Standing stomachs, clamoring chests and cooling livers: Metaphors in the psychological lexicon of Japanese

Abstract

I discuss the metaphorically-rooted psychological lexicon of Japanese in order to demonstrate the experiential and embodied aspect of mentation. Before examining the Japanese psychological lexicon, I offer a broad theoretical framework by introducing some deeply rooted philosophical assumptions that have governed our theorizings about the relations between the ‘inside’/‘outside’ worlds, mind/body, and mental representation/linguistic expression. Then, I introduce what I believe is a useful response to dualistic conceptualizations by introducing Lakoff's ideas about the fundamental role of metaphor and the ‘embodied’ nature of cognition. His ideas may be interpreted as an attempt to dismantle the misleading dualisms that have caused philosophers, psychologists, and linguists so much theoretical trouble. Next, I distinguish between what I call literal and figurative metaphors and discuss the bodily basis of linguistic metaphors of mind. Then, after discussing the tropic strategies universally employed to discuss mental events, I turn to examples from the psychological lexicon of Japanese to make my case. Finally, I examine additional evidence about the tropic nature of psychological experience by briefly examining the metaphoric shifts of meaning in Japanese onomatopoeia.