Abstract Ferdinand de Saussure’s lasting impact on modern linguistics has been extensively explored, particularly his structural semiotic model, a model where arbitrary signs gain meaning through relational differences within a socially constructed system. However, the connection between this model and recent approaches to figurative meaning remains underexplored. The present study addresses this gap by examining Zoltán Kövecses’s Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT) through a Saussurean lens. The argument is that ECMT treats figurative meaning as motivated by bodily experience, yet not predetermined, remaining open to contextual and culturally shaped variation – thus retaining a role for a Saussurean notion of arbitrariness, but at the level of selection and interpretation rather than at the level of conceptual grounding. ECMT further reinterprets the langue-parole distinction in cognitive terms: rather than treating langue as an abstract linguistic system, it emphasises the existence of entrenched conceptual patterns that function as shared resources for meaning construction. Parole is recast as a dynamic, online semiotic process, whereby speakers construct mental spaces in real time, selectively activating and integrating these shared patterns to make sense of situated experience. Through repeated use in discourse, some locally constructed metaphors may stabilise and become entrenched, feeding back into the shared cultural conceptual repertoire.

Abstract This study presents an example of an integrative, usage-based approach to capturing different levels of representation in co-speech gestures. We propose an annotation procedure that is demonstrated here using an extract from a multimodal corpus of Czech conversations. The 10-min extract captures 3 speakers interacting during a business meeting. The core idea behind our approach is that different aspects of the form-meaning mapping should be treated as dimensions that may interact with each other – these dimensions may include the degree of perceived iconicity based on rating, the type of form-meaning association, or the character of the form-meaning mapping (focusing on cognitive processes of which the gesture may be seen as a manifestation). Such an approach aligns with a current shift in cognitively oriented gesture studies (and beyond) away from categorical and discrete views of multimodal representation, toward more gradual and dynamic accounts.

Abstract This study explored whether co-speech gestures and linguistic markers help distinguish between the literal and figurative meanings of taste and smell , building on prior findings related to the verb touch . To determine whether patterns found for touch generalize to additional verbs, we aimed to (1) compare gestures associated with taste and smell , (2) examine the motivation behind frequent gestures associated with taste and smell , and (3) describe the relation between spoken words and the meanings of taste and smell . Gesture analysis showed that while gestures help differentiate the meanings of touch , they do not exhibit distinct patterns between literal and figurative meanings of taste and smell . Linguistic analysis showed that only object quantifiers were frequent when conveying literal meanings of taste and smell . Although negation and verb modifiers were key in distinguishing the meanings of touch , they were not commonly used with either taste or smell .

Abstract The decline in deep, longform reading is increasingly recognized as an emerging social problem. This exploratory study investigates the possible conditions influencing flow during extended academic reading sessions, in particular the role of digital devices in these processes. We observed university students in two reading settings: one with digital tools present and the other with only printed texts available. Drawing on perspectives from embodied and distributed cognition, our findings suggest that, in contrast to established theories of flow in reading, readers are not consistently immersed in the reading task throughout a reading session but instead fluctuate between various reading modes: they seem to battle with an uneasy ‘settling in-phase’, only later to emerge as focused on the text, even as bodily positions are changed. Towards the end of a reading session, bodily restlessness increases once more. Observations from case studies also showed that participants’ embodied engagement with the reading devices differ, as revealed during self-initiated interruptions: when reading in print, the reader would to a greater extent remain “on task” and continue reading during such interruptions. When reading digitally, the reader more often left the reading device idle on the desk. Our study contributes to the literature by suggesting that settling in requires time and effort, possibly especially in the presence of digital devices, and highlights the importance of addressing this process through more systematic training and focused attention. The settling-in phase is significant for how the reading unfolds. Further aspects of readers’ bodily enactment with texts seem to differ between paper and screens. Finally, our results suggest the need for future research to systematically examine bodily shifts and reading trajectories of extended reading in natural settings.

Abstract The question of what meaning music conveys is an ancient and unresolved issue. Central to discussions have been the relation between meaning in language and meaning in music: In spite of obvious differences, the challenge remains of providing an account that could place the two areas as elements of the same overall picture. This paper suggests an approach based on advances in functional-cognitive linguistics on the one hand and cognitive semiotics on the other. From functional-cognitive linguistics it draws on two key elements: (1) a division between three sites of meaning, rather than a monolithic approach, recognizing that meaning in actual usage events, in individual brains, and in society cannot be reduced to one thing. (2) A division in actual usage events between ‘input’ and ‘meaning construction’, stressing the constitutive role of the recipient in understanding the nature of meaning. From cognitive semiotics it draws on the concept of the semiotic hierarchy. The key point is the understanding of the nature of meaning as a broader and more fundamental property than found in the linguistic tradition.

Abstract The following article aims to synthesize, review, and extend the existing framework of the multilevel approach to metaphor. The synthesis provides insight into how various levels of the human conceptual structure participate in the emergence of metaphoricity in gesture and visuals. The critical part of the paper evaluates contentious areas of the framework, focusing in particular on the question of reconciling the fuzzy, gradable character of the human conceptual system with much needed analytical rigor in analyzing metaphor, and proposes some tentative ways of overcoming these methodological and conceptual tensions. In the final part of the article, two additional levels of the conceptual structure are proposed, the level of mimetic schemas and constructions, providing more granularity for the future analysis within the multilevel approach.

Abstract Spatiotemporal metaphors strongly affect our language about time. Time can be construed as an object that moves through space (time flies) or as a landscape through which we move (we are heading towards the weekend). Evidence of how speakers construe time can be found by observing their gestures. This study explores spatial constructions of time in co-speech gestures during programming lectures in Swedish upper-secondary classrooms. Data were collected from teachers’ co-speech gestures while lecturing on programming, a context rich in temporal and sequential references. The results show that the teachers gesture in three directions, each with a specific function. Gestures along the vertical axis are used to talk about writing code as events on a vertical timeline. The programming convention where code lines are ordered top-down, indicating events in a particular order, is suggested as an explanation. Gestures along the sagittal axis are used when the teachers take an internal perspective. Gestures along the lateral axis are used when discussing events. This is a first exploration of how time concepts are construed in Swedish programming classrooms. The research provides a foundation for more extensive studies on the role of co-speech gestures in conceptualising time, particularly in educational settings involving technological interfaces.