Abstract
Idioms are used in conventional language twice as frequently as metaphors, but most research, particularly recent work on embodiment has focused on the latter. However, idioms have the potential to significantly deepen our understanding of embodiment because their meanings cannot be derived from their component words. To determine whether sensorimotor states could activate idiomatic meaning, participants were instructed to engage in postures/actions reflecting various idioms (e.g., sticking your neck out) relative to non-idiomatic control postures/actions while reading and responding to statements designed to assess idiomatic meaning. The results showed that statements were generally more strongly endorsed after idiom embodiment than control conditions, indicating that the meaning of idiomatic expressions may not be as disconnected from perceptual and motor experiences than previously thought. These findings are discussed in terms of the mirror neuron system and the necessity of pluralistic contributions from both sensorimotor and amodal linguistic systems to fully account for the representation and processing of idioms and other figurative expressions.
Highlights
Across cultures, languages are rich with figurative expressions that frequently occur when people communicate
One-Way ANOVAs were run for each idiom along with Tukey Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) tests
The results showed that this was the case, thereby providing evidence that at least some idioms have an embodied aspect of their representational structure, and suggesting that embodiment may be more fundamental to the conceptual representations and processing of idiomatic expressions than previously thought
Summary
Languages are rich with figurative expressions that frequently occur when people communicate. Since the metaphorical link to the origin of their meaning has been lost or is no longer evident, idioms were initially thought to be dead or frozen metaphors (Katz, 1973; Gibbs, 1994; Keysar and Bly, 1999; Jackendoff, 2002; Caillies and Declerq, 2011). It is no longer correct to consider idioms as dead metaphors (Gibbs, 1993), it is generally accepted that they are a distinct type of figurative expression whose representation and processing differs from that of metaphors (Cacciari, 1993; Glucksberg et al, 1993; Giora and Fein, 1999; Caillies and Declerq, 2011)
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