Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2023
Summary
This book will tell the story of the power of words and of how this power is particularly crucial for abstract concepts and the words that express them – words like “fantastic,” “freedom,” “furious,” and “ideas.” In recent years, the topic of abstract concepts has become increasingly debated, as testified by the special issues on the subject (e.g., Borghi et al., 2018, 2022; Bolognesi & Steen, 2018), and by a recently edited book (Bolognesi & Steen, 2019) and two monographs focusing on the theme (Borghi & Binkofski, 2014; Dove, 2022).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Freedom of WordsAbstractness and the Power of Language, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptions of perceptual symbols. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 637–660.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barsalou, L. W. (2016). On staying grounded and avoiding Quixotic dead ends. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(4), 1122–1142. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1028-3Google Scholar
Batisti, F. (2021). An argument for languages in languaging. Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 15(2), 159–175.Google Scholar
Bergen, B. K. (2012). Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bolognesi, M., & Steen, G. (2019). (eds.). Perspectives on abstract concepts: Cognition, language and communication. Human cognitive processing, vol. 65. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bolognesi, M., & Steen, G. (2022). Editors’ introduction: Abstract concepts: Structure, processing, and modeling. Topics in Cognitive Science, 10(3), 490–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., & Tummolini, L. (2018). 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), 20170121.Google Scholar
Borghi, A. M., Shaki, S., & Fischer, M. H. (2022). Concrete constraints on abstract concepts. Psychological Research, 86(3), 1–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borghi, A. M., & Binkofski, F. (2014). Words as social tools: An embodied view on abstract concepts. Springer.Google Scholar
Burgess, C., & Lund, K. (1997). Representing abstract words and emotional connotation in a high-dimensional memory space. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Stanford University, Shafto, M. G. & Langley, P., eds. Psychology Press, pp. 61–66.Google Scholar
Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2022). The language game: How improvisation created language and changed the world. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Cowley, S. J. (2019). Languaging evolved. Chinese Semiotic Studies, 15(4), 461–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Paolo, E. A., Cuffari, E. C., & De Jaegher, H. (2018). Linguistic bodies: The continuity between life and language. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donald, M. (1993). Précis of origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 737–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dove, G. (2022). Abstract concepts and the embodied mind: Rethinking grounded cognition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreon, R. (2022). Human landscapes: Contributions to a pragmatist anthropology. SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Falandays, J. B. (2022). Three scales of symbol grounding: From neural resonance, to embodied and context-sensitive language processing, to collective cognitive alignment (PhD thesis). University of California, Merced.Google Scholar
Gallagher, S. (2017). Enactivist interventions: Rethinking the mind. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallese, V. (2009). Motor abstraction: A neuroscientific account of how action goals and intentions are mapped and understood. Psychological Research PRPF, 73(4), 486–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426–009-0232-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glenberg, A. M., & Gallese, V. (2012). Action-based language: A theory of language acquisition, comprehension, and production. Cortex, 48(7), 905–922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2011.04.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L., eds., Syntax and semantics, vol. 3: Speech acts. Brill, pp. 41–58.Google Scholar
Harnad, S. (1990). The symbol grounding problem. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 42(1–3), 335–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hommel, B. (2021). The future of embodiment research: Conceptual themes, theoretical tools, and remaining challenges. In Robinson, M. D. & Thomas, L. E., eds., Handbook of embodied psychology. Springer, pp. 597–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiefer, M., & Pulvermüller, F. (2012). Conceptual representations in mind and brain: Theoretical developments, current evidence and future directions. Cortex, 48(7), 805–825.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Landauer, T. K., & Dumais, S. T. (1997). A solution to Plato’s problem: The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition, induction, and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104(2), 211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenci, A. (2008). Distributional semantics in linguistic and cognitive research. Italian Journal of Linguistics 20(1), 1–31.Google Scholar
Lieberman, P. (2009). Human language and our reptilian brain: The subcortical bases of speech, syntax, and thought. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Louwerse, M. (2021). Keeping those words in mind: How language creates meaning. Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Love, N. (2017). On languaging and languages. Language Sciences, 61, 113–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2017.04.001Google Scholar
Meyer, K., & Damasio, A. (2009). Convergence and divergence in a neural architecture for recognition and memory. Trends in Neurosciences, 32(7), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2009.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myachykov, A., Scheepers, C., Fischer, M. H., & Kessler, K. (2014). TEST: A tropic, embodied, and situated theory of cognition. Topics in Cognitive Science, 6(3), 442–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paternoster, A. (2022). What does it mean to enact language? Language, Languages, and Post-Cognitivism Conference, Venice, July 14–15, orgs., Batisti, F., Perissinotto, L., & Vittone, A..Google Scholar
Petilli, M. A., Günther, F., Vergallito, A., Ciapparelli, M., & Marelli, M. (2021). Data-driven computational models reveal perceptual simulation in word processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 117, 104194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pezzulo, G., Barsalou, L. W., Cangelosi, A., Fischer, M. H., McRae, K., & Spivey, M. J. (2011). The mechanics of embodiment: A dialog on embodiment and computational modeling. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pulvermüller, F., & Fadiga, L. (2010). Active perception: Sensorimotor circuits as a cortical basis for language. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(5), 351.Google Scholar
Robinson, M. D., & Thomas, L. E. (2021). Handbook of Embodied Psychology: Thinking, Feeling, and Acting. Springer Nature.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shargel, D., & Prinz, J. J. (2018). An enactivist theory of emotional content. In Naar, H. & Teroni, F., eds., The ontology of emotions. Cambridge University Press, pp. 110–129.Google Scholar