the second part of the book and focuses on abstract concepts – more generally, on abstractness. I first define abstract concepts and illustrate their main characteristics, comparing them with concrete ones. I contend that there is no major opposition between concrete and abstract concepts and that many concepts have both abstract and concrete components. In addition, different varieties of abstract concepts exist. Thus, the different kinds of concrete and abstract concepts can be conceived of as points in a multidimensional space, defined by various features and dimensions. I then focus on the different subkinds of abstract concepts, including emotions and mental states, numerical and spatiotemporal concepts, self and social concepts, and spiritual and philosophical concepts. Finally, I outline the central tenets of the Words As social Tools (WAT) theory on abstractness. According to the WAT view, abstract concepts evoke perception and action but especially activate inner bodily experiences, including interoceptive, emotional, and metacognitive ones. Crucially, the WAT view ascribes a unique role to language and social interaction for abstract concept acquisition and use. Finally, it underscores the flexible and context-dependent character of abstract concepts.

Keywords

abstractnessconcretenessabstract conceptsemotional conceptssocial conceptsinstitutional conceptsWords As social Toolslinguistic experience
Type
Chapter
Information
The Freedom of Words
Abstractness and the Power of Language
 , pp. 153 - 181
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albiero, P., Ingoglia, S., & Lo Coco, A. (2006). Contributo all’adattamento italiano dell’Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Testing Psicometria Metodologia, 13(2), 107–125.Google Scholar
Alderson-Day, B., Mitrenga, K., Wilkinson, S., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire–Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 48–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Altarriba, J., & Bauer, L. M. (2004). The distinctiveness of emotion concepts: A comparison between emotion, abstract, and concrete words. The American Journal of Psychology, 117(3), 389–410.Google Scholar
Altarriba, J., Bauer, L. M., & Benvenuto, C. (1999). Concreteness, context availability, and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31(4), 578–602.Google Scholar
Asmuth, J., & Gentner, D. (2017). Relational categories are more mutable than entity categories. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(10), 2007–2025.Google Scholar
Banks, B., & Connell, L. (2022a). Category production norms for 117 concrete and abstract categories, Behavior Research Methods. doi:10.3758/s13428-021-01787-zGoogle Scholar
Banks, B., & Connell, L. (2022b). Multidimensional sensorimotor grounding of concrete and abstract categories. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 378: 20210366. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0366CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banks, B., Borghi, A.M., Fargier, R., Fini, C., Jonauskaite, D., Mazzuca, C., … Woodlin, G. (in press). Consensus paper: Current perspectives on abstract concepts and future research directions. Journal of Cognition.Google Scholar
Barca, L., Candidi, M., Lancia, G.L., Maglianella, V., & Pezzulo, G. (2023). Mapping the mental space of emotional concepts through kinematic measures of decision uncertainty. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences, 378(1870), 20210367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barca, L., Mazzuca, C., & Borghi, A. M. (2020). Overusing the pacifier during infancy sets a footprint on abstract words processing. Journal of Child Language, 47(5), 1084–1099.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptions of perceptual symbols. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 637–660.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. (2003). Abstraction in perceptual symbol systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 358(1435), 1177–1187. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2003.1319Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W., Dutriaux, L., & Scheepers, C. (2018). Moving beyond the distinction between concrete and abstract concepts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0144Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W., & Wiemer-Hastings, K. (2005). Situating abstract concepts. In Pecher, D., & Zwaan, R., eds., Grounding cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thought. Cambridge University Press, pp. 129–163.Google Scholar
Bergelson, E., & Swingley, D. (2013). The acquisition of abstract words by young infants. Cognition, 127(3), 391–397.Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M. (2019). Linguistic relativity and abstract words. Paradigmi, 3. https://doi.org/10.30460/95137Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M. (2020). A future of words: Language and the challenge of abstract concepts. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borghi, A. M. (2022). Concepts for which we need others more: The case of abstract concepts. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(3), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221079625CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., Castelfranchi, C., Pezzulo, G., & Tummolini, L. (2019a). Words as social tools: Language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts. Physics of Life Reviews, 29, 120–153.Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., Castelfranchi, C., Pezzulo, G., & Tummolini, L. (2019b). Words as social tools: Flexibility, situatedness, language and sociality in abstract concepts. Reply to comments on “Words as social tools: Language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts.” Physics of Life Reviews, 7, 8.Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M., & Binkofski, F. (2014). Words as social tools: An embodied view on abstract concepts. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., & Tummolini, L. (2018a). Abstract concepts, language and sociality: From acquisition to inner speech. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0134Google ScholarPubMed
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., & Tummolini, L. (2018b). Varieties of abstract concepts: Development, use and representation in the brain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0121Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M., & Cimatti, F. (2009). Words as tools and the problem of abstract word meanings. 31. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/58m9n8rp.pdfGoogle Scholar
Borghi, A. M., & Fernyhough, C. (2023). Concepts, abstractness, and inner speech. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(202103712021037). http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0371Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Fini, C., & Tummolini, L. (2021). Abstract concepts and metacognition: Searching for meaning in self and others. In Robinson, M. D. & Thomas, L. E., eds., Handbook of embodied psychology: Thinking, feeling, and acting. Springer, pp. 197–220.Google Scholar
Catricalà, E., Conca, F., Fertonani, A., Miniussi, C., & Cappa, S. F. (2020). State-dependent TMS reveals the differential contribution of ATL and IPS to the representation of abstract concepts related to social and quantity knowledge. Cortex, 123, 30–41.Google Scholar
Conca, F., Borsa, V. M., Cappa, S. F., & Catricalà, E. (2021). The multidimensionality of abstract concepts: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 127, 474–491.Google Scholar
Conca, F., Catricalà, E., Canini, M., Petrini, A., Vigliocco, G., Cappa, S. F., & Della Rosa, P. A. (2021). In search of different categories of abstract concepts: A fMRI adaptation study. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 22587. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02013-8Google Scholar
Connell, L., Lynott, D., & Banks, B. (2018). Interoception: The forgotten modality in perceptual grounding of abstract and concrete concepts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0143Google ScholarPubMed
Crutch, S. J., Troche, J., Reilly, J., & Ridgway, G. R. (2013). Abstract conceptual feature ratings: The role of emotion, magnitude, and other cognitive domains in the organization of abstract conceptual knowledge. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 186. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00186CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, C. P., Altmann, G. T., & Yee, E. (2020). Situational systematicity: A role for schema in understanding the differences between abstract and concrete concepts. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 37(1–2), 142–153.Google Scholar
Della Rosa, P. A., Catricalà, E., Vigliocco, G., & Cappa, S. F. (2010). Beyond the abstract – concrete dichotomy: Mode of acquisition, concreteness, imageability, familiarity, age of acquisition, context availability, and abstractness norms for a set of 417 Italian words. Behavior Research Methods, 42(4), 1042–1048.Google Scholar
Desai, R. H., Reilly, M., & van Dam, W. (2018). The multifaceted abstract brain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0122Google Scholar
Dove, G. (2018). Language as a disruptive technology: Abstract concepts, embodiment and the flexible mind. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0135Google Scholar
Dove, G. (2020). More than a scaffold: Language is a neuroenhancement. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 37(5–6), 288–311.Google Scholar
Dove, G. (2022). Abstract concepts and the embodied mind: Rethinking grounded cognition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dove, G., Barca, L., Tummolini, L., & Borghi, A. M. (2020). Words have a weight: Language as a source of inner grounding and flexibility in abstract concepts. Psychological Research. 86, 2451–2467. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01438-6Google Scholar
Dreyer, F. R., & Pulvermüller, F. (2018). Abstract semantics in the motor system? An event-related fMRI study on passive reading of semantic word categories carrying abstract emotional and mental meaning. Cortex, 100, 52–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.021Google Scholar
Falandays, J. B., & Spivey, M. J. (2019). Abstract meanings may be more dynamic, due to their sociality: Comment on “Words as social tools: Language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts” by Anna M. Borghi et al. Physics of Life Reviews, 29, 175–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2019.02.011Google Scholar
Falcinelli, I., Fini, C., & Borghi, A. M. (2021). Lavarsi le mani riduce il senso di colpa: Evidenze con un compito semantico implicito. Giornale Italiano Di Psicologia, 48(1), 263–271.Google Scholar
Fingerhut, J., & Prinz, J. J. (2018). Grounding evaluative concepts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0142Google Scholar
Fini, C., Era, V., Da Rold, F., Candidi, M., & Borghi, A. M. (2021). Abstract concepts in interaction: The need of others when guessing abstract concepts smooths dyadic motor interactions. Royal Society Open Science, 8(7), 201205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fini, C., Falcinelli, I., Cuomo, G., Era, V., Candidi, M., Tummolini, L., … Borghi, A. M. (2023). Breaking the ice in a conversation: Abstract words prompt dialogues more easily than concrete words. Language and Cognition.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. H. (2008). Finger counting habits modulate spatial-numerical associations. Cortex, 44(4), 386–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2007.08.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischer, M. H., & Brugger, P. (2011). When digits help digits: Spatial–numerical associations point to finger counting as prime example of embodied cognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 260.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. H., Kaufmann, L., & Domahs, F. (2012). Finger counting and numerical cognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 108. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00108Google Scholar
Flumini, A., Ranzini, M., & Borghi, A. M. (2014). Nomina sunt consequentia rerum – Sound–shape correspondences with everyday objects figures. Journal of Memory and Language, 76, 47–60.Google Scholar
Gentner, D., & Asmuth, J. (2019). Metaphoric extension, relational categories, and abstraction. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(10), 1298–1307.Google Scholar
Ghio, M., Vaghi, M. M. S., & Tettamanti, M. (2013). Fine-grained semantic categorization across the abstract and concrete domains. PLoS ONE, 8(6), e67090. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067090CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilhooly, K. J., & Logie, R. H. (1980). Age-of-acquisition, imagery, concreteness, familiarity, and ambiguity measures for 1,944 words. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation, 12(4), 395–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harpaintner, M., Sim, E.-J., Trumpp, N. M., Ulrich, M., & Kiefer, M. (2020). The grounding of abstract concepts in the motor and visual system: An fMRI study. Cortex, 124, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2019.10.014CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harpaintner, M., Trumpp, N. M., & Kiefer, M. (2018). The semantic content of abstract concepts: A property listing study of 296 abstract words. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henningsen-Schomers, M. R., & Pulvermüller, F. (2022). Modelling concrete and abstract concepts using brain-constrained deep neural networks. Psychological Research, 1–27, 86(8), 2533–2559.Google ScholarPubMed
Jamrozik, A., & Gentner, D. (2020). Relational labeling unlocks inert knowledge. Cognition, 196, 104146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kazanas, S. A., & Altarriba, J. (2015). The automatic activation of emotion and emotion-laden words: Evidence from a masked and unmasked priming paradigm. The American Journal of Psychology, 128(3), 323–336.Google Scholar
Keaton, S. A. (2017). Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). In Worthington, D. L., Bodie, G. D., eds., The sourcebook of listening research. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 340–347. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119102991.ch34Google Scholar
Kiefer, M., & Harpaintner, M. (2020). Varieties of abstract concepts and their grounding in perception or action. Open Psychology, 2(1), 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1515/psych-2020-0104Google Scholar
Kousta, S.-T., Vigliocco, G., Vinson, D. P., Andrews, M., & Del Campo, E. (2011). The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140(1), 14.Google Scholar
Langland-Hassan, P., Faries, F. R., Gatyas, M., Dietz, A., & Richardson, M. J. (2021). Assessing abstract thought and its relation to language with a new nonverbal paradigm: Evidence from aphasia. Cognition, 211, 104622.Google Scholar
Lund, T. C., Sidhu, D. M., & Pexman, P. M. (2019). Sensitivity to emotion information in children’s lexical processing. Cognition, 190, 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.017CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lupyan, G., & Mirman, D. (2013). Linking language and categorization: Evidence from aphasia. Cortex, 49(5), 1187–1194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2012.06.006Google Scholar
Lupyan, G., & Winter, B. (2018). Language is more abstract than you think, or, why aren’t languages more iconic? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0137Google Scholar
Malt, B., & Wolff, P. (2010). Words and the mind: How words capture human experience. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mazzuca, C., Barca, L., & Borghi, A. M. (2017). The peculiarity of emotional words: A grounded approach. Rivista Internazionale Di Filosofia e Psicologia, 8(2), 124–133.Google Scholar
Mazzuca, C., Falcinelli, I., Michalland, A.-H., Tummolini, L., & Borghi, A. M. (2022). Bodily, emotional, and public sphere at the time of COVID-19. An investigation on concrete and abstract concepts. Psychological Research, 1–12, 86(7), 2266–2277.Google Scholar
Mazzuca, C., Lugli, L., Nicoletti, R., & Borghi, A. M. (2018). Abstract, emotional and concrete concepts and the activation of mouth-hand effectors. PeerJ, 6, e5987Google Scholar
Mazzuca, C., & Santarelli, M. (2022). Making it abstract, making it contestable: Politicization at the intersection of political and cognitive science. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1–22.Google Scholar
Mellem, M. S., Jasmin, K. M., Peng, C., & Martin, A. (2016). Sentence processing in anterior superior temporal cortex shows a social-emotional bias. Neuropsychologia, 89, 217–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.06.019Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. (1998). WordNet: An electronic lexical database. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moffat, M., Siakaluk, P. D., Sidhu, D. M., & Pexman, P. M. (2015). Situated conceptualization and semantic processing: Effects of emotional experience and context availability in semantic categorization and naming tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22(2), 408–419. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423–014-0696-0Google Scholar
Moseley, R., Carota, F., Hauk, O., Mohr, B., & Pulvermüller, F. (2011). A role for the motor system in binding abstract emotional meaning. Cerebral Cortex, 22(7), 1634–1647.Google Scholar
Muraki, E. J., Cortese, F., Protzner, A. B., & Pexman, P. M. (2020). Heterogeneity in abstract verbs: An ERP study. Brain and Language, 211, 104863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104863CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muraki, E. J., Sidhu, D. M., & Pexman, P. M. (2020). Heterogenous abstract concepts: Is “ponder” different from “dissolve”? Psychological Research, 1–17.Google Scholar
Murphy, G. L. (2002). The big book of concepts. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Newcombe, P. I., Campbell, C., Siakaluk, P. D., & Pexman, P. M. (2012). Effects of emotional and sensorimotor knowledge in semantic processing of concrete and abstract nouns. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 275. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00275Google Scholar
Pexman, P. M., Heard, A., Lloyd, E., & Yap, M. J. (2017). The Calgary semantic decision project: Concrete/abstract decision data for 10,000 English words. Behavior Research Methods, 49(2), 407–417. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428–016-0720-6Google Scholar
Ponari, M., Norbury, C. F., & Vigliocco, G. (2018). Acquisition of abstract concepts is influenced by emotional valence. Developmental Science, 21(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12549Google Scholar
Ponari, M., Norbury, C. F., & Vigliocco, G. (2020). The role of emotional valence in learning novel abstract concepts. Developmental Psychology, 56(10), 1855.Google Scholar
Pulvermüller, F. (2018). The case of CAUSE: Neurobiological mechanisms for grounding an abstract concept. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0129Google Scholar
Roversi, C., Borghi, A. M., & Tummolini, L. (2013). A marriage is an artefact and not a walk that we take together: An experimental study on the categorization of artefacts. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 4(3), 527–542.Google Scholar
Schnall, S., Benton, J., & Harvey, S. (2008). With a clean conscience: Cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1219–1222.Google Scholar
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Akin, C., & Luh, W.-M. (1992). Context availability and the recall of abstract and concrete words. Memory & Cognition, 20(1), 96–104.Google Scholar
Searle, J. (2010). Making the social world: The structure of human civilization. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Setti, A., & Caramelli, N. (2005). Different domains in abstract concepts. Proceedings of the XXVII Annual Conference of Cognitive Science Society, Stresa, July 21–23.Google Scholar
Shea, N. (2018). Metacognition and abstract concepts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 373(1752). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0133Google Scholar
Siakaluk, P. D., Newcombe, P. I., Duffels, B., Li, E., Sidhu, D. M., Yap, M. J., & Pexman, P. M. (2016). Effects of emotional experience in lexical decision. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1157. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01157Google Scholar
Siev, J., Zuckerman, S. E., & Siev, J. J. (2018). The relationship between immorality and cleansing. Social Psychology, 49(5), 303–309.Google Scholar
Topolinski, S., Lindner, S., & Freudenberg, A. (2014). Popcorn in the cinema: Oral interference sabotages advertising effects. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(2), 169–176.Google Scholar
Topolinski, S., & Strack, F. (2009). Motormouth: Mere exposure depends on stimulus-specific motor simulations. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(2), 423–433. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014504Google Scholar
Troche, J., Crutch, S. J., & Reilly, J. (2017). Defining a conceptual topography of word concreteness: Clustering properties of emotion, sensation, and magnitude among 750 English words. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1787. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01787Google Scholar
Tummolini, L., & Mannella, F. (2023). Kick-starting concept formation with intrinsically motivated learning: The grounding by competence acquisition hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1870), 20210370.Google Scholar
Vigliocco, G., Kousta, S.-T., Della Rosa, P. A., Vinson, D. P., Tettamanti, M., Devlin, J. T., & Cappa, S. F. (2014). The neural representation of abstract words: The role of emotion. Cerebral Cortex, 24(7), 1767–1777. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht025Google Scholar
Villani, C., D’Ascenzo, S., Borghi, A. M., Roversi, C., Benassi, M., & Lugli, L. (2022). Is justice grounded? How expertise shapes conceptual representation of institutional concepts. Psychological Research, 1–17, 2434–2450.Google Scholar
Villani, C., Lugli, L., Liuzza, M. T., & Borghi, A. M. (2019a). Le sotto-categorie dei concetti astratti: Uno studio empirico. Sistemi Intelligenti, 31(2), 235–252.Google Scholar
Villani, C., Lugli, L., Liuzza, M. T., & Borghi, A. M. (2019b). Varieties of abstract concepts and their multiple dimensions. Language and Cognition, 11(3), 403–430.Google Scholar
Villani, C., Lugli, L., Liuzza, M. T., Nicoletti, R., & Borghi, A. M. (2021). Sensorimotor and interoceptive dimensions in concrete and abstract concepts. Journal of Memory and Language, 116, 104173.Google Scholar
Villani, C., Orsoni, M., Lugli, L., Benassi, M., & Borghi, A. M. (2022, in press). Abstract and concrete concepts in conversation. Scientific Report 12, 17572. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598–022-20785-5.Google Scholar
Wauters, L. N., Tellings, A. E., Van Bon, W. H., & Van Haaften, A. W. (2003). Mode of acquisition of word meanings: The viability of a theoretical construct. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(3), 385–406.Google Scholar
Wiemer-Hastings, K., Krug, J., & Xu, X. (2001). Imagery, context availabilty, contextual constraint and abstractness. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Edinburgh, August 1–4, p. 23.Google Scholar
Winter, B. (2023). Abstract concepts and emotion: Cross-linguistic evidence and arguments against affective embodiment. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1870), 20210368.Google Scholar
Yao, B., Keitel, A., Bruce, G., Scott, G. G., O’Donnell, P. J., & Sereno, S. C. (2018). Differential emotional processing in concrete and abstract words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44(7), 1064.Google Scholar
Zhong, C.-B., & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 313(5792), 1451–1452. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1130726Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×