Abstract
This study investigates whether understanding up/down metaphors as well as semantically homologous literal sentences activates embodied representations online. Participants read orientational literal sentences (e.g., she climbed up the hill), metaphors (e.g., she climbed up in the company), and abstract sentences with similar meaning to the metaphors (e.g., she succeeded in the company). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were asked to perform a speeded upward or downward hand motion while they were reading the sentence verb. The hand motion either matched or mismatched the direction connoted by the sentence. The results showed a meaning-action effect for metaphors and literals, that is, faster hand motion responses in the matching conditions. Notably, the matching advantage was also found for homologous abstract sentences, indicating that some abstract ideas are conceptually organized in the vertical dimension, even when they are expressed by means of literal sentences. In Experiment 3, participants responded to an upward or downward visual motion associated with the sentence verb by pressing a single key. In this case, the facilitation effect for matching visual motion-sentence meaning faded, indicating that the visual motion component is less important than the action component in conceptual metaphors. Most up and down metaphors convey emotionally positive and negative information, respectively. We suggest that metaphorical meaning elicits upward/downward movements because they are grounded on the bodily expression of the corresponding emotions.
Highlights
People use language to refer literally to perceptual objects or events, in sentences such as “the balloon rose.” they can refer to abstract events and entities using the indirect pathway of metaphors
In Experiment 2 the visual motion was removed from the task, whereas the vertical hand motion was preserved
The matching < mismatching pattern was found in the motor response times for all three sentence types: literals, metaphors, and abstract sentences
Summary
People use language to refer literally to perceptual objects or events, in sentences such as “the balloon rose.” they can refer to abstract events and entities using the indirect pathway of metaphors. People use language to refer literally to perceptual objects or events, in sentences such as “the balloon rose.”. They can refer to abstract events and entities using the indirect pathway of metaphors. The conceptual nature of metaphors means that metaphorical expressions are tied to metaphorical concepts in a systematic way (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987). Given the prominence of space in our perceptual and motor experience, spatial dimensions are frequently used to support rich metaphorical conceptual systems (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980) some metaphorical notions (good, virtue, happiness, consciousness, health, wealth, high status, power, etc.) are mapped onto the “up” pole of the vertical dimension, whereas the opposite notions (evil, vice, sadness, unconsciousness, illness, poverty, low status, etc) are mapped onto the “down” pole of the vertical dimension
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