Synopsis:
- Language is grounded in our bodily experience
- Language is embodied, which means that its structure reflects our bodily experience
- Our bodily experience creates concepts that are then abstracted into syntactic categories.
- Syntax is a direct consequence of our bodily experience, not an innate property
- Grammar is shared (to some degree) by all humans for the simple reason that we all share roughly the same bodily experience
- All metaphors are ultimately based on our bodily experience
- Metaphor = the process of experiencing something in terms of something else
- The human conceptual system is metaphorical in nature, as most concepts are understood in terms of other concepts
- Language comprehension always consists in comprehending something in terms of another
- All our concepts are of metaphorical nature and are based on our physical experience
- We understand the world through metaphors, and we do so without any effort, automatically and unconsciously
- Language was created to deal with physical objects, and later extended to non-physical objects by means of metaphors
- Conceptual metaphors transport properties from structures of the physical world to non-physical structures
- Metaphor is central to our understanding of the world and the self
- Metaphor is pervasive is that it is biological: our brains are built for metaphorical thought
- Metaphorical language is but one aspect of our metaphorical brain
- Language was created to deal with physical objects, and later extended to non-physical objects by means of metaphors
- Conceptual metaphors transport properties from structures of the physical world to non-physical structures
- Metaphor is central to our understanding of the world and the self
- Metaphor is pervasive is that it is biological: our brains are built for metaphorical thought
- Metaphorical language is but one aspect of our metaphorical brain
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